On June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day operation in which the Allied forces in World War II invaded German-occupied western Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his 29th Fireside Chat.
Any relationship between what FDR said and the facts about the "fall" of Rome were coincidence, as are the "facts" in any war while it's on.
The fact was that by "liberating" Rome, we extended the war in Italy a year. But General Moron Mark Clark's ego wouldn't let him avoid it. So while the original plan was for Lucian Truscott's Sixth Army to push out of the Anzio beachhead and smash the German Fourteenth Army then head southeast to join up with the British Eighth Army south of Rome and "bag" the German Tenth Army that was in retreat from the Rapido following the breakthrough at Monte Cassino (after three bloody tries before), thus ending the German Wehrmacht in Italy, Clark ordered Truscott to move north and "take" Rome (which was an open city, no Germans there). While Clark was having his victory parade in Rome, the Tenth Army marched around Rome to the east, while the Fourteenth Army retreated up the west side of Italy. They were chased by the Allied armies until they got to the Appenines, where they moved into the already-prepared Gothic Line in July and held out till the end of April 1945. And all of that could have been avoided if Mark Clark hadn't been an egomaniac who was so crazy he asked Eisenhower to delay D-Day two weeks so the liberation of Rome could be "properly celebrated." (Eisenhower's reply was never made public, but those who saw it said he departed from his usual "diplomatic language")
General Truscott was so upset by it that when he spoke at the opening of the American cemetery at Nettuno at the end of the war, he turned away from the crowd and spoke to the graveyard, and apologized to anyone there who had died because he hadn't told Mark Clark to go to hell when he got the order to "liberate" Rome.
Yeah, I wrote a book about all this, "The Bridgebusters: the True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Wing". Fucking generals are mostly morons; the good ones are the minority.
Thank you, Allen, for checking in and giving us your latest update. I hope Tanya feels better soon. May your travels be safe. Keeping you and Tanya, Zelensky, Kyiv, and Ukraine in our thoughts and prayers. Sending healing energy and prayers for protection your way. 💛💙
If can, drink some hot tea or a toddy, Tanya. Please rest and throw off the cold. Allen, so glad you are safe. Thank you for responding to TC. His books are amazing, right?!
Allen, good to hear from you. I'm glad you are holding tight until Tanya is well enough to travel. That last trek, about 50 miles will feel ever so long, but there is light. Safe travels, friend.
It is morning here in NYC. How are you and Tanya? Our eyes and hearts are on Ukraine. We are eager to hear from you with the realization that your challenges now are difficult and consuming. Please know that your welfare and Tanya's is uppermost in our minds. ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.
So happy to hear from you and Tanya, Allen! I can only hope and pray that you will get through immigration with no problems and will be given a place to rest your heads and bodies until the long trip to Barcelona.
What a great relief though that you are in Poland and out of harm's way for now. Thinking of you both and sending you strength for the last leg of your journey. Blessings and comfort are sent your way as well. Be at peace, you brave souls!!!💕💕💕💕🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦
Allen, …I cannot address the misery you are going through with words. My body and mind respond with friendship. With words, I can write that hearing from you has lifted my heart. This toll on you and Tanya is another form of sickness. It is best for me to restrict my mind during this communication to you and Tanya leaving the monster out of it. We have light snow here; it is gray as gray gets, cool and damp. Knowing that you are okay is most important. Thank you for checking in. People of the forum look for news of you. I am going to paste your message and post it. Wishing that kindness, comfort and rest wrap around you both. With support, Fern ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Thank you for word from Tanya. I pasted your comment and posted it writing that subscribers could find you on 3/10's forum. It is late, so there may be just a few going to the forum now. I will alert a few. HELLO to TANYA. We are enormously happy that you are both free. Sleep well when you finally get to a bed.❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
It is SO good to hear from you. I know you are monitoring the situation there. News here today indicates Russia is heading your way. Be safe. Take care. Be well.
Allen - Thank you so much for checking in. I hope that Tanya is feeling better today, so that you can continue your journey. I imagine that the 50-60 miles to the border will be a perilous journey. Praying for your safe arrival in Poland.❤️🙏🏻🌻
You and Tanya are in my thoughts. I hope Tanya recovers quickly and that you'll soon be on your way to Poland. We can only imagine your dilemma, and, across the miles, hope that you'll both soon be in a safe place.
Allen, I was glad to hear a bit from you. Will Tanya see the doctor? It would be great to know how you are doing, too. Please drop by again, when you can. With support, Fern
Allen, Latest news about military moves from Washington Post. Please keep it touch when you can.
Updated today at 9:18 a.m. EST
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The Russian military widened its campaign in Ukraine on Friday with airstrikes on new targets in the country’s west, Ukrainian officials said, while satellite imagery indicated that a Russian convoy massed outside Kyiv is maneuvering in possible preparation for a new push against the capital.
Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces carried out airstrikes overnight Thursday in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine, and that Dnipro, in central Ukraine, was also attacked for the first time. While Russian ground forces have made limited advances in several regions, they could soon be bolstered by foreign fighters after President Vladimir Putin directed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday to “help move [volunteers] to the war zone.” Shoigu said Russia has received more than 16,000 applications from volunteers, mostly in the Middle East.
So glad to see you are still with us reading HCR's letters. That is a blessing. I am sorry that Tanya is not feeling well. I hope that she hasn't contacted Covid. I will continue to pray for you and yours safety and that Tanya gets to feeling better soon and can travel. Also, that you don't become ill as well. Additional prayers that this will end sooner rather than later so that you can return to your friends, Lucky and furry friends. I cry tears for you and your country. This is such nonsense at the hands of this horrible madman. I wish my country could do more without causing WWIII that we have talked about all my 78 years!
Grateful to hear from you, Allen, and thankful that you are in Lyiv. Please continue to keep us updated and know how many of us hold for you and Tanya in our hearts.
Allen...I read all of the daily comments and learn! But today, I comment, because like everyone else here, I am so relieved to “hear” your voice. Best wishes for Tanya..and Lucky
Allen, I am so relieved to see your comment. I don't post much but worry excessively. My hope and prayers are with you, Tanya, Lucky, the kitties, your friends, the Ukrainian people, and humanity❤
Thanks for this. I read another book about Ike that supports this explanation of the taking of Rome. Egos at the general level need to be checked. McArthur? Monty? Westmoreland?
Also, I am lucky to exist. My Dad was at Cassino. He met my Mom in a hospital. Wounded lieutenant meets nurse = me.
Don't get me going on MacArthur. As one reviewer of my Pacific War books put it, "the author is no fan of the general." I really go after him for his BS in Korea in "The Frozen Chosen." The most over-rated General in American history.
Best coincidence ever! My husband just said this to me mere minutes ago about “The Frozen Chosen”. Our entire family still making our way thru Jack Weatherford’s books thanks to a recommendation from you. ❤️❤️❤️ So appreciated!!!
My father held no respect for him. Born in 1907, raised in Norfolk VA, my father was a WWII USCG/US Navy veteran. He was deeply offended by the City of Norfolk's decision to make the former City Hall - a massive, classic building that resembles the U.S. Capitol and stands at the head of the main downtown street, City Hall Avenue - into a mausoleum and memorial for that man.
MacArthur was much worse than just over-rated. After US troops pushed North Korea back inside its border in a few months, MacArthur wasted millions of lives perpetuating several years of brutality and ended up where he was when he started his rampage. Truman should have known better. He might have been given bad advice by one of those Dulles SoBs and/or Acheson.
What happened between June 25, 1950, when the war broke out, and late September 1950, when the UN forces arrived back at the 38th parallel, as McCarthyism. Back in the US, no American politician could survive being called "soft on communism," and "roll back" was the name of the game. I'll toot my own horn here and say that "The Frozen Chosen" is not just about the Chosin Reservoir campaign, but the first year of the war, to when "peace' negotiations broke out, with Chosin thus seen in context. There's also a healthy dose of "how did Korea get like this?" As one reviewer said, "It goes from foxhole to White House oval office and back again."
Catch-22 has been my favorite book since I read it right after 8th grade in 1967. I was fascinated reading in your book about the unit Joe Heller was in. Thanks for writing your book.
My father-in-law, who served under Clark in Italy, including the failed crossing of the Rapido, the breakout from Anzio and on into Rome with the 36th Division, had absolutely nothing good to say about him.
TCI recall that ass hole Mark Clark, against his staff’s vigorous opposition, had a. Texas division (36th) march through a Nazi minefield with appalling losses. Also, there was a general with ‘the slows’ at the Anzio beach head who permitted the Germans to bring in two divisions while he dithered on the beach. This was one of the few times that a commanding general was summarily dismissed during a military operation. Some of these incidents were included in a U.S.Army historical book titled Command Decisions (?)
I wrote this at 4 in this morning from memory. I have since looked at COMMAND DECISIONS. As a WW II buff, I consider this one of the most extraordinary books on WW II. Prepared by the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army in 1959, it assessed 20 military situations, written by some historians who later had distinguished careers, that were both professional and critical. It savages Mark Clark and skewers General Lucas at Anzio.
What I remembered most vividly, from reading the book 60 years ago, was its documentation on how “The Decision to Evacuate the Japanese from the PACIFIC COAST (1942)” was based on false information by Major General Allen Gullion and others and a brief to the Supreme Court that ignored data which would have informed the Court that there was no factual basis for the internment of over 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent. Horrifying then and now.
