Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others … You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself!”

It was almost a pity, which would have been of world altering consequences, that General Omar Bradley didn’t live by these words of wisdom. He chose instead to make the mistakes himself. The lesson that Bradley and Eisenhower should have learned was one of great note. One that both Bradley and Eisenhower had to have known about but, it seems, had simply dismissed.

Tag words: General Omar Bradley; Eisenhower; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Ardennes offensive; Battle of the Bulge; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Montgomery; Patton; Marshall; Lutes; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Brehon Somervell; A Soldier’s Story; Chet Hansen; Middleton; VIII Corps; von Rundstedt; SHAEF; 82nd Airborne Division; 101stAirborne Division; Arnhem; Antwerp; Winston Churchill; William L Shirer; The Collapse of the Third French Republic; Hürtgen Forest; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Carlo d’Este; Antony Beevor; Ardennes 1944; 12th Army Group; General William Donovan; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Court House; Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ Himself; J.C.H. Lee; General George Smith Patton;

Hitler’s seemingly insane gamble in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge, wasn’t perhaps as crazy and desperate as it seemed or has been represented. Consider this.

In Washington, after lunch on 27 December, 1944 Henry Stimson, the Secretary for War, walked over to the War Department. He went into Marshall’s office and sat down. He had come to talk about the unthinkable. Stimson later recollected what Marshall had said to him:

if Germany beat us in this counter-attack and particularly if the Russians failed to come in on their side, we should have to recast the whole war; we should have to take a defensive position on the German boundary — which he believed we could do with perfect safety — and then have the people of the United States decide whether they wanted to go on with the war enough to raise the new armies which would be necessary to do it.

so wrote David Irving in his book The War Between the Generals. Did Hitler almost succeed in driving America out of the war?

Tag words: Hitler; Battle of the Bulge; Henry Stimson; Marshall; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutentants; Eisenhower; Bradley; Nigel Hamilton; iThe Battles of Field Marshall Montgomery; Monty; Carlo d’Este; Patton; Stalin; Air Marshal Tedder; Major General Harold R. Bull; Operation OVERLORD; General Somervell; replacements; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals;

Just a few weeks before the Germans launched their massive and unexpected offensive in the Ardennes on 16 December 1944, Major General Pete Quesada, the commander of IX Tactical Air Command, reported a conference he had had with General Hodges, commander of the First US Army: "He went on and on about how we might lose the war …".

Hodges was the last man you would want commanding exactly this army. And he was the man that General Bradley wanted to be leading the charge into the German northern flank of their offensive.

Tag words: Major General Pete Quesada; IX Tactical Air Command; General Hodges; First US Army; General Omar Bradley; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Air Marshal Coningham; XXIX Tactical Command; Eisenhower; Otto Skorzeny; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Ardennes offensive; Battle of the Bulge; Patton;Marshall; Bastogne; Brigadier General Sibert; 12 Army Group; Hürtgen Forest; Rick Atkinson; Captain Sylvan; Rundstedt;

20th December 1944 proved a momentous day for Eisenhower, Bradley and Mongomery. Bradley’s ego was shattered by his best and most trusted friend. Montgomery was about to have greatness thrust upon him. The lives of the top Allied generals were reported to be in danger from Otto Skorzeny’s assassination squads dressed in American uniforms, carrying American arms and riding in American vehicles. And Bradley was dropping the ball big time.

Tag words: Eisenhower; Bradley; Mongomery; Otto Skorzeny; Ardennes; US First Army; Battle of the Bulge; Hodges; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; SHAEF; 82nd Airborne Division; 101st U.S. Airborne Division; General Patton; Carlo d’Este; de Guingand; Bedell Smith;Major Hansen; Bastogne; Verdun; Kay Summersby;

… on December 20, during Eisenhower's morning staff conference, Ike telephoned Bradley and emphatically stated, "Where is the line you can hold the best and the cheapest? I don't care how far back it is." Bradley was in no position to supply Eisenhower with answers. What had convinced Smith that a changeover was vital was that 12th Army Group had lost communications with First Army for more than forty-eight hours. Moreover, Bradley had no idea whatsoever if Hodges had the situation under control, which — as has been conclusively shown — he did not during the crucial first days of the battle. The truth was that Bradley himself had nothing under control and was in no position to influence the outcome of the battle from his headquarters in Luxembourg. Smith called it "an open-and-shut case.

wrote Carlo d’Este in his biography of Eisenhower.

