Re: Conspiracy Theories

"Rich Rostrom" <rrostrom.21stcentury@xxxxxxx> wrote

Monty was not the commander to move boldly
in pursuit of a tactical finesse.

Unless he thought he had the troops and opportunity to make it a reasonable
risk. As a matter of objective fact, he rarely did so, which has given
largely Anglophobe or Monty-phobe authors the opportunity to tell the 'big
lie' that he lacked boldness. The fact that most of his attempted bold
strokes went wrong supports that flawed analysis, too.

Montgomery executed a hugely bold attempt to cut off the Axis army after 2nd
Alamein that was aborted by weather. He planned an astonishingly bold
seizure of Caen on D-Day itself. He stripped his Army bare after the
breakout from the Seine to make a fabulously bold - and in this case
successful - grab for Antwerp. And he boldly attempted to grab the crossings
of the Rhine with an airborne operation too.

His
strategy was to bring up lots of reserves,
form a solid defensive line, let the German
attack exhaust itself, then attack in force
and drive the Germans back all along the
line, smashing them up in the process.

In the case of the Bulge battle, the US Army needed time to recover and
regroup before attacking. Montgomery gave it that time rather than pushing
for a hasty and unprepared attack, which is the mark of a great commander.

(snip agreed stuff)

.