Michael Only in 2018 did the Supreme Court (as an after thought) overturn the 1944 Korumatsu v. United States decision that the internment of (Japanese) Americans was constitutional. Inexplicable that it took 74 years to overturn such an abominable decision.
I find it extraordinary that, with this unconscionable interment of (Japanese) American citizens, Americans of Japanese descent volunteered to serve in a Nisei regiment that, I believe, was the most decorated fighting group in the European campaign.
Yeah, high command in the Mediterranean Theater wasn't much good till Truscott was put in command of Fifth Army in December 1944. The guys I interviewed for Bridgebusters said it was like a shot of fresh air shot through the entire theater.
TC Like General Patton replacing an inept general after our Kasserine Pass military disaster in North Africa. Patton was certainly not politically correct, and his ego cost unnecessary soldiers lives in Sicily, but he saved our butts at Bastogne and was, despite his personal downsides, perhaps our best fighting general in WW II.
My father didn’t talk about the war much, but he served in Italy as a British captain. I do remember that he always made fun of Mark Clark and use the same biological term referring to him and in a sort of British pronunciation joke always referred to him as Merk Clerk.
Tony Actually, British General Alexander was Mark Clark’s commanding officer, whose strategy and specific orders Clark tended to ignore.
I had a British uncle who served under. General Montgomery in Egypt. He was captured on reconnaissance with the 7th Hussars at El Alemain. Some how he escaped from prison camp and made his way close to Allied lines in Italy before being recaptured. Under British military regulations, he was frozen at his major grade while a prisoner.
By contrast, I had an American cousin who was exec officer on a sub sunk soon after Pearl Harbor. He was one of four in the crew to escape and be captured by the Japanese. We knew nothing of his fate for two years, until notification from the Red Cross. Under US Navy rules he was promoted while a prisoner and completed his naval career as a captain.
Alexander was not much better than Clark, he kept his position because he was Churchill's favorite general. The Med suffered from lack of top leadership, since they all saw "the big one" being Northwest Europe.
No, TC, you're wrong about Alexander. Alex was probably the best of them all. From his early days in WWI as a company commander in the Irish Guards, he was always smart, brave, selfless, dedicated to the cause. He led men "over the top" in WWI 34 times and survived; That's a person of Destiny. He fought at the Somme and at Passchendaele. Wounded on 2 separate occasions, he healed and soon after went back into combat. No military leader in the Allied cause was more respected in the European and Mediterranean theaters. After WWI, he continued in command in other British wars of the time, including India.
True, that he was Churchill's favorite general. That was probably because he had proved himself so many times in combat leadership. When things got tough, they brought in Alexander. During the evacuation of Dunkirk, Alexander was chosen to manage the evacuation of British Army getting off the beach. He kept things cool and orderly as the evacuation was accomplished. He was brought in again in Burma to save the British army as the Japanese closed in.
After Burma, Alex was back in London in mid-1942 when Ike had been appointed to command U.S. forces in the coming Med. and European war. Ike met and had lunch with him at that point. Ike's secretary, Lt. Cmdr. Harry Butcher reported that when Alex had left after lunch, Ike said, "That's the man who should be in charge, not me" When Ike was given command of the Allied invasion of North Africa, Alex was given command of all land forces there, and that made Ike very happy. At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Ike told Gen. Marshall, FDR, and Churchill that he would gladly serve UNDER Alexander. But the U.S. was becoming the dominant Allied force then and Ike was given the figurehead position of commander.
General Omar Bradley, who served under Patton in North Africa and was then Patton's boss in Northwest Europe, and who also became the first U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff after WWII, said that Alexander was responsible for training the U.S. Army in North Africa. After the disaster of the American soldiers running away at Kassarine Pass, no British commanders wanted to be aligned with U.S. ground forces there. Ike finally talked Alexander into training the American soldiers to be combat fit. Alex started by getting the Americans into small skirmishes, then larger and larger as they gained confidence in their fighting abilities.
After Cassino/Monte Cassino, Alex designed the plan you mentioned about containing German 10th and 14th Armies and then discussed it with Gen. Truscott and the other relevant commanders. Of course, we know that Mark Clark disregarded his orders, did his own thing and headed for Rome. (I believe it was one of the British soldiers who came up with the term "Markus Clarkus".) Alex technically could have had Clark relieved, but the U.S. was calling the shots in the war at that point, and I imagine Alex was counselled not to do so.
A few years after WWII ended, General of the Army Omar Bradley gave some reflections on the management of the war. He said, "World War II produced two great military leaders--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and Field Marshall Sir Harold Alexander." I believe Bradley was right on the money.
As an aside, I have a great pen and ink sketch by a combat artist of General Truscott and his Executive Officer in the field.
