Lunchbox Lecture: “Sicily 1943: Patton vs. Montgomery vs. the Wehrmacht”

hay where's the sound?

Pity he forgot to mention a few facts such as the vast majority of air transport (51st and 52nd) were US. The only experience of most US units was Tunisia, not spectacular from an American point of view. No armed forces are infallible, no leader, no equipment and certainly no plan. Hindsight as they say is 20/20 but citing some of your sources from Hollywood isn't impressive. Nationalism and bias is dangerous in an historian. Facts are key, opinions are not. I hope subsequent 'lectures' are more rounded.

So Americans brilliant because they were American and British incompetent and in over their heads because they were British. Got it. 27 minutes in and tuning out.

It was Montgomery who first suggested that Patton try to get to Messina as quickly as possible and try and cut the Germans off. There was no rivalry as far as Monty was concerned. He wanted Patton to get to Messina and stop the Germans from evacuating. He proposed this to General Alexander when he wrote:

""when the Americans have cut the coast road north of Petralia, one American division should develop a strong thrust eastwards towards Messina so as to stretch the enemy, who are all German, and possibly repeat the Bizerta manoeuvre" (i.e cut them off as at Bizerte, Tunisia).

And in his own diary Montgomery also wrote:

"the Seventh American Army (Patton) should develop two strong thrusts with (a) two divisions on Highway 120 and (b) two divisions on Highway 113 towards Messina"

Even Patton, on being told of Monty's suggestions in a meeting with him soon after wrote in response in his own diary:

"I felt something was wrong (with the plan) but have not found it yet. After all this had been settled, Alexander came. He told Monty to explain his plan. Monty said he and I had already decided what we were going to do so Alexander got madder and told Monty to show him the plan".

Patton was handed Messina on a plate by Montgomery. BOTH of them failed to stop the Germans evacuating.

Montgomery was by some way the most successful Western Allied ground commander of WW2. He took more ground through more countries while facing more quality German opposition than any other Western Allied ground commander in WW2. Nobody did as much as Bernard Law Montgomery to help win the ground war in the west.
Thank goodness for Monty.

No, turning this off. This is so biased that it is completely worthless as a history lesson.

Captain Jacobs concerned himself more with the squabbles of commanding officers rather than with the Sicilian campaign itself.

Came off as a bit fanboy.

The british called the Americans after their failures in north africa " our italions"

Disappointment. It is an interesting event, but this speaker sounds like a high school football coach whipping up the team on Friday evening. I turned it off.

Seems like the original plan would have trapped the Germans in a pincer movement.

Gosh...wished I'd been there...Not many questions....I would have let go a barrage!!!

More often than not Monty always seemed to allow the Germans to escape - after El Alamein, Sicily, Falaise pocket, the Scheldt

This was a very succinct analysis of the campaign by Rick Jacobs, if a it biased toward Patton and the American viewpoint. I do agree that he made the comparison of Monty's concept of the captures of Grand Pointe and Primasole bridges with his later equally flawed Operation Market Garden very well. It seemed to be an indicator of the future ways in which he justified himself when things went wrong. Patton also did not exactly help himself either by his American-centric personal feelings clouding his judgment. General Alexander did a poor job here of not intervening for the sake of the mission. Great lecture!

General Troy Middleton was an alumnus from Mississippi State. He had retired from the Army in the interwar years after setting up war colleges and became the Comptroller at LSU and did oversee the ROTC program. When the US was gearing up for WWII, he offered to return his services to the Army and was accepted. During the Battle of the Bulge, it was General Middleton's idea to hold Bastogne at all costs due to the road and railroad junctions. After VE day, he resigned his commission and returned to LSU, later becoming the Chancellor.

I did not expect a Patton fan to disparage almost every other of the generals. Oh wait… That fits.
“This one is too Natty a dresser. This one is too frumpy a dresser.“

George Patton would be sick seeing the masks and medical malfeace at the VA health care or lack thereof, the treasonous son of a bitch China joe surrender biden and his illegitimate regeme et al Milly