Comments by "TheVilla Aston" (@thevillaaston7811) on "The Armchair Historian" channel.

  1. 13 minnutes. STOP. Epsom cannot be considered to have ben a blunder, except by chauvinistic Americans.
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  2. 14 minutes, a monstrous misrepresentation of the situation in Normandy as it it completely overlooks the fact that the overwhelming bulk of German forces in Normandy were facing British 2nd Army. Further, for the avoidance of doubt, Rommel's car was attacked by RCAF Spitfires...just in case American viewers get it into their heads that this was a USAAF action.
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  3. 18 mins. Dragod a massive battle?... it was a poitless sideshow.
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  4. 18 minutes plus. Total rubbish. Churchill never favoured an attack in the Balkans instead of Overlord. On this, the evidence is clear.
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  5. 40 mins. Why would the men of the 21st Army Group be described as exhausted?
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  6. 42 mins. The German advance had already stopped before US t Third Army troops roops reached Bastogne.
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  7. 43 minutes. There was no reluctance on the part of Montgomery to commit British forces to a German retreat. His troops were needed to Operation Vertitable, which he had bee forced to postpone in order to help to sort out the US mess in the Ardennes.
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  8. Robert Kershaw & Dr Adriaan Groeneweg were where in 1944?
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  9. Who blamed the poles 'for the faillure after the war'?
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  10. Which country? Japan?
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  11.  @Kapitanleutnant0083  What? That US chauvinistic pukefest?
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  12. Meaning what?
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  13. What was arrogant about trying to stop V2 attacks on London?
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  14. 'I’m amazed by Polish people. They’ve been abused by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. And their contributions to operation market garden was hardly noticed.' But they were hardly in the operation before it ended.
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  15. CHESTER WILMOT THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPE WM. COLLINS, SONS AND CO LTD. 1954 P509 ‘On the day after the fall of Paris, [25th August 1944] the SHAEF Intelligence Summary, reviewing the situation in the West, declared: " 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.” THE GUNS AT LAST LIGHT THE WAR IN WESTERN EUROPE, 1944-1945 Rick Atkinson LITTLE BROWN 2013. This paperback edition published in 2013. P260 ‘A SHAEF intelligence summary issued September 16 reported that “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.” German strength facing the 100,000-man XXX Corps directly across the Dutch border was estimated at six infantry battalions backed by twenty armored vehicles and a dozen field guns; scant enemy activity had been detected in the last two days.’ FYI. SHAEF was Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. For British, Canadian and US forces. And the purely Britisg arrogance is where?..
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  16. What scapegoating?
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  17.  @bessarion1771  'Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, K.C.B, D.S.O, Field Marshal On behave of: C-in-C, 21st Army Group, September 28, 1944 TROOPMRS LONDON M 284 (.)TOPSEC(.) Personal for GIGS from c-in-c(.) very definite progress has been made today in the SCHELDT pocket and things should go faster there now with the increased strenght that is being brought to bear (.) away to the east 8 corps has had a good day and leading troops of 3 Div are within 1,000 yards of VENRAIJ (.) we shall not persist with the thrust much longer as the whole available offensive power of Second Army will go into the thrust westwards on the general axis SHERTOGENBOSCH - BREDA and I hope to start this offensive movement on Friday (.) on my right AACHEN is now completely surrounded but fighting is still going on in the city itself (.) both Canadian and Second Armies are busy regrouping in accordance with orders which I issued today and which are contained in a new directive M 532 which will be sent you by ADLS tomorrow and gives my full plans (.) the Polish Para Bde should by now be back all back in the UK (.) this brigade performed very badly here and the men showed no keenness to fight if it meant risking their own lives (.) I do not want this brigade here again and possibly you may like to send it to join the other Poles in Italy B.L. Montgomery, Field Marshal. C-in-C, 21st Army Group. In the field.' Were in that letter does Montgomery scapegoat General Sosabowski 'the Poles'?
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  18.  @bessarion1771  'Literally in the letter you posted he said " this brigade performed very badly here and the men showed no keenness to fight if it meant risking their own lives (.) " Which was a bold faced lie and Montgomery KNEW it was a lie. What a filthy gutless way to assault the allies.' Your words. Literally, what Montgomery stated may have been a lie, it may have been the truth. Wh can know? I don't. It was definately an opinion. He was entitled to his opinion, especially in a private letter to a colleague. Montgomery's opinion would seem to be in line with one Geoffrey Powell, who, in his memoir of Arnhem stated of Polish troops put under his command in the Oosterbeek perimeter: MEN AT ARNHEM GEOFFREY POWELL Pen and Sword Books 2004 P164 'At irregular intervals from the late evening onwards, clusters of mortar bombs had fallen among and around us, harming no one but preventing sleep, at least for me. Others, between spells of sentry duty, had collapsed exhausted into oblivion. Four times enemy patrols had roused them from their stupor as the night exploded into noise and light, with red tracer whipping the trees and white flares blossoming overhead. No one had been hit, but losses there had been. On stand-to rounds I had found the Polish trenches empty except for Peter, their corporal, crouched grimly behind his Bren. The rest of the party had vanished in the early hours, sensing perhaps that they had attached themselves to an unlucky unit. Peter explained nothing, but his embarrassment was clear; it was both unfair and pointless to press him for details when either pride or sense of duty had kept him there to fight on among strangers. The thought of what would have happened if the enemy had attacked from this direction against a position held by the one solitary man was chilling. It was a mistake to trust strangers. I had learned yet another lesson: rely only on those you knew.'
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  19.  @bessarion1771  'Yes, Montgomery was one of the most despicable "old school" commanders who wanted glory at the expense of his allies.' Your words. You state this based on evidence?
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  20.  @bessarion1771  But that was just oinion. It might be right, it might be wrong. How am I supposed to know? I was not there. Were you? Montgomery recommended bravery awards for 10 Polish soldiers who had fought at Arnhem. Sosabowski had turned down command of an airborne division earlier in the war, he turned down a request for his troops to be used on D-Day. He persisted with his desire to land his troops in warsaw, in spite of the difficulties involved.
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  21.  @bessarion1771  But do, or did those ordinary Dutch citizens state that Montgomery and / or Browning blamed the failure at Anhem on the Polish troops there? After all, that was your original contention.
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  22. ​ @bessarion1771  Your post: "Like Browning, Montgomery, despite his postwar admissions, outrageously made the Poles the scapegoat. In a scathing letter to the chief of the imperial general staff, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, he characterized them as gutless. “I do not want this brigade here again,” he said, and suggested they be sent to join their comrades in Italy. To this day, the unfortunate stain upon the honor of these brave men has yet to be officially erased." How is this Montgomery's words? This is quote I have seen from Montgomery: `Polish Para Brigade fought very badly and the men showed no keenness to fight if it meant risking their own lives. I do not want this brigade here and possibly you may like to send them to join other Poles in Italy.’ as far I can see those words might also have been written by Montgomery if Arnhem had succeeded, but Montgomery considered that this or that unit had perfomed badly. For Montgomery to have scapegoated the Poles for Arnhem, I would need to see quote of proven provenace, to read something like: 'Arnhem failed because of the performance of the Poles' Do you have such a quote? As it happens, it is on record that Montgomery blamed the weather, a lack of backing from Eisenhower, and Montgomery's own mistakes, for Arnhem not being taken.
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  23.  @bessarion1771  'When this was recorded in June 2012, whilst a private memorial to the Polish Parachute Brigade and Sosabowski specifically has been erected in Arnhem the British Army(Monty actually) had still not put the record straight by restoring the now deceased Sosabowski to his former rank.' Whatever rank Sosabowski held was nothimg to do with the British Army, and / or Montgomery. It was a matter for the Polish Army. 'Major Tony Hibbert feels particularly strongly that he would like to see the British Army do this to right the wrongs done to the Polish soldiers generally and Sosabowski specifically in 1944.' Hibbert has been dead since 2014.