He was all of those things, but he wouldn't take action about Clark or the other non-perfmormers. A good training officer, as noted, and that's important because you can't win without a well-trained army. As noted from WW1 an excellent company officer. But up in the stratosphere he was perhaps "too nice a guy" when he needed to kick ass and take names. He did look better after Clark replaced him, but that was Clark. He should have put Truscott or someone like him in charge of 5th Army after the Rome fiasco.
Yes, Keith, that was General Lucas at Anzio. I think he froze. He made a statement like "I just couldn't send those boys out to their deaths." Lucas was sent back to the U.S. as something of a training officer.
My father was one of those staff officers who advised Mark Clark not to make that move across the Rapido. In later years, he told me in a very emphatic way, "I told him not to do that! But, he was the commanding general, so what can you do?" The 36th (Texas) division took a very high number of casualties. The Texans never forgot that; through steady pressure, they had Clark brought up for a Congressional Hearing, but Congress found Clark not guilty. Gen. Clark was a good trainer of troops in the states, but a combat command is very different from that. Those West Pointers are a tight club. Clark and Ike were cadets and friends at WP at the same time but in different classes. Clark also played a substantial part [through his recommendation to General Marshall] in getting Ike the big job of directing U.S. [later Anglo-American] operations in North Africa. So, I guess Ike returned the favor and gave Clark command of 5th Army.
We see that array of Russian Commanders who have learned to use modern technologies to pulverize cities and kill civilians but have no ability to fight a war.
Two weeks ago I saw the stalled 40 mile convoy as a sign of ridiculous absence of planning and execution. The out dated MRE’s verified the impending deadly chaos.
Building resentment by bombing schools and hospitals guarrrantees an endless partisan war after Russia pulverizes the nation.
Perhaps the worse long term miscalculation by Putin was trusting his generals.
Sounds like Eisenhower was one of the good ones. Though a lifelong Dem, I have always respected Eisenhower. I remember as a child, watching the Big Brother show on TV (It was a Boston area children's show), we drank a glass of milk as a Toast to the President of the United States. There was a portrait of Ike on screen.
Yeah, it was pushing patriotism, but his smiling face always made me feel safe, and in the early 50's, things weren't too bad for working class people. If you were white.
Cheryl I voted for Eisenhower in 1956 and have been associated with Eisenhower Fellowships since 1953. I met President Eisenhower with a group of Eisenhower Fellows in the fall of 1960. I consider him an excellent WW II general who had to deal with such egoists as Churchill and DeGaulle while trying to win a war. As president, he kept us out of war and was a moderate/conservative on domestic matters. There have been scads written about Ike. For me, the best personal insights are in Susan Eisenhower’s recent HOW IKE LED.
Though Ike was not a civil rights enthusiast, he did dispatch the 101 Airborne division to Little Rock in 1957 to enforce school desegration. Ike said that this was his toughest decision as president, since he had ordered the 101st to parachute/land in Europe on D Day. No one is perfect, but, on balance, Ike was a decent man.
Ike ranked quite low on early C-Span polls of historians/political scientists. He has risen sharply in recent decades, but not as much as Truman.
Eisenhower was a good general, and a better president than many (including my father) thought at the time. I once caddied for his party (the Secret Service foursome bringing up the rear), and afterwards he gave each of the caddies a crisp new $5 bill, a fortune in 1958 to a 14-year old. I still hate golf.
Hahaha! I never thought much of golf either. To me, it looks like an excuse for a bunch of rich people to walk (or ride) around on a nice lawn, pretending to do something. Lol
I was 11 in 1958, but, yeah, $5 was a fortune in those days!
Nice to learn he was generous!
I always loved his warning about the military-industrial complex. Coming from a general, it really was a strong, though unheeded, warning.
My late brother-in-law thought Mark Clark the idiot that you portray. I know Patton had his flaws but I love his comment that “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”
50 years ago, I was enrolled in a pilot program at my public hs to push students, esp females into (at the time equivalent of) a STEM program. My history education lacked. I then entered IIT and didn't learn any more history. This column and my recent reading has become my history lessons. I would be interested in knowing who you (or others on this forum) consider the good ones, and also any other books besides yours that you would suggest. Thank you.
Any relationship between what FDR said and the facts about the "fall" of Rome were coincidence, as are the "facts" in any war while it's on.
