Brits in the Ardennes 44/45

Apparently Montgomery took credit for saving the Battle of the Bulge, that it was all his strategy and operations that pushed the Germans back. He had to formally apologize to Ike and apparently Patton nor Bradley appreciated that. I have a WWII book that tells that story as well.

 

We went into that in some detail in another thread or perhaps this one (I haven't looked back through it). I'm not a fan of Monty but that story is a very poor rendition of what actually happened.

 

Let's also not forget about the role the Hawker Typhoons played, no doubt they saved many Allied lives by helping to smash German tanks!

 

Aircraft in general didn't really "smash" many tanks. They did cause sinficant "friction" and attrit soft targets to a significant extent though.

 

This is actually a Firefly of the Coldstream Guards at Namur and part of a series of well known photos. The cap badges of the crew confirm it and Robert Boscowens excellent memoir "Armoured Guardsmen" describes this incident. he is the kneeling figure on the glacis.
Cheers
Al

 

Al - thanks for your comment on the picture.

Elements of the Guards Armoured Division (32nd Armoured Bde) actually took over the defence of Namur on Christmas Day, 25 Dec 44, from the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry. The latter regiment moved forward on to the east bank of the Meuse and took up positions around Assesse. If these are Guardsmen then the picture was taken on or after Dec 25th. Note the absence of snow, which according to British reports started to fall on Dec 28th.