In his book, The War Between the Generals, David Irving wrote about an important meeting, that few people know about, at the time that the Battle of the Bulge was at its height in December 1944/ January 1945:In Washington, after lunch on December 27, Stimson walked back to the War Department and slipped into Marshall's office for a long private talk about an unthinkable possibility: what if the Germans pulled this gamble off? Marshall had been thinking the same thought. Rain and sleet lashed the office windows as they talked. Basic to both men's worries was the fear that they had created an army too small for the job — and that in consequence the infantry was becoming battle-fatigued. The German armies facing the Allies still equaled them in divisions. Should the United States begin raising new divisions now, for autumn 1945?…. the people of the United States [were going to have to] decide whether they wanted to go on with the war enough to raise the new armies which would be necessary to do it. . . Men – the GI’s – that was the topic that Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell next turned to in considering the American Way of War in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals.Tag words: GI; The War Between the Generals; David Irvin; Battle of the Bulge; Henry , Stimson; Secretary of War; General George C Marshall; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Montgomery; US Army; manpower; George Patton; General Dwight DEisenhower; General Bradley; General Hodges; General Simpson; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; cross-Channel invasion; US Army; Eastern Front;

British observers of the US Army in action in North Africa, Italy and North-West Europe sometimes had the impression that they were watching a Hollywood production of `A Triumph of the Will'. They could never be certain what had been achieved and was real and what was a stage set, a Potemkin village for the benefit of `American Public Opinion'. The press made George Patton into a character from a Hemingway novel, and he played the romantic lead to the hilt. War had to be good drama which required red-blooded American heroes. Even if American performance was not perfect it must appear to be so. This could lead to deception and disillusionment if taken seriously. wrote Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals.Tag words: George Patton; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Eisenhower; General Lloyd D Fredendall; General Alexander; General Lewis G Brereton; General Pershing; General George Marshall; Field Marshall Montgomery; General Omar N Bradley; General George Patton; General Simpson; General Hodges;

Patton, typically, once exclaimed that intelligence and possible enemy intentions never worried him: it was what he was about to do to the enemy that mattered.wrote Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell in Coalitions, Politicians and Generals.Did this sum up the way the Americans conducted the war in Europe? What had brought about this way of waging war? If Patton literally meant it, did it reflect the American attitude to the war on the ground in France and Germany in 1944/45?Tag words: Patton; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Joint Chiefs of Staff; President Roosevelt; General George Marshall; Sir John Dill; American Revolution; War of Independence; Dwight D Eisenhower; US infantry; Rommel; Kasserine Pass; . James Gavin;General Lloyd C Fredenhall; Lieutenant-General FAM Browning; Russell Weigley; Ridgway; what David Irving; The War Between the Generals; General Alexander; Churchill; Montgomery; Falaise Gap; Sicily;

The Americans did not give a great deal of thought to morale, in the sense of fighting spirit. Generals in all armies as a matter of faith and national pride believe that their soldiers are naturally endowed with courage. The younger American soldier was buoyed up by his national self-confidence, and the older by the memories of a war which for them had ended quickly in a glorious victory for American arms, or so it was perceived. Unlike the British, there was no folk-memory of the murderous attrition of 1916 and 1917: the AEF had emerged from the war in 1918 with its belief in unlimited objectives and aggression unshaken.wrote Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals.And then there was the American politicisation of their generals. These were a potent mix that would drive the American war effort – but where did it drive it?Tag words: General John Pershing ; AEF ; American Expeditionary Force; World War I; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Battle of Amiens; General John Monash; Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey; Brent D Taylor; Chief of the United States Army; General George Catlett Marshall; Field-Marshal Sir John Dill; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Churchill; American Constitution; Roosevelt; Congress; Alan Brooke; Alanbrooke;

Four brave men who do not know each other, wrote Ardant du Picq in his Etudes de Combat, will hesitate to attack a lion; four less brave men, but knowing and trusting each other, will do so resolutely. The point of the tale is this: of all the organizational problems an army has to solve, that of how best to merge replacements into existing units so as to ensure the cohesion of the whole is one of the most crucial, since on it depends the unit's fighting power. The sheer size of the problem may be gauged from the fact that, on the average, three months of intensive combat in World War II cost an American infantry regiment a hundred percent of its personnel in casualties.wrote Martin Creveld in his book Fighting Power. German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945.Tag words: unit's fighting power; World War II; American infantry regiment; Martin Creveld; Fighting Power German and US Army Performance, 1939-1945; American Army; replacements; Replacement Training Center; repple depples; repple depple syndrome; Seventy-ninth Infantry Division; General Ira T Wyche; Stephen Ambrose; The Victors; Eisenhower; Bradley; Patton; ETO; GIs; ComZ; General JCH Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Ground Forces Reinforcement System; GFRS; 761st Tank Battalion; Terry Allen; 104th Division; Black Timberwolves; General Benjamin Davis; General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower A Soldier’s Life; The Service Reminiscences of Lt Gen John C H Lee; American Way of War; Field Marshal Montgomery;

