soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"Donald White" wrote in message
news:47E87231.8030002@qwest.net...

>
> It just so happens that my father was a sergeant in the US Army of the
> day. I was a little interested in what he said to me. He only mentioned
> Montgomery once. He said the only time the division (82nd ABN) ever
> yielded ground to the Germans was when ordered to do so by Montgomery in
> order to tidy the line. In this case Montgomery was a demotivator of men.
>
> Don

Well that is a neat anecdote. You don't supply date time or place.
In all likelyhood the 82nd were farther forward than
the troops on their right and left, sticking out like a sore thumb
and ripe to be attacked from the side where the
manpower was the weakest.
The choice would then have been to have the
troops on the left and the right advance to line up
with the 82nd and eliminate the thumb, or have the 82nd
move back to line up with the troops on the left and right.
Now which would be the most likely to succeed?
Once the troops have pulled back to re-establish
a line without the salient the line could
be called "tidied up"!
I know that the phrase "tidy up" doesn't
sound very "war like" but the message is
understandable.



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