[CPT Clay]

Wow, doesn’t actually take Metz until 18NOV,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Metz

[colorado tanker]

The West Point map has Third Army on the outskirts of Metz by September 12. Looks like it took a nasty campaign to reduce it.

Churchill is carping again about Anvil/Dragoon. Perhaps, as a historian writing in hindsight, he should have considered what would have happened in the Battle of the Bulge if 6th Army Group had not been there to cover Patton's flank while he moved forces to drive into the southern flank of the German salient?

[PAR35]

Patton got to Metz a long time before he took it. It was heavily fortified (dating back to the Franco Prussian war) and when Ike made the poor decision to cut fuel to Patton to divert it to Monty, Patton was forced into a set piece battle for the fortified border cities. Not Patton’s strong suit, and he spent a lot of men getting the job done.

If Patton had gotten the fuel, he could have pushed past the cities, isolating them (like the Atlantic ports were isolated) and moved into the Saar cutting German coal supplies. And Market Garden wouldn’t have happened.

But Ike played politics very well, and a lot of Americans, Brits, and Poles died as a result.