Bradley's distaste for Lee, which he expressed frequently, was never explained. Bradley left behind two autobiographies, one co-written with Clay Blair. In neither does he mention Lee by name.wrote Hank H Cox in his biography of General JCH Lee, The General Who Wore Six Stars. Without naming names Bradley had praised to the heavens what Lee had accomplished in the Battle of the Bulge, not naming him, of course. But Antony Beevor in his book Ardennes 1944, referred to this remark that Bradley had made in the presence of his chief of staff, Chet Hansen, and presumably others:Bradley had boasted with justification on Christmas Eve that `no other army in the world could possibly have shifted forces as expertly and quickly as we have'. On the second day of the offensive, First Army moved 60,000 troops into the Ardennes in just twenty-four hours. The despised Com Z of General Lee had achieved miracles. It also managed to transport 85 per cent of ordnance stocks out of German reach. Between 17 and 26 December, 50,000 trucks and 248,000 men from quartermaster units shifted 2.8 million gallons of gasoline so that panzer spearheads could not refuel from captured dumps.By not naming General Lee as being the man who successfully commanded this operation, Bradley was, in effect, claiming credit for General Lee’s remarkable achievement for himself. One of many times Bradley engaged in such conduct in respect of important milestones.Tag words: General Omar N Bradley; Hank H Cox; General JCH Lee; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Battle of the Bulge; Antony Beevor; Ardennes 1944; Chet Hansen; Com Z; Eisenhower; John Kennedy Ohl; Supplying the Troops; General Somervell; Marshall; Stimson; Major General Mark Clark; A Soldier’s Story; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life; Rundstedt; Charles Darwin; Origin of Species; The Descent of Man; Richard Weikart; Darwinian Racism; General Clarence E McKnight Jr; African Americans; General Benjamin O Davis; FDR; President Roosevelt; Geoffrey Perret; Beetle Smith;

On 24 December Bradley gave a press briefing in which he announced that he had foreseen the possibility of the enemy's attack in the Ardennes six weeks before the battle, and that for this reason had sited no American dumps of ammunition or petrol east of the Meuse!wrote Nigel Hamilton in his book on Monty, The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.If that was true that was the most intuitive calculation that Bradley made in the whole of World War II, because as Karl-Heinz Frieser, of Hitler’s decision to launch the Battle of the Bulge, wrote, in his book The Blitzkrieg Legend:The plan was not based on any rational, general staff — style calculations, but was only an irrational act of despair on the part of Hitler. How could anyone plan an offensive with such an ambitious objective as the Port of Antwerp if fuel for some Panzer units was available only for the first sixty kilometers? That fuel was barely enough to reach the enemy fuel dumps after whose seizure the advance was to be continued — freshly gassed up. Such a "blitzkrieg without gasoline" is bound to appear just about absurd in retrospect.No credit was given in Bradley’s account of how he saved the Allies during the Battle of the Bulge, of one of the, apparently, many men he hated with a passion, General JCH Lee – Jesus Christ Himself. But I think he should have. Let me tell you why.Tag words: General Omar N Bradley; Ardennes; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Hitler; Battle of the Bulge; The Blitzkrieg Legend; Port of Antwerp; General JCH Lee; Jesus Christ Himself; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; ComZ; First Army; Malmedy; 1st ss Panzer Division; Joachim Peiper; Antony Beevor; Ardennes 1944; Eisenhower; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Patton; Major Hansen; General Hodges; Spa; Stavelot; Bedell Smith; Beetle Smith; ComZ;

