soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"YMC" wrote in message
news:47e8f847$0$10472$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
> "Louis C" wrote in message
> news:0680f5ec-be7f-47b5-b892-> I'd agree he was better at thinking on the
> move, but that's about it.
>> For everything else, Patton shot himself in the foot about as often as
>> Montgomery did.
>
> What was Patton's "Market Garden"? In other words, Monty made a mess in
> Operation Market Garden but what was a similar operation conceived by
> Patton that failed?


To say that it was Montgomery's failure of Market Garden
is to ignore the fact that Eisenhower was the supreme commander
and has to bear his share of the responsibility.
Montgomery didn't just wake up one morning and shout
"all right men lets go to Arnhem."
Much planning (however flawed it may have been)
was done and some snippets of intelligence was ignored.

Eisenhower has stated that:
" I not only approved Market Garden, I insisted upon it!"

http://www.historynet.com/magazines/world_war_2/9216846.html

Ike gave this operation, codenamed Market Garden, his approval on September
10 but was careful to point out that he was not agreeing to a narrow front,
merely a temporary boost to the left wing of his broad front. If it worked,
he thought, the Allies would have gained an extremely valuable crossing over
the Rhine. But if it failed, then at least Montgomery would have been able
to put his preferred strategy to the test. The First Allied Airborne Army,
the new and only Allied strategic reserve, would have been tested as well,
and the Germans further weakened. Indeed, Eisenhower later said, "I not only
approved Market Garden, I insisted upon it."

"I not only approved Market Garden, I insisted upon it."



And quoted in Steven Ambroses' book: The Supreme Commander: The War Years of
General Dwight D Eisenhower page 518 footnote*.