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Post by quincannon on Nov 10, 2023 22:16:14 GMT
Adaptation is the key word Ian. Wedges and bells are perfectly Ok as starting points, but only that. As you know I am a student of the Bulge, but still quite familiar with the German ideas of wedge and bell. I think the great failure in the Bulge was that the Germans paid too much attention to their pre set formula of how things had worked before especially in Russia, and did not, or could not, mentally adapt to the Ardennes. Plus, they had that military genius Adolph telling them how to run things.
If you are not in some way adapting to the situation you are confronted with on a minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, basis, then you are going to lose, because the guy you are fighting is just as smart or smarter than you are, and he is adapting to you.
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Post by yanmacca on Nov 11, 2023 20:30:31 GMT
I think Adolf thought it was still the spring of 1940 when they crashed through the French lines and run amok through northern France, but it was 1944 and in the middle of a European winter.
The Ardennes is not tank country, especially in winter, they had to stick to roads mainly and advance in some places against the grain of the land. Funny enough around the same time as the Ardennes, old Adolf also ordered another offensive in the Alsace region, around Strasbourg, this involved the 1st and 19th armies, the offensive was named “operation Nordwind”, this also failed.
Ian
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Post by quincannon on Nov 11, 2023 22:28:28 GMT
We mentioned main and supporting attacks earlier this week and you brought up a large scale example. Nordwind was supposed to support the Ardennes offensive, mainly to draw troops into sustained combat that may have otherwise been used to reinforce the Ardennes. Decent enough plan but both attacks were poorly executed, thus when one failed so did the other.
What Adolph forgot about is that he was up against an adversary that could fight and chew gum, and who had so goddamned many combat engineers, that Adolph's ass was grass when he stepped across the LD. The Battle of the Bulge was a victory for the U S Army Corps of Engineers. Everyone else just helped.
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Post by yanmacca on Nov 14, 2023 19:43:03 GMT
Funny enough QC, before I read you post, I watched this on youtube, you may enjoy as it shows many of the locations today link
Ian
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Post by quincannon on Nov 15, 2023 20:09:08 GMT
This part of the thread should probably be moved to a more appropriate location. Enjoyed the video
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