In World War I, one of the great miracles happened on 24th August 1914, just weeks after the war began, to save the British Army from disaster – the Angels of Mons. Judging from Dunkirk, the British Army frequently needed a lot of divine intervention to save it.The Historic UK website gives this account of the miracle, which I’ve taken the liberty to edit for dramatic effect. This is the story it told:a British soldier recalling, while shooting during the Battle of Mons, his visits to a vegetarian restaurant in London where “he had once or twice eaten eccentric dishes of cutlets made of lentils and nuts that pretended to be steak”. He recalls that all the plates had an image of St George on them, with the Latin motto “Adsit Anglis Sanctus Georgius” (“May Saint George be a present help to the English”). The rifleman begins to mutter the phrase as he shoots.On experiencing a sudden electric shock in his body, he hears a great voice crying “Array, array, array!” Saint George has heeded his prayer for assistance, and arrived with “a long line of shapes, with a shining about them” who take aim and shoot arrows at the enemy. They are the spirits of archers who served at Agincourt. By the time the engagement is over, 10,000 of the enemy lie dead. The battle is an inexplicable success for the British that leaves the Germans wondering what deadly secret weapon their enemies had at their disposal.And now in World War II, thanks to the born again Christian General JCH Lee, as the Germans launched another attempt at world conquest, the Battle of the Bulge, divine intervention saved the American Army from disaster in the Miracle on the Meuse. A miracle that I would compare to the miracle of the loaves and the fishes that Jesus performed when he was delivering one of his sermons, as retold in Matthew 14:13-21 when Jesus fed 5,000 men, and an unspecified number of women and children, greater in number than 5,000 with just five loaves of bread and two fishes. Now I’m going to share with you that story that no historian has ever acknowledged.Tag words: Miracle on the Meuse; Angels of Mons; St George; Agincourt; World War II; General JCH Lee; Battle of the Bulge; Jesus; Matthew 14:13-21; the loaves and the fishes; Russell Weigley; General Bradley; First Army; General Aurand; Communications Zone; ComZ; General Smith; General Patton; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Beetle Smith; Eisenhower; Ardennes offensive; John Kennedy Ohl; General Somervell; Supplying the Troops; Reconversion; David Nelson; War Production Board;

In November, Major General Harold R. Bull, Eisenhower's G-3, had traveled to Washington at the head of a special mission to present the European Theater's emergency appeal for action to ease the persistent ammunition shortage. … Though Washington had remained consistently skeptical of Eisenhower's and his subordinates' laments, Moses's statistics were so compelling and unassailable, and Bull was a sufficiently prestigious and persuasive negotiator, that General Somervell and the War Department substantially conceded at last that a predicament existed. Having already admitted past mistakes to the extent of moving to create new production capacity, the War Department now agreed to all the expedients it could think of to replenish Eisenhower's arsenal until the increased production began to issue forth. …. Every feasible shortcut would be used to hasten the assembly of all components of ammunition on hand, to step up the December and January output. Similar shortcuts and special handling would hurry the delivery both of old stocks and new production to Europe. General Moses's autumn assessment had concluded that existing rates of fire would exhaust ammunition reserves by December 15 and force severe rationing thereafter. So wrote Russell Weigley in his book, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants.Weigley’s comments on Major General Harold Bull are surprising when contrasted to Carlo d’Este’s assessment in his biography of Eisenhower – Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life:Not all of Smith and Eisenhower's choices were inspired. An example was the SHAEF G-3, Maj. Gen. Harold R. "Pinky" Bull, a humorless, unimaginative bureaucrat who was disliked with equal intensity by the Americans and the British.15 December was an auspicious date for General Moses to estimate that the Americans would exhaust their ammunition reserves because at dawn the next day, 16th December 1944, the Germans would launch their most powerful counter-offensive in World War II on the Western Front – the Battle of the Bulge.Tag words: Major General Harold R Bull; General Moses; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Carlo d’Este; Carlo d’Este; General Dwight D Eisenhower; Battle of the Bulge; American First Army; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Ralph Ingersoll; Monty; Field Marshal Montgomery; SHAEF; Hansen; Tom Bigland; General Omar N Bradley; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Brehon Somervell; Major-General William Kean; Karl Heinz Freiser; The Blitzkrieg Legend; Clausewitz; Karl Marx; Bedell Smith; General Spaatz; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; ComZ; General JCH Lee;

Montgomery would have been staggered had he listened in at Lutes' final interview with Bedell Smith, who told him: `No one can say supply has failed. At the front it is OK.'Wrote Graham Dominick and Shelford Bidwell in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals. The Americans were concealing from the British what their true situation was, and that was not nothing because it was those same American Allies that were then on the receiving end of the incredibly powerful German Ardennes surprise offensive with problems that Montgomery could only guess at from what he or his liaison officers observed in the 1st and 9th US Armies that had been temporarily placed under his command.Tag words: Field Marshall Montgomery; Bedell Smith; Graham Dominick; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Ardennes offensive; ComZ; ammunition; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; General JCH Lee; Bradley; Hodges; Patton; LeRoy Lutes; Henry Aurand; Lieutenant-General Robert Littlejohn; General Eisenhower; Somervell; Marshall; President Roosevelt; ETOUSA; General Sir Harold Alexander; OVERLORD; Brigadier-General Moses; ETO; SHAEF; John Kennedy Ohl; Supplying the Troops; Major General Harold R. Bull; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants;