Sword Beach to Bremen., A Veterans tale. Sapper

ME? I am a Calvados man myself. I have some here at home, 1944 vintage. One sip and hang onto your ears.... they may well expand at the rate of knot's.

Better than plastic explosive.
Cheers

 

Sir,

You know the respect and place of honor you command in me. But I must tell you that your version of events did not fit the best history that can be reconstructed. To fight a short encirclement in Falaise was an idea conceived by General Omar Bradley, a design received with lukewarm enthusiasm by Montgomery and Patton, both of whom favored a long encirclement at the bank of the Seine.

Regardless of his preferences, Montgomery threw his weight behind the short hook maneuver because he realized rightly its tactical potential. He informed Bradley that Patton was free to cross 21 Army Group's boundary if that would hasten the destruction of German troops remaining in the pocket. Patton received the message, and though he was suspicious of the Field Marshal's sincerity--unjustly--he charged the 5th Armored Division and 90th Division to Argentan, then requested Bradley's permission to cross 12/21 Army Group boundaries to finish the job.

Bradley denied him. Though Panzergruppe Eberbach had less than 75 tanks to oppose Patton, Bradley feared an attack would lead to "a broken neck" in Falaise and thus told Patton to build "a solid shoulder" in Argentan. Patton was to write with contempt that Bradley "was probably having nerves." Being more enthusiastic for a long encirclement, instead of contesting Bradley's order Patton requested the permission to advance to the Seine. At any other time of his career, General Patton would have argued, and probably disobeyed; but at that time, after the disgrace in Sicily and strained relationship with Bradley, he was not eager to put his career in jeopardy.

The post-war legend that Montgomery overruled Patton's request to attack north was of course complete fabrication. Patton's failure was not that of tactical understanding, but a uncharacteristic lapse of moral courage. Bradley's failure to complete his own design--which could have destroyed Army Group B once and for all--as well as Eisenhower's recent appointment as Supreme Commander at a critical juncture of the battle, which would be disruptive to the chain of command under the best of circumstances and with the best leaders. But the blame for blemishing a great victory, if it must be made, should be laid at the feet of Omar Bradley.

I still consider the battles leading to the Falaise Pocket from the American breakout & exploitation as well as the British dogged assault a fine demonstration of the Allied army's vastly improved skill at arms and a triumph of all commanders involved. Patton's contribution was that his flanking attack, while not engaging any German forces trapped in the pocket, threatened to tie the noose behind them either through Argentan or at the Seine. Monty's troops were beating the Germans back and inflicting heavy losses regardless of Third Army's actions, but Patton turned defeat into catastrophe.

 

Sir, funny you should bring that up because just the other day a few Americans officers I know were talking about how inadequate the pre-landing bombardment in Omaha was and is still used as a negative example in artillery preparation in staff school. S. L. A. Marshal latter wrote it was fortunate that the 1st Division not the green 29th assaulted Omaha or there would have been disaster.

 

With regard to Patton and Falaise: there are so many versions, that it is near impossible to ascertain the facts. All I can do, is recall what we knew and saw at the time. My post is NOT anti USA far from it. They were great lads. It is a matter of historic fact, that there were forces available to close the Falaise pocket bag neck...That never happened, and so many enemy forces filtered through to consolidate on the borders of Germany.

For an old fellow, I do have an excellent memory "Long term" Though I am unable to tell you what we did a week ago....

Every account of any battle is coloured by the view of the person writing it. That is then made even more unfathomable, when authors quote each others sources. Some of them figments of imagination, or partially fiction ...After all, the purpose of writing is to sell the product and make it WHAT FOLK WANT TO READ! Not necessarily the truth ..It comes down to the Artists license in many cases.

Some of the accounts that I have read are so inaccurate that they are plain fantasy.
We had one book that had the Canadians landing on sword, and the real first men in never existed

Sapper.

 

I stand corrected. However, my impression is that Marshal counted that only five companies worth of men were actively engaged in the attack and they were mostly blooded veterans from 1st Division and Rangers.

No arguments here. It was a blunder, and even the Germans were amazed that they kept their hides.

 

It's a tiny quibble: Marshal's contention which I read in quotation from another author is that the presence of 1st Division veterans saved the day.

 

We have very good, long standing friends in Bremen. Their parents were children in 1945. At the end of the war the kids weren't allowed to eat the chocolate the soldiers offered them. The belief was that it was poisoned.................!!

 

Sapper I have great respect for you being bold enough to present the truth. I have never felt Patton was a great general. I thought he was mostly hype. For some reason many Americans are drawn to loud people and I do not understand this myself. I believe Patton was a media creation. I believe we had better generals to be honest. I had two grandfathers serve in the American army during world war two but they never spoke of Patton all the years they were alive and rarely would they mention the war. God bless you Sapper and thank you for your service to your nation.

 

hello, i see that you are invovled in the d-day invasion, and i am doing a project for history class on the invasion and was wondering if i could possible get an iterview with you, if this is possible it would really help me out email me at emmy1_12 at hotmail.com

 

Dear Emmy 1 12.
Please accept my sincere apologies for not answering your query right away. I had not visited this thread recently. Trying to keep the old bones active in this cold spell.
By all means, If I can hep the younger generation I am always willing to try. How can I help?
Cheers
Sapper

 

Just recently found this site (searching for info) Your writings are a wonderful descriptive account on a personal level that need to be heard. Please keep writing! These are accounts of history that must not be lost.
Kathy

 

The Americans always said that we had it easy on Sword Beach....Wrong... it was the most heavily defended area on the whole of the Invasion coast
And in depth...

For many years it was claimed that we had it easy on Sword Beach, not true, the following from one of the assault ships log, lays this misinformation to rest, what follows later, is Stan Hough’s record taken from the log of one of the ships that carried the Assault craft. Princess Astrid. Bless her! She hit a mine in the channel after the war and sunk!
The Princess lost 4 out of her 8 Assault landing craft.
Princess Charlotte lost 7 out of 8.
MV Victoria lost 5 out of 6.
Prince Henry lost 5 out of 8.
Finally Prince David lost all 8.

On reflection, the loss of 29 Assault craft out of a total of 38 with only 9 saved, hardly bears out the idea of an "Easy landing" But, such is the power of propaganda that these myths are assumed to be true and become fixed as part of the Legend of D Day.
Sapper

 

I don't what to say say I am very sorry that happen war can be a cruel thing but it comes. With it's own perks to when it's over ofcourse was soward beach the town or was it that Juno?

 

How about constructing a coherent sentence in English when speaking to one of our WW2 Veterans?

 

Hi Paul my old sausage. Hope you are well mate, Is English this persons native language?
Sapper

 

Not sure, Brian. But they could at least try no matter what their native country.