Just an Earth-Bound Misfit: The Rantings of an Aging, Armed, Pinko Chick

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"Thou Shalt Get Sidetracked by Bullshit, Every Goddamned Time." -- The Ghoul

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck,
"FOFF" = Felonious Old Fat Fuck,
"COFF" = Convicted Old Felonious Fool,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset,
A/K/A P01135809, A/K/A Dementia Donnie, A/K/A Felon^34,
A/K/A Dolt-45, A/K/A Don Snoreleone

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Battle of Arnhem, +75

There was parachute drop to commemorate it.

Not much coverage of this in the American press, it seems. It was both a largely British show and it was a defeat.

5 comments:

CenterPuke88 said...: Yea, paras vs elements of 2 SS Panzer divisions isn’t really conducive to a win.; 9/21/2019 2:17 PM
Nebris said...: Clusterfuck.; 9/22/2019 5:04 AM
Deadstick said...: Clusterfuck indeed. Bad intelligence, bad logistics, a plan with zero slack in it -- and worst of all, Montgomery in the driver's seat.

The 82nd and 101st did pretty well under the circumstances.; 9/22/2019 8:16 AM
CenterPuke88 said...: Gonna disagree there, Deadstick. Monty and Ike together cobbled up this abortion and caused the failure by not keeping the German troops, mostly cutoff when Antwerp fell, from escaping. The plan was decent, a major secondary objective was capturing V-2 launch areas and reducing the civilian bombardment of London, and that was generally accomplished.

The 101st did OK, but one bridge was blown, and another wasn’t captured before the ground forces arrived. The ground assault made up the lost time, but the bridges the 82nd 2as assigned were also not captured, and caused about a 72 hour delay. That delay spelt doom for the 1st and the Poles in Arnhem, and made the operation a general failure.

The whole thing was ambitious, and pushed by Monty in good part because of those V-2 attacks, and because it tickled his combined arms fancy. Ike doesn’t get the blame he deserves, generally because Patton made better stories for the war correspondents, and Patton hated Monty. Monty also hurt his own reputation by having a tendency to justify actions based upon some previous supreme plan that he hadn’t mentioned, perhaps he didn’t like admitting mistakes? On the military front, Monty was very important in developing close coordination of ground, armored and flight activities, something that the U.S. Army learned quickly and put to good use.; 9/22/2019 10:37 AM
Tod Germanica said...: Per Strategy and Tactics of War..."In the event the bulk of the operation was a success, with the British Guards Armoured Division punching through on the ground to link with the U.S. 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions at Eindhoven and Nijmegen respectively, but the forces at Arnhem were just too far away. In addition, the 1st Airborne had been dropped too far away from the objective and, although a small group did take and hold the bridge for a short time against tremendous odds, the rest of the force was trapped in fierce fighting which made any attempt at breakout towards the relieving forces impossible to coordinate."
"The 9th and 10 SS Panzer Divisions had unfortunately chosen the Arnhem area in which to refit.."
2400 of the original 9000 1st Airborne soldiers made it back.
Bear in mind the author was British. An army couldn't take many more successes that costly.; 9/26/2019 3:33 AM