Comments by "TheVilla Aston" (@thevillaaston7811) on "The People Profiles"
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@Jonathanbegg
'The Alamein strategy was not his. It was Auchinleck's.'
Not really...
Read this:
THE MEMOIRS OF FIELD-MARSHAL EARL ALEXANDER OF TUNIS
CASSELL, LONDON
1962
P22
‘Recently there has been discussion whether or not General Montgomery ‘adopted’ as his own the plan evolved by his predecessor for the action that was shortly to be fought – actually within a little more than a fortnight of his taking over command – in defence of the Alamein position.
I cannot conceive that General Montgomery is likely to have been interested in other people’s ideas on how to run the desert war; and in my own conversation with General Auchinleck, before taking over command, there was certainly no hint of a defensive plan that at all resembled the pattern of the battle of Alam Halfa as it was actually fought.
…as I have already indicated, the actual pattern of the battle was exclusively Montgomery’s.’
Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QlDkjzsYV8&ab_channel=PatrickRushton
15 mins, 55 seconds.
As for Arnhem...the V2 attacks on Britain alone justified the attempt.
As for propaganda:
The whole thrust of government propaganda, the works of filmmakers and of writers was to emphasize the collective effort and the deeds of the man in the street rather than the deeds of generals or politicians. Posters were all about ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘together’. The films people watched were: ‘Millions like Us’, ‘The Way Ahead’, ‘Went the Day Well’, The Foreman Went to France’. The BBC chipped in with output such as ‘Workers Playtime’ JB Priestly, and so on, and so on, and so on.
Montgomery gained attention because he won battles.
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robert colboourne
'he is over- rated.'
Yea, by Americans for decades, as they attack Montgomery from every direction: Hollywood, crap web sites, chauvisistic historians and so on. All of them splitting hairs about all of his actions whilst breezing over bog up after bog up by US commanders. If Eisenhower or Bradley had devised the Normandy campaign, there would have been films, TV mini series, statues, reverential lectures on the US lecture circuit, books by the Lorry load, with copies in some pupose built library in some Mid-West US state, and so on and so on.
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Roland Whittle
Here is an American view on Sicily…
From a review of BITTER VICTORY The Battle for Sicily, 1943, By Carlo D'Este.
Review written by Walter Lord in the New York Times: 27/11/1988.
‘Montgomery was heading for Messina too, but the German forces still on the island threw up a tough defense line and it was late July before Montgomery worked his way through them and resumed his advance. Fans of the movie ''Patton'' think they know what happened next. Montgomery marched into Messina at the head of his triumphant troops - to find a smirking Patton waiting for him. Mr. D'Este assures us it didn't happen that way. Patton was indeed trying to beat Montgomery to Messina, but Montgomery would not make a race of it. He wanted only to keep the Germans from escaping and realized Patton was in the best position to accomplish that. In fact, he urged Patton to use roads assigned to the Eighth Army.’
For your convenience, the link below will take you to this review…
www.nytimes.com/1988/11/27/books/the-finish-line-was-messina.html
And another American source:
The Axis powers had known before the landings on Sicily that Patton was in command of American ground forces in the western Mediterranean, and knew he led Seventh Army on Sicily. But his race to Palermo through country they had already abandoned left the commanders unimpressed. Major General Eberhard Rodt, who led the 15th Panzergrenadier Division against Patton’s troops during the Allied push toward Messina, thought the American Seventh Army fought hesitantly and predictably. He wrote in an immediate postwar report on Sicily, “The enemy very often conducted his movements systematically, and only attacked after a heavy artillery preparation when he believed he had broken our resistance. This kept him regularly from exploiting the weakness of our situation and gave me the opportunity to consolidate dangerous situations.”
https://www.historynet.com/patton-the-german-view.htm
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@solomongrundy4905
Montgomery and Dieppe
WINSTON S CHURCHILL.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR.
CASSELL & CO LTD
VOLUME IV THE HINGE OF FATE 1951.
P457
The assault was originally fixed for July 4, and the troops embarked at ports in the Isle of Wight. The weather was unfavourable and the date was postponed till July 8. Four German aircraft made an attack upon the shipping which had been concentrated. The weather continued bad and the troops disembarked. It was now decided to cancel the operation altogether. General Montgomery, who, as Commander-in-Chief of South-Eastern Command, had hitherto supervised the plans, was strongly of opinion that it should not be remounted, as the troops concerned had all been briefed and were now dispersed ashore.
ARTHUR BRYANT
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
1939-43
COLLINS, ST JAMES’S PLACE, LONDON 1957
P487
FIVE DAYS before the Prime Minister and Brooke returned to England, the landing in France for which the un-informed had been clamouring was made at Dieppe. Planned by Lord Louis Mountbatten's Combined Operations Staff, and officially described as a reconnaissance in force, its objectives were the capture of a Channel port, its retention for a day in the face of attack and a successful re-embarkation with data for a full-scale landing later. It had been authorised by the Chiefs of Staff in the spring and fixed originally for July. That it was purely experimental in scale and purpose was due in part to Brooke's restraining hand. When owing to un-favourable weather it had to be postponed, the officer responsible for the military side, Lieutenant-General Montgomery, had recommended that it should be abandoned in view of the security risks in remounting it. But because of American and Russian feelings and the importance of obtaining data for later landings, the Prime Minister had favoured proceeding with the operation—the most important yet undertaken by Combined Operations. To spare the French, the preliminary air bombardment was omitted from the final plan, while General Montgomery, appointed to overseas command, had ceased to have any connection with it.
'“THE PEOPLE WHO PLANNED IT (Dieppe) SHOULD BE SHOT” -W. Churchill, Aug. 1942.' Your words.
Where is this on record?..
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