The Danger Zone (DZ)

As General Bradley travelled to a meeting with Montgomery, in the thick of the Battle of the Bulge, he was puzzled to see the Hollanders, Bradley’s description of them, walking on the sidewalk in holiday dress. How strange was that? The Nazis had just launched a massive attack. There was a real chance that these people would again have their Nazi masters return, but here they were, all dressed up. Bradley got an explanation from his chief of staff, Chet Hansen. What was it?

Tag words: General Bradley; Montgomery; Chet Hansen; Battle of the Bulge; Eisenhower; Patton; Third Army; Bastogne; Otto Skorzeny; Mussolini; Carlo d’Este; A Soldier’s Story; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; David Irving; The War Between the Generals;

Which general was it, who called Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery a tired little fart? Was it Eisenhower? Perhaps General Omar N. Bradley? Or was it General George S Paton Junior?

Tag words: Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery; Eisenhower; General Omar N. Bradley; General George S Paton Jr; Normandy bridgehead; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; General Somervell; LeRoy Lutes; 12th Army Group; Battle of the Bulge; Carlo d’Este; SHAEF; Churchill; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Bedell Smith; Major Hansen; Stars and Stripes; Twelfth Army Group; President Roosevelt; Bronze Star; A Soldier’s Story;

Someone said of Monty’s arrival at US First Army’s headquarters in December 1944 that it was like "Christ come to cleanse the temple." Do you know who said that and why? What does it even mean?

Tag words: Monty; Montgomery; Christ come to cleanse the temple; Matthew 21:12-13; Battle of the Bulge; Adolf Hitler; Eisenhower; Bradley; Patton; narrow front; broad front; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marsal Montgomery; Albert Speer; Erich von Manstein; Sichelschnitt; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Fifth Panzer Army; Sixth SS Panzer Army; Dunkirk; Carlo d’Este; 7thUS Armoured Division; St Vith; Matthew Ridgeway; General Marshall; James Gavin; 82nd AirborneDivision;

True or false. Montgomery penned a pamphlet called Notes on High Command in War which he provided to King George VI, General Marshall as well as to leaders and commanders all over the world, often accompanied with a photograph of himself, and a request for a return photograph of the recipient.

Tag words: Montgomery; Monty; Bedell Smith; Eisenhower; Bradley; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Rommel; the "Desert Fox"; General Brooke; Churchill; 8th Army; Claude Auchinleck; General Alexander; Edgar “Bill” Williams; Operation Husky; General Patton; Operation Goodwood;

To some it was a stupid thing that Monty did. But by God did it inspire the men he lead?

Tag words: Monty; Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Betty Carver; Major General Sir Percy Hobart; 79th Armoured Division; Hobart’s Funnies; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; 8th Army; Basil Liddell Hart; German Army; Bedell Smith; 9th Australian Division; Denis Johnson; Battle of El Alamein; de Guingand; Omaha Beach;

The very first time Monty came across the name Eisenhower was in circumstances that caused him to doubt that man’s suitability as a commander-in-chief.

Tag words: Montgomery; Monty; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Bedell Smith; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Alan Brooke; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Bradley; Patton; Mons; Distinguished Service Order; Field Marshal Haig; Polygon Wood; Menin Road; Broodseinde; Lord Gort; British Expeditionary Force; BEF; Schlieffen Plan; Erich von Manstein; Sichelschnitt; Dunkirk; General Sir John Dill; British Army; Churchill; Auchinleck; Palestine; Operation Torch; Erwin Rommel; El Alamein; 8th Army; Hitler;

Your imagination is far better than anything that Hollywood can throw up on the screen. Steven Spielberg created the terror of the insane semi driver who harassed the driver in his first movie Duel. In Jaws the greatest terror from the shark came when you didn’t see it. So what imaginary thing paralysed the Allied High Command during the Battle of the Bulge.

Tag words: Bradley; Montgomery; General Marshall; Eisenhower; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Admiral Ramsay; Brooke; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Patton; Battle of the Bulge; Stephen Ambrose; Mrs. Summersby; Carlo d’Este; SHAEF; Hasselt station; Major General Kenneth Strong; Major General John Whiteley;

There have been some great teams of commanders. A great team makes all the difference. Take Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, and JEB Stuart. Or Napoleon and his Marshalls, Ney, Murat, Davout. So how did Generals Eisenhower, Montgomery, Bradley and Patton get along once the Battle for France became fluid after the totally unexpected Operation Cobra breakout followed by the total German collapse? Could the Allied team have been rearranged to give a better outcome? What one historian has offered as his answer to that question should come as surprise to you!

Tag words: General Dwight D. Eisenhower; Montgomery; Omar Bradley; Patton; Carlo d’Este; ETO;Eurpopean Theatre of Operations; Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers; General George Marshall; Bedell Smith; 12th Army Group; Russell F. Weigley; Major General J. Lawton "Lightning Joe" Collins; Major General Charles H. "Pete" Corlett; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Bernard Montgomery; Salerno; Operation Avalanche; General Maxwell Taylor; Anzio; Operation Anvil; Operation Shingle; Operation Dragoon; Churchill; Operation Overlord; Operation Cobra; Brooke; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS;

Do you remember Tubthumping? It was a popular song by Chumbawamba released in 1997. If you can’t remember it, let me give you the chorus, then I’m sure you’ll remember the song – I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down. I think Eisenhower and his lieutenants were about to find out that that song was the song for Hitler’s Germany of 1944 in the West. And then some. Hitler’s Germany was a phoenix that rose from the ashes on the Western front in 1944 after it had been pounded into impotence after the Allied breakout from Normandy in July/August 1944.

Tag words: Tubthumping; Chumbawamba; Hitler; phoenix; Eastern Front; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower; Field Marshal Walter Model; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Volksgrenadier divisions; General der Panzertruppen Otto von Knobelsdorff; Patton; US Third Army; A Genius for War; Daniel Yergin; Napoleon; unforgiving minute; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Bradley; Roosevelt; Morgenthau; Montgomery; Marshall; Kay Summersby; D-Day; 21st Army Group; Lieutenant General Morgan; COSSAC; Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander; Normandy; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Operation Cobra; General Devers; 6th US Army Group; US 12th Army Group; Shellburst; SHAEF; Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force; Martin Creveld; Supplying War; Chester Wilmot;

For over 50 days the Allies had been bottled up in their bridgeheads at Normandy. And then, suddenly, they weren’t. The road to Germany was open. All they had to do was drive into the Third Reich, seize Berlin, and bring about the downfall of Adolf Hitler and his gang – and all of this in 1944 – or so it seemed. What was the feeling at the top when the entirely unexpected breakout happened in July when Operation Cobra burst out of the bridgehead?

Tag words: Normandy; Third Reich; Adolf Hitler; Operation Cobra; Mortain; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Sir Alan Brooke; War Between the Generals; David Irving; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life; Eisenhower; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; General Devers; General Bradley; Major General Kenneth Strong; SHAEF; Patton; Colonel Oscar Koch; Westwall; Siegfried Line; Churchill; Lieutenant General Brehon Somervell; Robert P. Patterson; General Marshall; General Bedell Smith;