Comments by "TheVilla Aston" (@thevillaaston7811) on "War Stories"
channel.
-
2
-
2
-
@nickdanger3802
"In halting Patton at Argentan, however, I did not consult Montgomery. The decision to stop Patton was mine alone. I much preferred a solid shoulder at Argentan to the possibility of a broken neck at Falaise".
From Bradley's A Soldier's Story book. Page 377.
‘Sir Brian Horrocks Comments: Nevertheless, despite the slaughter in the Falaise Pocket, claimed everywhere, and rightly, as an outstanding victory, one third of the Seventh German Army, many of them without equipment, had managed to escape before the encircling prongs had closed around them. This should not have happened; many reasons have been put forward, but to my mind few Germans would not have escaped if Bradley had not halted Patton’s northerly advance. Montgomery, the master of the tactical battle, realized this only too well; to be quite honest, it was because of their lack of battle experience that he had little confidence in the U.S. Commanders.’
From Horrocks's, Corps Commander. Page 53.
...And these people were actually there...
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-
From Para Dave:
'An Army at Dawn,by Rick Atkinson,p419 .The British attack at el Alamein with more than 1000 tanks cracked the much weaker Axis defenders across a 40 mile front.The sheer weight of British resources made up for all the blunders,one account noted.Montgomery's 8th army hugged the Libyan coast much closer than it hugged the retreating Axis. *Air Marshall Conningham said "once Monty had his reputation he would never risk it again'
Rick Atkinson. Aged 69. Direct experience of the North African campaign, zero.
Alamein:
1,029 allied tanks, 547 axis tanks 1.88 to 1.
Operation Cobra:
2,451 allied tanks to 190 axis tanks. 12.9 to 1.
I caanot see what Para Dave in on about. As far as I am concrned, 1,029 to 547 tanks at Alamein is fine by me. I wish it had been 2,049 to 547.
As for the air war in North Africa:
'Not until 'Maori' or 'Mary' Coningham left and was succeeded by Air Vice-Marshal Broadhurst did RAF techniques improve, but Tedder's policy of applying the heavy bombing effort to the enemy's rear installations and supply lines was brilliantly successful, as Rommel's nightmare at Benghazi was soon to show. 'I punched him on the nose,' Monty afterwards pithily acknowledged; 'Tedder bit his tail.' Yet if the drubbing at Alamein and the vulture-like pursuit had shattered Rommel's nerve and forced him into premature evacuation '
Nigel Hamilton. Aged 69. Direct experience of the North African campaign, zero.
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
@KrisBurns22
'Without US supplies during the early stages of WW2 Britain would have been starved into submission.'
'NORTH AMERICAN SUPPLY
BY H. DUNCAN HALL
LONDON: 1955
HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE AND LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO
P3
In the first fifteen months of the war the United Kingdom supplied 90-7 per cent. ( in terms of value) of British Commonwealth supplies of munitions from all sources. Canada supplied 2-6 per cent., the rest of the Commonwealth 1.1 per cent., and purchases in the United States 5.6 per cent.'
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For British Food... 1941 for example.
UK crops harvest: 53.164 million tons.
Cereals, Potatoes and Sugar Beet: 6.5 million tons
Cattle, Calves, Sheep and Lambs: 13.109 million
UK Milk production: 1,222.8 million gallons
Total food imports: 14.654 million tons
Lend-Lease food imports: (7.4% of total food imports),1.078 million tons
Processed food production: 20,314 million tons
Total food consumption (UK): 19.996 million tons
Foodstuffs lost at sea enroute to Britain: 787,200 tons (5.3%) of the intended 15 million tons of food imports in 1941.
We can run through the figures for any other years of the war if you wish...
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'It was the American destroyers that guarded the convoys of American goods keeping 🇬🇧 in the fight.
Not really. Guarding the sea lanes and convoys bringing supplies to Britain was overwhelmingly carried out by the Royal Navy, with good support from the RCN.
WINSTON S CHURCHILL.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR.
CASSELL & CO LTD
VOLUME II THEIR FINEST HOUR
REVISED EDITION NOVEMBER 1950.