The fact was that by "liberating" Rome, we extended the war in Italy a year. But General Moron Mark Clark's ego wouldn't let him avoid it. So while the original plan was for Lucian Truscott's Sixth Army to push out of the Anzio beachhead and smash the German Fourteenth Army then head southeast to join up with the British Eighth Army south of Rome and "bag" the German Tenth Army that was in retreat from the Rapido following the breakthrough at Monte Cassino (after three bloody tries before), thus ending the German Wehrmacht in Italy, Clark ordered Truscott to move north and "take" Rome (which was an open city, no Germans there). While Clark was having his victory parade in Rome, the Tenth Army marched around Rome to the east, while the Fourteenth Army retreated up the west side of Italy. They were chased by the Allied armies until they got to the Appenines, where they moved into the already-prepared Gothic Line in July and held out till the end of April 1945. And all of that could have been avoided if Mark Clark hadn't been an egomaniac who was so crazy he asked Eisenhower to delay D-Day two weeks so the liberation of Rome could be "properly celebrated." (Eisenhower's reply was never made public, but those who saw it said he departed from his usual "diplomatic language")
General Truscott was so upset by it that when he spoke at the opening of the American cemetery at Nettuno at the end of the war, he turned away from the crowd and spoke to the graveyard, and apologized to anyone there who had died because he hadn't told Mark Clark to go to hell when he got the order to "liberate" Rome.
Yeah, I wrote a book about all this, "The Bridgebusters: the True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Wing". Fucking generals are mostly morons; the good ones are the minority.
Good book. Read it last December but haven't written a review on Goodreads yet.
Allen! We've been worrying how you, Tanya, and Lucky are doing! Please post an update for us.
Sending best wishes for your safety in terrible trying times.
We are in Lviv. Tanya is sick with a bad cold and we will stay until she is well enough to travel.
Sending warm, healing energy and prayers for safe passage, Allen and Tanya. Thank you for keeping in touch.
Allen, it’s such a relief to hear from you again. I will send good energy to you and Tanya for safe passage and good health.
Delighted to hear from you, Allen -- not so delighted that Tanya is unwell. Sending soothing and healing thoughts her way.
Thank you, Allen, for checking in and giving us your latest update. I hope Tanya feels better soon. May your travels be safe. Keeping you and Tanya, Zelensky, Kyiv, and Ukraine in our thoughts and prayers. Sending healing energy and prayers for protection your way. 💛💙
Yes. We’re all sending love and prayers and more prayers.
If can, drink some hot tea or a toddy, Tanya. Please rest and throw off the cold. Allen, so glad you are safe. Thank you for responding to TC. His books are amazing, right?!
Everyone here is with you, step by step.
Salud! United! 💜☮️
And Allen, whatever resources you need, there are ways to get them to you. Do not hesitate to ask. Do you have people in Barcelona?
Been there four times and do have a contact
Allen, good to hear from you. I'm glad you are holding tight until Tanya is well enough to travel. That last trek, about 50 miles will feel ever so long, but there is light. Safe travels, friend.
As always I am glad to know that you are safe and have a chance to let Tanya get better. Sending healing reiki energy and thinking of you.
Allen- always feel better when we hear from you and that you are well- hope you and Tanya can travel again soon.
Thanks for checking in. ❤️
It is morning here in NYC. How are you and Tanya? Our eyes and hearts are on Ukraine. We are eager to hear from you with the realization that your challenges now are difficult and consuming. Please know that your welfare and Tanya's is uppermost in our minds. ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.
So happy to hear from you and Tanya, Allen! I can only hope and pray that you will get through immigration with no problems and will be given a place to rest your heads and bodies until the long trip to Barcelona.
What a great relief though that you are in Poland and out of harm's way for now. Thinking of you both and sending you strength for the last leg of your journey. Blessings and comfort are sent your way as well. Be at peace, you brave souls!!!💕💕💕💕🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦
Allen, …I cannot address the misery you are going through with words. My body and mind respond with friendship. With words, I can write that hearing from you has lifted my heart. This toll on you and Tanya is another form of sickness. It is best for me to restrict my mind during this communication to you and Tanya leaving the monster out of it. We have light snow here; it is gray as gray gets, cool and damp. Knowing that you are okay is most important. Thank you for checking in. People of the forum look for news of you. I am going to paste your message and post it. Wishing that kindness, comfort and rest wrap around you both. With support, Fern ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Tanya said it was a hard day but it was free.
Allen, We hope that you and Tanya are making your way. Please check in when you can. Your friends on the forum wishing you safety and good care.
Thank you for word from Tanya. I pasted your comment and posted it writing that subscribers could find you on 3/10's forum. It is late, so there may be just a few going to the forum now. I will alert a few. HELLO to TANYA. We are enormously happy that you are both free. Sleep well when you finally get to a bed.❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Hello, Allen and Tanya!! Wishing you calm, rest, and wellness!
It is SO good to hear from you. I know you are monitoring the situation there. News here today indicates Russia is heading your way. Be safe. Take care. Be well.
Do you have a destination?
Polish border first then Barcelona if possible
Good travels! (Considering the circumstances.)
Ah, Barcelona would be wonderful! Recover, then safe travel.
❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Allen - Thank you so much for checking in. I hope that Tanya is feeling better today, so that you can continue your journey. I imagine that the 50-60 miles to the border will be a perilous journey. Praying for your safe arrival in Poland.❤️🙏🏻🌻
From the news it doesn't look safe anywhere in Ukraine! I hope there is a safe zone in the city.