Tag words: Eisenhower; Bradley; 12th Army Group; First Army; Hodges; Carlo d’Este; Monty; LO’s; Liaison Officers; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Major General Hasbrouck; Fifth Panzer Army; Battle of the Bulge; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Roer dams; Hotel Britannique; Spa; Kay Summersby; Major Hansen; Ernest Hemingway; Patton; Russell Weigley; General Strong; Ardennes; Middleton; Rundstedt; Hitler; EAGLE TAC; Luxembourg; Sibert; Sixth SS Panzer Army; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Major-General William Kean; Stimson;

On 19 October 1944,

Spaatz flew on to Luxembourg to visit Bradley. Bradley told him he planned to start his big offensive toward the Rhine on November 10. Spaatz wanted it sooner than that. Hitler's jet fighters were appearing in growing force, and they threatened to drive Spaatz's daylight bomber formations from the skies. "To maintain our present air supremacy over the Hun," warned Spaatz, "will cost the strategic air force about forty thousand crew members . . . . So it's essential for the armies to get to the Rhine as quickly as possible so that we can secure additional airfields for our fighters."

David Irving wrote in his book The War Between the Generals.

Tag words: Spaatz; General Bradley; Hitler; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Luftwaffe; Bf 109s; Fw 190s; Messerschmitt 163; Me163;Messerschmitt 262; Me262; Ar 234; Bedell Smith; Battle of the Bulge; Bastogne; Field Marshall Mongomery; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Los; liaison officers; Hodges; 21st Army Group; Eisenhower; Brigadier Williams; Major General Strong; General Simpson; Patton; General Collins; 7th U.S. Armored Division; 106th U.S. Infantry Division; Horrocks; SHAEF; General Middleton;

The Germans had launched their massive Ardennes offensive on the morning of 16th December. Bradley had brushed it off as a spoiling attack.

… by Sunday afternoon, December 17, Bradley had conceded misjudgment in his previous evening's modest estimate of the enemy effort. "This is Rundstedt's all-out attack," Bradley now announced. "Pardon my French — " he said over the situation map, " — I think the situation justifies it — but where in hell has this son of a bitch gotten all his strength?" – Russell Weigley wrote in his book Eisenhower’s Lieutenants. It was a good question.

Tag words: Ardennes offensive; Battle of the Bulge; General Omar Bradley; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; The Morgenthau Plan; Dexter White; Stalin; Churchill; Sean McMeekin; Stalin’s War; Roosevelt; Goebbels; Hitler; Eisenhower; General Marshall; Volksgrenadier divisions; Luftwaffe;

In his book Retreat from Moscow, David Stahel relates:

If the German troops retained a general measure of faith in their commanders, this is not to say it came without qualifications. The most common complaint was the absence of winter clothing, which by early December 1941 was a criticism that had been dragging on for two months. The extent of the problem justified, in the starkest of terms, a questioning of faith in the German leadership.

….

According to Colonel Wilhelm von Rücker, attached to the planning staff of the quartermaster-general's office, "a few hundred additional trains would have had to be sent" to meet the needs of the troops for the coming winter. Not only was there not the transport capacity for winter equipment, but also other high-priority matériel, such as fuel and ammunition, were already failing to arrive in the required quantities, and the quartermaster-general had to have known this.

By November 13 Wagner had had a complete change of heart and acknowledged there were nowhere near enough trains reaching Army Group Center, meaning the urgently requested winter clothing could only be transported to the front at the expense of other supplies

Now I can understand if you’re saying what has this got to do with Bradley, the GI’s General and the war in North Western Europe. I’m going to have to tell you that the answer is everything. Tell me if the American position with the American troops in Europe in late 1944 sounds similar.

Tag words: Retreat from Moscow; David Stahel; Bradley; GI General; Hank Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; ComZ; frostbite; Major General Robert Littlejohn; Eisenhower; Ardennes offensive; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Carlo d’Este; A Genius for War; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Otto Skorzeny; Patton; 12th Army Group; trench foot;