The Danger Zone (DZ)
Paul conducts the guided tour at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, Cairns every Saturday at 10:30 am. Paul’s tour’s like what Carlsberg says about their beer, probably the best tour of an armour and artillery museum in the world. The Trip Advisor reviews of his Tour speak for themselves. This Podcast is like the Tour – only infinitely better. It looks at military history, in incredible detail, the likes of which you’ve never heard before. Never rushed – the topic is exhaustively covered in as many parts as are needed to do the topic full justice.
Episodes
If you’ve ever read the Grimms Brothers fairy stories of Hansel and Gretel or Snow White, then you’ll already have a really good feel for the dark, sinister Hürtgen Forest that Omar Bradley’s First Army entered in September 1944. Journalist, William Walton, of Time/Life magazines told its story in the 1stJanuary 1945 issue of Life magazine, under the headline “A Gloomy German Woods Takes Its Place In U.S. History Beside The Wildern...
In this part your going to meet the man who defied Bradley and Patton in Brittany. A man as described by David Irving as literally having a mouthful of steel.
Tag words: Bradley; Patton; Brittany; Brest; David Irving; Troy Middleton; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Carlo d’Este; A Genius for War; Third Army; French Forces of the Interior; 6th Armored Division; Generalleutnant Hermann B. Ramcke; David Irving; The War Betwe...
It was Omar Bradley who, during the campaign by Patton’s Third Army in Brittany who said to Troy Middleton, the commander of the VIII Corp who was fretting over Patton’s orders to take Brest as quickly as possible:
Some people are more concerned with the headlines and the news they'll make than the soundness of their tactics. I don't care if we get Brest tomorrow or ten days later. If we cut the peninsula, we'll get it anyhow. But w...
From 27 July 1944, as the Americans began to achieve a surprisingly spectacular breakout, beyond everyone’s wildest dreams as Operation Cobra gained a good head of steam, Monty perceived that the situation that had been planned for before the D-Day invasion had now totally changed. He told Alanbrooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff: the main business lies to the east.
That is the Allies armies must now race to the bridgeles...
Nigel Hamilton, in his book The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery, wrote about Montgomery’s concerns of the hopeless preparations being undertaken for the cross channel invasion. His concern was that no overall ground force commander had been appointed. Nigel Hamilton wrote what Monty’s feelings were about this in May 1943, more than a year before the invasion took place:
"A cross-Channel operation is being envisaged," h...
Was there fake media in January 1945? Was it Montgomery that said what sent the Americans into a blind rage, or was it Nazi disinformation (and so long ago)? What Monty really said, did it cause the Americans to meltdown because it was false, or because it was true? Is it harder to get along when you’re winning than when you’re losing? Luckily for you I’ve got all of the answers.
Tag words: Montgomery; Battle of the Bulge; Bradley; ...
A good commander surrounds himself with the most talented people to make it easier to achieve his mission. The goals that Eisenhower and Monty wanted to achieve were very different and are reflected in the men they chose to surround themselves with. Monty’s Chief of Staff was "Freddie" de Guingand. He’d filled that role in the 8th Army when Monty first took command of it on 15thAugust 1942. He was a staff officer when Mo...
It was the coldest winter in Europe for as long as anyone could remember. The Battle of the Bulge was at its height. Monty finished telling his boss, Eisenhower, that he now had to do something that was impossible for him to do. Eisenhower was feeling as low as he could go. The American leadership shared Bradley’s view about the sudden resurgence of German strength: "Pardon my French . .. but where in hell has this son of a bi...
What was so remarkable about General Omar N. Bradley’s exhortation on Christmas Day to Field Marshal Montgomery to immediately attack the north side of the German salient created during the Battle of the Bulge? Would you support what Bradely recommended?
Tag words: General Omar N. Bradley; Field Marshal Montgomery; Battle of the Bulge; Eisenhower; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Alan Brooke; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieute...
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 hi...
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; Carl...
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; Al...
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; Romm...
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; ...
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;...
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 col...
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 th...
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 ...
World War 2 in Europe ended with the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Western Allies on 7 May 1945 and to the Soviet Union on 8 May 1945. In the last year of the war, 1945, about 2.6 million military personnel died in Europe. The number of civilian casualties were also considerable. After the Allied breakout from Normandy in August 1944 there seemed to have been a chance to end the war in Europe before Christmas – that often heard ...
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