Good to hear. May you and yours stay safe.
You and Tanya are in my thoughts. I hope Tanya recovers quickly and that you'll soon be on your way to Poland. We can only imagine your dilemma, and, across the miles, hope that you'll both soon be in a safe place.
Home, Lucky and cats are looked after by friends.
Allen, I was glad to hear a bit from you. Will Tanya see the doctor? It would be great to know how you are doing, too. Please drop by again, when you can. With support, Fern
Regular cold meds are working.
Allen, Latest news about military moves from Washington Post. Please keep it touch when you can.
Updated today at 9:18 a.m. EST
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The Russian military widened its campaign in Ukraine on Friday with airstrikes on new targets in the country’s west, Ukrainian officials said, while satellite imagery indicated that a Russian convoy massed outside Kyiv is maneuvering in possible preparation for a new push against the capital.
Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces carried out airstrikes overnight Thursday in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine, and that Dnipro, in central Ukraine, was also attacked for the first time. While Russian ground forces have made limited advances in several regions, they could soon be bolstered by foreign fighters after President Vladimir Putin directed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday to “help move [volunteers] to the war zone.” Shoigu said Russia has received more than 16,000 applications from volunteers, mostly in the Middle East.
Good news, Allen. A big smile for you and thumbs up. Thank you for communicating.
Hi Allen. Please speak to us.
So glad to see you are still with us reading HCR's letters. That is a blessing. I am sorry that Tanya is not feeling well. I hope that she hasn't contacted Covid. I will continue to pray for you and yours safety and that Tanya gets to feeling better soon and can travel. Also, that you don't become ill as well. Additional prayers that this will end sooner rather than later so that you can return to your friends, Lucky and furry friends. I cry tears for you and your country. This is such nonsense at the hands of this horrible madman. I wish my country could do more without causing WWIII that we have talked about all my 78 years!
Grateful to hear from you, Allen, and thankful that you are in Lyiv. Please continue to keep us updated and know how many of us hold for you and Tanya in our hearts.
Allen...I read all of the daily comments and learn! But today, I comment, because like everyone else here, I am so relieved to “hear” your voice. Best wishes for Tanya..and Lucky
Hello Allen! I'm so glad to see you see you here! Best wishes to Tanya for a speedy recovery. Keeping you both in my heart.🌻🌷
Allen! So relieved to hear your voice. Please let us know how you and Tanya are doing. Wrapping our arms around you both.
Allen, I am so relieved to see your comment. I don't post much but worry excessively. My hope and prayers are with you, Tanya, Lucky, the kitties, your friends, the Ukrainian people, and humanity❤
So glad to hear from you. Sorry that Tanya is unwell. Praying for you both, and all of Ukraine.
So wonderful to hear from you Allen! Hugs to Tanya, I hope she recovers quickly. Holding you all in my prayers.
Hi Allen!
Allen and Tanya, Your welfare and spirits are foremost on our minds and in our hearts. ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Allen, This feels like a miracle. Speak, please
So good to hear. Hope you can travel again soon look forward to message you are safe.
That name Lucian Truscott was sounding familiar. Substack fellow Lucian Truscott IV is the grandson of Gen. Truscott.
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/
TC, your WW 2 history stories are amazing!
Yes, Ellie. I love historians. Most fascinating storytellers.
Ellie, Allen responded to my post. If you're around, he's right above. I'm waiting for his words.
General Truscott's biography is interesting to read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Truscott
Thanks for this. I read another book about Ike that supports this explanation of the taking of Rome. Egos at the general level need to be checked. McArthur? Monty? Westmoreland?
Also, I am lucky to exist. My Dad was at Cassino. He met my Mom in a hospital. Wounded lieutenant meets nurse = me.
Don't get me going on MacArthur. As one reviewer of my Pacific War books put it, "the author is no fan of the general." I really go after him for his BS in Korea in "The Frozen Chosen." The most over-rated General in American history.
Best coincidence ever! My husband just said this to me mere minutes ago about “The Frozen Chosen”. Our entire family still making our way thru Jack Weatherford’s books thanks to a recommendation from you. ❤️❤️❤️ So appreciated!!!
Thank you!
My father held no respect for him. Born in 1907, raised in Norfolk VA, my father was a WWII USCG/US Navy veteran. He was deeply offended by the City of Norfolk's decision to make the former City Hall - a massive, classic building that resembles the U.S. Capitol and stands at the head of the main downtown street, City Hall Avenue - into a mausoleum and memorial for that man.
Definitely over-rated.
MacArthur was much worse than just over-rated. After US troops pushed North Korea back inside its border in a few months, MacArthur wasted millions of lives perpetuating several years of brutality and ended up where he was when he started his rampage. Truman should have known better. He might have been given bad advice by one of those Dulles SoBs and/or Acheson.
