Patton at Arnhem !

Not really, Jumbo. Monty was also very egotistical but more modest, perhaps. Both were ecentric, but one in the British and the other one in the American way. Monty was more like a Paulus, a staff officer who was very good in staff planning and handling the situations. But my point is that his best quality: his caution is also his worst flaw...

 

Friedrich

I don't know what you mean by the phrase "staff officer". If it means an officer who had an inkling about supply and logistics or tried to get an overall feel of operations then thats Monty. If you imply he was locked up in HQ you are wrong: he was very active visiting units and he displayed the common touch with the 8th Army: unusual for such a shy person. Also look at the consummate skill he displayed training and maneouvering his Division in 1940 in pretty poor circumstances.

Remember that you may lead from the front, but you can only command from the rear!

Jumbo

 

I find it sorta irritating that things are forgotten with time, especially by the victors, or even falsified.

Naturally I do take the Skorzeny book´s memoirs with some suspicions but anyway they give new light to things that happened, I think.Maybe later on we can check the accuracy on these things.But at the moment I think what he says makes sense:

" Surprise was achieved and the enemy´s numerical superiority was enormous. Montgomery confessed that the fighting strength of Obergruppenfuhrer Bittrich´s II Panzer corps was underestimated. The corps offered bitter resistance. Soon the Montgomery´s airborne troops needed help from the units which were supposed to croos the Waal-one of the tributaries of the Rhine-over the large bridge at Nimwegen. German attempts to destroy the bridge by bombing were fruitless. But the bridge had to be blown at all costs.
On orders from Fuhrer HQ I gave Hauptmann Wimmel the job of carrying out this difficult mission.The enemy had established a bridgehead of about seven kilometers on either side of the bridge.Wimmel first slipped into the river and carried out a risky reconnaissance. Then he set out with his force of twelve frogmen and four explosive torpedoes, which were kept afloat by flotation devices. They attached their explosive torpedoes to the two bridge supports designates by Wimmel, set the time fuses and opened the vents of the flotation devices.
They had 10 minutes and 10 seconds to escape downstream. The bridge blew up just as a group of about 10 enemy tanks and trucks was crossing the bridge.Immediately both banks were illuminated and searchlights swept the river.Three wounded by machune-gun fire. Their comrades kept them above water. All reached our lines-Hauptman Wimmel won th Knight´s cross for this."

 

Really nice tale, Kai!