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re: Rommel Vs Patton

Posted on 11/13/14 at 12:05 am to
Posted by scrooster
Resident Ethicist
Member since Jul 2012
37786 posts
Posted on 11/13/14 at 12:05 am to
quote:

That's also the kind of thinking that leads to overstretched and poorly guarded supply lines that result in your troops freezing to death without food or ammunition on the road to Moscow.

Your argument is better served on a smaller company scale. That kind of quick thinking and fast action is crucial of the squad commanders, but a general has to be able to see the whole picture. It's not enough to simply take an objective, you have to have a way to get in supplies and reserves to hold it (or in the case of Bastogne some badass mofos with a lot of luck)


Patton gets too much credit for Sicily. The mafia, via Lucky Luciano, handed him so much intel that the Italian mafia partisans were literally standing there waiting on Patton to hand him maps of the island and directions to where the Germans were hiding.

Bastogne is another example of him getting too much credit.

The 101st caught hell, no doubt about it. The First and Third Armies eventually got there and bailed them out ... but that was more due to a break in the weather and reinforcements from the mother fricking All-Americans of the 82nd Airborne Division (full disclosure, my old unit), than anything.

Which led to the famous poster of the 82nd paratrooper walking to the front line in Ardennes:



(The main avenue where we troops are barracked at Fort Bragg is named "Ardennes" for a reason. WWI - The All American Division with Corporal Alvin C York took control of that forest, and when called upon again in WWII during the Battle of the Bulge the AA's of the 82nd did it again - without mercy. That's why the 82nd is still Airborne while the 101st were relegated to legs on a rope.)

Again, Patton gets too much credit. He did good, but he didn't actually save the day as has been depicted by Hollywood.
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