[lit-ideas] Re: Caen
- From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 17:46:42 -0000
"...was Monty a genius or an idiot or both?"
Neither and both. He was, in turns. lucky and unlucky.
Caen might have been a well-thought out means of sucking in German armour so
that the American divisions could subsequently break through weakened lines
on the right and make an encirclement possible. Or the encirclement might
just have been the fortunate result of Monty's beligerent will to take Caen.
Conversely, Market Garden was a brilliant plan that was hastily conceived
and, by virtue of false intelligence, fatally flawed. The plan, assuming
correct intelligence, was the work of genius; being ignorant of true
intelligence (arguably willfully ignoring it) was idiotic.
On both occasions, Monty put the Brits in harms way (a term which actually
includes Empire soldiers - predominantly New Zealanders, Canadians and
Indians), while the Americans had a (relatively) easier time of it.
El Alemein was genius and little else.
Simon
Armchair historian
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