Posted on 12/28/2014 6:53:44 PM PST by smoothsailing
Awesome......
I honestly can’t imagine what a flight of 2,000 airplanes tactical/strategic would look like.
I know when the weather broke we threw every air frame in theater into the fight. To actually see what that must have looked like, well, I suppose religious might be an apt emotion.
Not that I have much sympathy for the Germans of the era but just imagine how their blood ran cold seeing the same thing.
The goal of the attack was to recapture Antwerp. The problem, for the Germans, is that I fail to see how succeeding at this would have made much of a difference in the course of the war.
All of this was very minor compared to the mistakes that the Nazis made with their ludicrous plan that destroyed the German Army. Hitler did what Eisenhower, Bradley, and Montgomery had been trying to do: shorten the war by six months.
Not that I have much sympathy for the Germans of the era but just imagine how their blood ran cold seeing the same thing.
They had to be completely demoralized knowing not one of those aircraft belonged to them.
5,000 allied planes attacked Nazi soldiers, armor, airplanes, supply depots, ammo dumps, artillery horse drawn gun carriages and sulplies, and trains on the day the horrendous winter weather finally broke and cleared after Patton prayed the prayer he ordered the Chaplain to write. It was the last biggest rout of what remained if the organized Wehrmacht.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3240531/posts
The attack didn’t come close to succeeding. The Germans never achieved their initial objectives, much less their final objective of Antwerp. They ran their army out of fuel and chewed up the most effective divisions that still remained. While the German Army continued to be a cohesive threat, they were done as a real fighting force.
Antwerp was an important logistics hub for the allies, but we could have managed without it. After the Bulge, the Germans directed most of their V1s and V2s against the port of Antwerp.
A friend of mine’s dad was a weather guesser during the war and he received the Bronze Star for delivering the forecast that correctly called for clearing skies so that the air assault could proceed.
I read that the goal was to split the British and American forces. Also, if successful it might have put Germany in a good bargaining position if there was a ceasefire and maybe eventual peace.
BTW, Hitler believed that the war was still winnable.
Is this the pamphlet that had the prayer on the back side?
In 1968 or 1969, while I was in the Navy in the Philippines, I experienced the most religious moment of my life when I visited the American Cemetery in Manila and looked out on the sea of graves, most bearing the name “Known but to God.”
Supposedly the front of a card.
“It’s a special Christmas Throwback Thursday. This is the front of a card that one of our Paratroopers sent home from France in 1944.”
https://www.facebook.com/panther.brigade
That’s really something! How fortunate for you to know this man. Is he still alive? What a great story. Your friend must be as proud as he can be. B^)
After the assassination attempt on Hitler, Hilter had all involved killed which included Rommel. Rommel knew of the assassination attempt but didn’t warn Hitler and was forced to drink poison.
Apparently Patton had his commanders passed out a similar card with a prayer in hopes that God would look favorably on the allies.
The main goal was to capture huge stores of supplies both at Antwerp and many other storage sites. The Germans really needed them.
Peiper himself credited combat engineers for stopping him. they also blew up supply dumps just before the Germans got to them.
Sort of hard to believe, the Germans surrered less casualties than the allies.
Also it was not just Americans in the battle. Field Marshall Montgomery was given ground command of all allied forces for the duration of the battle.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.