Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "Italian Stalingrad: How Canadian Forces Liberated Ortona | Greatest Tank Battles | War Stories" video.

hugbug67 My father was at Salerno as part of 5th Army. He used to say that, whilst most British officers disliked Mark Clark, most American ones detested him. By the way, he wouldn't have had much a problem in getting to Rome ahead of Montgomery. Montgomery was in Britain at the time, about to start the Normandy landings.
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This would be the same Patton who was to bring about such heavy American casualties in the Lorraine Campaign in 1944, would it? Montgomery was methodical, working on the 'Steel not Blood' principle. Patton, in effect a wealthy aristocrat, didn't give a damn about the hoi polloi in his army. I suggest you read Bradley's opinion of Georgie.
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@Sugarmountaincondo There wouldn't be, because SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) was responsible for North West Europe. Italy came under 15th Army Group, commanded by Alexander. It was not until the fourth attempt that the Winter Line was breached by the Allies, and Alexander's forces moved on to capture Rome in June 1944, thereby achieving one of the strategic goals of the Italian Campaign. However, the U.S. VI Corps in the Anzio beachhead, under Clark's orders, failed to follow their original break-out plan that would have trapped the German 10th Army escaping northwards in the aftermath of the Battle of Monte Cassino, instead favouring an early and highly publicised entry into Rome two days before the Allied landings in Normandy.
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@JayM409 Indeed. Mark Clark was able to foul things up instead.
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Clark was expected to drive east from Anzio, to cut off Kesselring's retreat. In stead, he managed to get his photograph as the Liberator of Rome, and in so doing extended the campaign by nine months at least.
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Worse form was the fact that, by his determination to become the Liberator of Rome, Clark failed to do what Alexander expected of him, which was to advance east from Anzio and cut off the German retreat. As a result, for the sake of his day in the papers, Clark extended the Italian campaign by around nine months.
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