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  24. Nope. When Eisenhower adopted his lunatic broad front strategy, Montgomery bet him that the war would not be over by Christmas 1944. Eisenhower accepted the bet and lost.
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  25.  @seriouslydok5645  Yea, Britain also killed six million jews - didn't they?
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  26. James Snee Not really...
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  27. When will you be old enough to drink alchohol?
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  28. How so?
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  29. Eisenhower should have been fired in that case.
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  30.  @tomatoisnotafruit5670  ' the British Air Force wasn't properly ready or equipped to perform such an operation' How so?
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  31.  @tomatoisnotafruit5670  But it was mainly a US air operation.
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  32.  @tomatoisnotafruit5670  Fraid not. US aircraft carried just about all of paratroopers for all three divisions, and the airlanding forces for the US divisions. The RAF carried the airlanding forces 1st Airborne.
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  33. 'Montgomerys folly...just read the book by Antony Beevor' What would Beevor know about it. He was not even born when Arnhem took place.
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  34.  @volkansgewehr2470  Not really...
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  35. But was the narrator attempting to use military parlance?
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  36. Total rubbish.
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  37.  @loganplank504  'The british bombed 8 german cities 9 months before the bombing of london.' Your words. Get real. 9 months before Germany bombed London in August 1940 takes you back to November 1939. At that point the RAF were only dropping leaflets on German cities. Think it through next time.
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  38.  @loganplank504  Did the RAF bomb 8 German cities 9 months before he Luftwaffe bombed London? Just yes or no will do.
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  39.  @loganplank504  Nope. They were tasked with attacking industrial targets. Shall I note them for you?
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  40. So how was Caen a 'strategic setback'?
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  41.  @rafaelwillems3244  'Monty didn't. He threw them to the lions.' Your words. Why did he do that?
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  42. No
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  43. Gel Syk Montgomery [Bernard] scared... MONTY The Field-Marshal 1944-1976 NIGEL HAMILTON HAMISH HAMILTON LONDON 1986 P259 - 260 'Monty's own fearlessness was legendary. Standing on the beaches of Dunkirk he had berated his ADC for not wearing a helmet after a shell had landed almost beside them. 'But sir, nor are you,' the helpless young officer had complained. Landing in Sicily, Monty had toured the bridge-head in a DUKW with Lord Louis Mountbatten, C-in-C Combined Operations. When a German aircraft screamed very low over their heads Mountbatten had wisely thrown himself to the floor of the vehicle. 'Get up, get up,' Monty had chided him impatiently. Though he was conscious and careful of his health, with a near- fetish for pullovers worn one on top of the other, he seemed to feel no fear of enemy sniper, artillery or aircraft fire. Indeed so oblivious did he seem to the danger of snipers in Normandy that the War Office had sent a special cable pleading with him to wear less conspicuous 'uniform', lest like Nelson he fall needless victim to an enemy sharp-shooter—a cable that amused Monty since it so patently ignored the dictates of great leadership in battle, that a commander must be seen by his men and recognized.' P.S. Big Woody also goes by the name of Para Dave on YouTube comments.
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  44. How so?
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  45. Why, what did he ever do?
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  46. Rommel had this to say of Commonwealth troops: "If I were to attack Hell, I would have Australians take it and New Zealanders hold it." Where is this on record?
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  47.  @benlaskowski357  You read it? In a documentary?
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  48.  @benlaskowski357  The Rommel Papers by B. H. Liddell Hart makes no mention of such a remark.
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  49. Your presentation is anti-British. You only show American in the fighting in the West, apart from the raid on Dieppe, which your presentations gives prominence to out of all proportion to its impact on German planning. Further, you have completely ignored the British led campaign in the Mediterranean, which huge ecomomic and strategic implications for the Axis.
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  50. Not really...
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