What happened between June 25, 1950, when the war broke out, and late September 1950, when the UN forces arrived back at the 38th parallel, as McCarthyism. Back in the US, no American politician could survive being called "soft on communism," and "roll back" was the name of the game. I'll toot my own horn here and say that "The Frozen Chosen" is not just about the Chosin Reservoir campaign, but the first year of the war, to when "peace' negotiations broke out, with Chosin thus seen in context. There's also a healthy dose of "how did Korea get like this?" As one reviewer said, "It goes from foxhole to White House oval office and back again."
Yeah. The highly touted American people are a bunch of fucking rubes, and proud of it to boot.
Catch-22 has been my favorite book since I read it right after 8th grade in 1967. I was fascinated reading in your book about the unit Joe Heller was in. Thanks for writing your book.
Thanks TC. I’d no idea - this wasn’t ever taught in any of my history classes - grade school, high school or college.
Fascinating. The flaws of human character have consequences when elevated to positions of leadership. What an ego.
Power often attracts the wrong people, to everyone else's detriment.
My father-in-law, who served under Clark in Italy, including the failed crossing of the Rapido, the breakout from Anzio and on into Rome with the 36th Division, had absolutely nothing good to say about him.
TCI recall that ass hole Mark Clark, against his staff’s vigorous opposition, had a. Texas division (36th) march through a Nazi minefield with appalling losses. Also, there was a general with ‘the slows’ at the Anzio beach head who permitted the Germans to bring in two divisions while he dithered on the beach. This was one of the few times that a commanding general was summarily dismissed during a military operation. Some of these incidents were included in a U.S.Army historical book titled Command Decisions (?)
I wrote this at 4 in this morning from memory. I have since looked at COMMAND DECISIONS. As a WW II buff, I consider this one of the most extraordinary books on WW II. Prepared by the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army in 1959, it assessed 20 military situations, written by some historians who later had distinguished careers, that were both professional and critical. It savages Mark Clark and skewers General Lucas at Anzio.
What I remembered most vividly, from reading the book 60 years ago, was its documentation on how “The Decision to Evacuate the Japanese from the PACIFIC COAST (1942)” was based on false information by Major General Allen Gullion and others and a brief to the Supreme Court that ignored data which would have informed the Court that there was no factual basis for the internment of over 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent. Horrifying then and now.
A shameful event still alive in memories and family histories here on the West Coast.
Michael Only in 2018 did the Supreme Court (as an after thought) overturn the 1944 Korumatsu v. United States decision that the internment of (Japanese) Americans was constitutional. Inexplicable that it took 74 years to overturn such an abominable decision.
I pass by Manzanar a couple times a year and always stop to pay my respects to the people imprisoned there during the war.
I find it extraordinary that, with this unconscionable interment of (Japanese) American citizens, Americans of Japanese descent volunteered to serve in a Nisei regiment that, I believe, was the most decorated fighting group in the European campaign.
Took the tour there along with my grandson's class field trip. So very depressing and sad.
Been there. Very sobering.
Yeah, high command in the Mediterranean Theater wasn't much good till Truscott was put in command of Fifth Army in December 1944. The guys I interviewed for Bridgebusters said it was like a shot of fresh air shot through the entire theater.
TC Like General Patton replacing an inept general after our Kasserine Pass military disaster in North Africa. Patton was certainly not politically correct, and his ego cost unnecessary soldiers lives in Sicily, but he saved our butts at Bastogne and was, despite his personal downsides, perhaps our best fighting general in WW II.
My father didn’t talk about the war much, but he served in Italy as a British captain. I do remember that he always made fun of Mark Clark and use the same biological term referring to him and in a sort of British pronunciation joke always referred to him as Merk Clerk.
Tony Actually, British General Alexander was Mark Clark’s commanding officer, whose strategy and specific orders Clark tended to ignore.
I had a British uncle who served under. General Montgomery in Egypt. He was captured on reconnaissance with the 7th Hussars at El Alemain. Some how he escaped from prison camp and made his way close to Allied lines in Italy before being recaptured. Under British military regulations, he was frozen at his major grade while a prisoner.
By contrast, I had an American cousin who was exec officer on a sub sunk soon after Pearl Harbor. He was one of four in the crew to escape and be captured by the Japanese. We knew nothing of his fate for two years, until notification from the Red Cross. Under US Navy rules he was promoted while a prisoner and completed his naval career as a captain.
Alexander was not much better than Clark, he kept his position because he was Churchill's favorite general. The Med suffered from lack of top leadership, since they all saw "the big one" being Northwest Europe.
