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December 16th, 2012, 04:23 PM | #2971 | ||
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It was a lot of the reason why. In the first weeks of December 1944 the Americans and the British were planning ahead for the late winter offensive into Germany. The idea that the Germans were planning for an immediate offensive against them would have seemed ludicrous; the Germans had not the means and they stood to gain nothing except a salient which they could not hold. The Americans failed to appreciate the follie-de grandeur which underpinned the thinking of ther chief enemy. The British might have rumbled it if the Ardennes had been their sector, only because they had known Adolf longer and had better understanding of his vanity and greed; but the British also thought Germany was played out and didn't expect such a hammer blow as this one would land on the western front ever again.
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December 16th, 2012, 04:49 PM | #2972 | |
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Yes, the British might really have made a difference. Seriously |
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December 16th, 2012, 05:17 PM | #2973 |
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The German offecive Operation Watch on the Rhine (Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein) had another objective. The intention was to breakthrought the Allied line Surround and destroy the Four Allied Armies in the Region and force the Allies to negotiate peace terms. Allowing Germany to concentrate on the East.
There were also several support operations ( Bodenplatte, Greif and Wahrung) to support this. Even had it been more of a success, would the Western Allies have settled for a seperate Peace? Doubt that, they would have sent in more troops from somewhere. |
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December 16th, 2012, 05:31 PM | #2974 | |
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I suspect that British forces might have been more alert on general principles, this being the very place where it all went wrong in May 1940; the Americans often thought we respected the Germans too much, but we knew the Germans only too well and they had hurt us too many times for us not to respect them. We would probably have been mounting aggressive patrols and taking prisoners for intelligence purposes; we would definitely have been keen to monitor our opposition. But what happened to the Americans happened to British forces too, especially in the western desert. The only real difference between British and American forces in Belgium in 1944 was that we'd had our fingers burned before and were sadder and wiser for it. But for a fact, Montgomery was talking to Eisenhower about another Rhine crossing in December 1944; he was not talking about any risks from the Germans.
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December 16th, 2012, 05:41 PM | #2975 |
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December 16th, 2012, 05:47 PM | #2976 |
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December 16th, 2012, 06:05 PM | #2977 |
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The port of Antwerp was a main supply of allied forces. The capture was a initial condition for further strategic operations.
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December 16th, 2012, 06:31 PM | #2978 | |
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(Nazi mindset) |
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December 16th, 2012, 07:01 PM | #2979 | |
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Possibly the most critical blow possible would have been to capture the main British Comonwealth armies, all of which could have been encircled. I doubt if that could have been achieved; they were well supported by air power and at the worst would have been resupplied by air long enough to either break out or be relieved. But I suspect that rupertramjet is right. Had Britain lost even 12 divisions, which was about the strength of 21st Army Group, she would have replaced them. Men would have been transferred from other duties, and we would have even laid up battleships to transfer navy men into the army, and possibly even scaled back RAF Bomber Command and reduced the manpower of our domestic air defence squadrons. It might have meant going on the defensive in Italy to move formations across to North West Europe. Worst of all, it would have taken about 6 months to train up 12 new divisions and they would not have been of the same calibre as the units already serving in the 21st Army Group. But never would Britain have quit, so late in the war and with the German frontier so close; the war would have been pushed to a logical conclusion no matter what successes the German forces could still achieve. And we wanted our pound of flesh; we were very personal about it. Our war wasn't Prince Metternich's "diplomacy by other means"; it was a dog fight in a pit; two enter, one leaves.
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December 16th, 2012, 07:25 PM | #2980 |
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Totally right, one of the prime objectives was the taking of the Fuel Dumps. There was an interesting documentary, on the Secrets of World War Two, series about the control and loss of fuel supplies to the Germans, they knew tht without the fuel supplies this, and any other, offensive would peter out.
It was quoted that ' The Luftwaffe had the planes, were short of experienced pilots, but were grounded for lack of fuel' |
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