Here's the situation on Wednesday, December 27, 1944: The Allies, feeling confident they can hold the Germans, look to settle on a plan to erase the bulge.
Montgomery still has a lot of concerns about the Patton / Ridgway / Collins plan.
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Many on here have been very critical of Monty (@shelby3a is certainly no fan) but Monty's not the only one who had reservations about this simultaneous push directly north south.
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Other Allied leaders, including Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff Beetle Smith, believed Gerd von Rundstedt, Field Marshal directing the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes, had enough combat power left in the North to defeat the VII & XVIII Airborne Corps.
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Monty also had reason to believe that the Allied First Army in the North was decimated by the fighting in December and may have been unable to sustain the kind of daring counterattack Patton wanted.
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Patton disagreed, referring to Monty "a tired little fart."
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“War requires the taking of risks and [Monty] won’t take them,” Patton wrote in his diary.
This statement seems incongruent with the catastrophic risks Monty just assumed in Op Market Garden [if you haven’t, may want to go back and read our threads on that operation].
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So, a compromise middle option is developed within Eisenhower’s staff. Take a look.
[END]
To settle on a strategy, Eisenhower sets a meeting with Monty for the next day, Thursday, December 28th in the beautiful Belgian port town of Hasselt.
The two Masters of the Universe are to meet on Ike's command train.
And that's where we'll pick it up tomorrow.
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This #SundayMorning morning, we remember General Patton's prayer for good weather to rescue the American Soldiers and Belgian citizens encircled by German forces in Bastogne during the #BattleOfTheBulge.
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On December 22, 1944, foul skies, dark clouds, and limited visibility negated Patton's advantages in air power and movement and maneuver over the Panzer force enemies.
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With his Third Army approaching the Ardennes, Patton ordered that all ~ 250,000 Soldiers under his command be issued a small card with this prayer.
76 years ago tonight, James Hendrix [and we're not talking about the one who briefly served in the 101st], a bazooka man with the 4th Armored Division, was on patrol near Assenois, Belgium.
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The day after Christmas saw James' 4th Armored Division put pressure on the final German holdout ahead of the southern sector in Bastogne.
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The 19-year-old had a tough life up to that point.
The oldest of 14 children in Lepanto, Arkansas, he had to leave school in the third grade to work in the fields with his sharecropper father.
So let's step back from Bastogne a bit here. Let's zoom out from the tactical to the operational.
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On this day 76 years ago, this fella, Lawton Collins, the VII Corps Commander, meets with Matthew Ridgway in the XVIII Airborne headquarters in Werbomont, Belgium.
Together, Collins & Ridgway devise a plan to take advantage of momentum gained by Patton's 3rd Army.
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The plan: a kill shot.
The VII Corps & XVIII Corps attack from the North while Patton's 3rd Army pushes north and cuts off the Germans from the South. Essentially, they'll meet in the middle of the bulge, leaving an isolated pocket of German tank forces on each side.