From: Everette (194cbteng@bellsouth.net)
Date: Sat Jan 07 2006 - 06:10:21 PST
January 7
1945 Monty holds a press conference
On this day, British Gen. Bernard Montgomery gives a press conference in
which he all but claims complete credit for saving the Allied cause in the
Battle of the Bulge. He was almost removed from his command because of the
resulting American outcry.
On December 16, 1944, the Germans attempted to push the Allied front line
west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge
(so-called because the Germans, in pushing through the American defensive
line, created a "bulge" around the area of the Ardennes forest) was the
largest battle fought on the Western front. The German assault came in early
morning at the weakest part of the Allied line, an 80-mile stretch of poorly
protected, hilly forest that the Allies believed was too difficult to
traverse, and therefore an unlikely location for a German offensive. Between
the vulnerability of the thin, isolated American units and the thick fog
that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the
Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat.
Fresh from commanding the 21st Army group during the Normandy invasion, and
having suffered an awful defeat in September as his troops attempted to
cross the Rhine, Montgomery took temporary command of the northern shoulder
of American and British troops in the Ardennes. He immediately fell into a
familiar pattern, failing to act spontaneously for fear of not being
sufficiently prepared. Montgomery was afraid to move before the German army
had fully exhausted itself, finally making what American commanders saw as
only a belated counterattack against the enemy. As the weather improved,
American air cover raided German targets on the ground, which proved the
turning point in the Allied victory. Monty eventually cut across northern
Germany all the way to the Baltic and accepted the German surrender in May.
Montgomery had already earned the ire of many American officers because of
his cautiousness in the field, arrogance off the field, and willingness to
disparage his American counterparts. The last straw was Montgomery's
whitewashing of the Battle of the Bulge facts to assembled reporters in his
battlefield headquarters-he made his performance in the Ardennes sound not
only more heroic but decisive, which necessarily underplayed the Americans'
performance. Since the loss of American life in the battle was tremendous
and the surrender of 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry humiliating, Gen.
Omar Bradley complained loudly to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who passed the
complaints on to Churchill. On January 18, Churchill addressed Parliament
and announced in no uncertain terms that the "Bulge" was an American
battle-and an American victory.
Everette
In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me
light and strength.
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