P5
‘Out of 781 German and 85 Italian U-boats destroyed in European theatre, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, 594 were accounted for by British sea and air forces, who also disposed of all of the German battleships, cruisers and destroyers, besides destroying or capturing the whole Italian Fleet.’
'Not to mention the P-40’s, Sherman tanks, and most importantly gas sent to 🇬🇧 in Africa'
The P-40 was unfit for operations in North West Europe, and was therefore sent to the Middle East. The Sherman as slightly better than British tank types in 1942, but was only just a match for the German Mark IV. The Key weapon in the desert was the anti-tank gun, and the British used British anti-tank guns.
ARTHUR BRYANT
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
1939-43
COLLINS, ST JAMES’S PLACE, LONDON 1957
P440
' The relative importance of Egypt as opposed to Abadan was a subject to which I had given a great deal of thought. All the motive-power at sea, on land and in the air through-out the Middle East, Indian Ocean and India was entirely dependent on the oil from Abadan. If we lost this supply, it could not be made good from American resources owing to shortage of tankers and continuous losses of these ships through submarine action. If we lost the Persian oil, we inevitably lost Egypt, command of the Indian Ocean and endangered the whole Indian-Burma situation.'
Do know about US gas supplies to Africa. What would gas have been used for?..
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you picked up your views during your education, you should ask the college for your money back.
2
-
@doubleaught7540
The aerial photography can be seen on line. Unlike the Hollywod film 'A Bridge Too Far', which includes a photohraph of post war AFV, disguised as Second World War machines, shown in clear at a nice oblique angle, the actual photographs were grainy overhead shots, which, only after a considerable amount of enhancement showed what seemed to be a few Mark III tanks that identified as belonging to the Hermann Goering Division Training and Replacement unit.
Any information purporting to come from the Dutch Underground at that time was disregarded due to the German 'Englandspiel' penetration of the Dutch Underground. MARKET GARDEN was no different to any other matter in this regard.
SHAEF Intelligence Summary, 26.08 44:
‘Two and a half months of bitter fighting, culminating for the Germans in a blood-bath big enough even for their extravagant tastes, have brought the end of the war in Europe within sight, almost within reach. The strength of the German Armies in the West has been shattered, Paris belongs to France again, and the Allied Armies are streaming towards the frontiers of the Reich’
SHAEF Intelligence Summary, 04.09 44:
[the German forces facing British 2nd Army] ‘are no longer a cohesive force but a number of fugitive battlegroups, disorganised and even demoralised, short of equipment and arms’
SHAEF Intelligence Summary, 16.09 44:
‘the enemy has now suffered , in the West alone, losses in men and equipment that can never be repaired in this war….No force can, then, be built up in the West sufficient for a counteroffensive or even a successful defensive.’
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
@lacuevadeadulam
On the 8th September 1944, the first German V2 rockets landed in London, launched from the Western part of the Netherlands, in the area around The Hague. An urgent signal was sent from London to Montgomery about know what could be done about those attacks. The rockets could not be intercepted once they were in flight, and given they were launched from mobile launchers, usually in built up area, thus the chances of hitting their launch equipment were almost zero. Therefore, the only thing that could be attempted was to stop delivery of rockets to the western part of the Netherlands. When Montgomery met Dempsey on the 10th September, they discussed whether MARKET GARDEN should end at Nijmegen or Arnhem. Montgomery showed Dempsey the signal from London which settled the matter.
Where is the ego in that?
Prior to that, Montgomery had pointed out to Eisenhower that allied logistics only allowed for two of the four allied armies to advance against Germany and that the advance should be by British 2nd Army and the US 1st Army – towards the Ruhr. Failing that decision, Montgomery would agree to British 2nd Army and the Canadian 1st Army being halted, and the resources put to Bradley’s subordinates, Hodges (US 1st Army), and US 3rd Army (Patton), provided that a decision on a single thrust was taken over the available resources being spread out over all four armies – leaving the allies being not strong enough to advance properly anywhere – which is what happened.
Where is the ego in that?
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2