Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "When US-troops liberated the South of France (1944)" video.

  1. As a side note: the original plan did not anticipate the existence of the French 1st Army -- at all. The French, like most European powers, organized their draft and reserve divisions around specific regions. (Provinces) As the US 7th Army moved up the Rhone river valley, French reserve troops that had never participated in the 1940 fiasco started reporting to the colors -- just as they had in 1940 -- until the Vichy government sent them home. The American provisions for equipment losses -- which were, in fact, not being lost, the campaign was a roll over -- were then directed at these Frenchmen. Since the 81mm mortar and 155mm howitzer were French in origin, it took all of five-minutes for the French to train on them. Heh. The 105mm howitzer was a German design -- so it took 15-minutes for the French to dope it out. In the blink of an eye, out of nowhere, the French added a full sized army to the Allied order of battle. Leclerc's 2nd Tank Division was shifted over from 12th Army Group into the French 1st -- shortly after it went on holiday in Paris -- for 72-hours. The French 1st Army did spend the bulk of its energies fighting Frenchmen -- however. It's an ugly tale, suppressed by those in the know. It, naturally, reported to de Gaulle, and he had other priorities than Eisenhower. His obsession: traitors, collaborators... and fleeing Nazis. (The reservists soon out-numbered the Free French troops that had participated in Operation Dragoon.)
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  2. Actually, the British had been dropping French, American and British flags to resistance groups, Maquis, all along. This was intensified in the weeks ahead of any Allied landings. Dropping them all over creation drove the Nazis nuts, as they were surely discovered by random patrols. The only conclusion the enemy could reach was that this or that area was destined to be invaded. But, the Allies were dropping such indicators all over creation. The Maquis were operating all over France. The Allies managed to get the 2nd SS Panzer Division diverted to southwest France using such psychological feints. After D-Day, coming back north, the 2nd SS murdered an entire French town. (The village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne.) Yes, it was a full week late to the Battle of Normandy.
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  3. 6th Army Group was supplied out of the Med -- meaning that it had Ford trucks not GMC trucks. At about 9:50 such trucks roll by the camera. Bradley screwed-up after the Cobra breakout -- and told Lee (and the supply system) that ammo deliveries should be scaled back. This ended up as a crisis when Market-Garden extended the war by six-months. ( Still a forbidden topic in military history circles. ) So Bradley (12th Army Group) had to obtain ammo from Devers and his 6th Army Group on a panic basis. This entailed having 6th AG Ford trucks driving up to southern 12th AG dumps; then GMC trucks would re-load the ammo for distribution to 1st, 3rd and 9th Armies. Naturally, this fiasco has been almost totally buried -- particularly at the behest of five-star Bradley. He loathed Devers, BTW. So did Ike. This is why 6th AG was so small and had so few American divisions... even though its performance was perfect. [ Devers had flatly refused Ike's request for B-17s during Ike's North African daze. Arnold and Marshall backed Devers up. They were the ones stopping it. ]
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  4. What's strange: why were they even IN southern France? Torpedoes are very, very, very expensive -- then and now. Weird to see such improvised stowage. Those in the video would appear to be aerial delivery torpedoes as they are strangely short.
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