No, TC, you're wrong about Alexander. Alex was probably the best of them all. From his early days in WWI as a company commander in the Irish Guards, he was always smart, brave, selfless, dedicated to the cause. He led men "over the top" in WWI 34 times and survived; That's a person of Destiny. He fought at the Somme and at Passchendaele. Wounded on 2 separate occasions, he healed and soon after went back into combat. No military leader in the Allied cause was more respected in the European and Mediterranean theaters. After WWI, he continued in command in other British wars of the time, including India.
True, that he was Churchill's favorite general. That was probably because he had proved himself so many times in combat leadership. When things got tough, they brought in Alexander. During the evacuation of Dunkirk, Alexander was chosen to manage the evacuation of British Army getting off the beach. He kept things cool and orderly as the evacuation was accomplished. He was brought in again in Burma to save the British army as the Japanese closed in.
After Burma, Alex was back in London in mid-1942 when Ike had been appointed to command U.S. forces in the coming Med. and European war. Ike met and had lunch with him at that point. Ike's secretary, Lt. Cmdr. Harry Butcher reported that when Alex had left after lunch, Ike said, "That's the man who should be in charge, not me" When Ike was given command of the Allied invasion of North Africa, Alex was given command of all land forces there, and that made Ike very happy. At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Ike told Gen. Marshall, FDR, and Churchill that he would gladly serve UNDER Alexander. But the U.S. was becoming the dominant Allied force then and Ike was given the figurehead position of commander.
General Omar Bradley, who served under Patton in North Africa and was then Patton's boss in Northwest Europe, and who also became the first U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff after WWII, said that Alexander was responsible for training the U.S. Army in North Africa. After the disaster of the American soldiers running away at Kassarine Pass, no British commanders wanted to be aligned with U.S. ground forces there. Ike finally talked Alexander into training the American soldiers to be combat fit. Alex started by getting the Americans into small skirmishes, then larger and larger as they gained confidence in their fighting abilities.
After Cassino/Monte Cassino, Alex designed the plan you mentioned about containing German 10th and 14th Armies and then discussed it with Gen. Truscott and the other relevant commanders. Of course, we know that Mark Clark disregarded his orders, did his own thing and headed for Rome. (I believe it was one of the British soldiers who came up with the term "Markus Clarkus".) Alex technically could have had Clark relieved, but the U.S. was calling the shots in the war at that point, and I imagine Alex was counselled not to do so.
A few years after WWII ended, General of the Army Omar Bradley gave some reflections on the management of the war. He said, "World War II produced two great military leaders--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and Field Marshall Sir Harold Alexander." I believe Bradley was right on the money.
As an aside, I have a great pen and ink sketch by a combat artist of General Truscott and his Executive Officer in the field.
He was all of those things, but he wouldn't take action about Clark or the other non-perfmormers. A good training officer, as noted, and that's important because you can't win without a well-trained army. As noted from WW1 an excellent company officer. But up in the stratosphere he was perhaps "too nice a guy" when he needed to kick ass and take names. He did look better after Clark replaced him, but that was Clark. He should have put Truscott or someone like him in charge of 5th Army after the Rome fiasco.
Yes, Keith, that was General Lucas at Anzio. I think he froze. He made a statement like "I just couldn't send those boys out to their deaths." Lucas was sent back to the U.S. as something of a training officer.
My father was one of those staff officers who advised Mark Clark not to make that move across the Rapido. In later years, he told me in a very emphatic way, "I told him not to do that! But, he was the commanding general, so what can you do?" The 36th (Texas) division took a very high number of casualties. The Texans never forgot that; through steady pressure, they had Clark brought up for a Congressional Hearing, but Congress found Clark not guilty. Gen. Clark was a good trainer of troops in the states, but a combat command is very different from that. Those West Pointers are a tight club. Clark and Ike were cadets and friends at WP at the same time but in different classes. Clark also played a substantial part [through his recommendation to General Marshall] in getting Ike the big job of directing U.S. [later Anglo-American] operations in North Africa. So, I guess Ike returned the favor and gave Clark command of 5th Army.
Thanks for the reminder of “tinsel at the top.”
We see that array of Russian Commanders who have learned to use modern technologies to pulverize cities and kill civilians but have no ability to fight a war.
Two weeks ago I saw the stalled 40 mile convoy as a sign of ridiculous absence of planning and execution. The out dated MRE’s verified the impending deadly chaos.
Building resentment by bombing schools and hospitals guarrrantees an endless partisan war after Russia pulverizes the nation.
Perhaps the worse long term miscalculation by Putin was trusting his generals.
Sounds like Eisenhower was one of the good ones. Though a lifelong Dem, I have always respected Eisenhower. I remember as a child, watching the Big Brother show on TV (It was a Boston area children's show), we drank a glass of milk as a Toast to the President of the United States. There was a portrait of Ike on screen.
Yeah, it was pushing patriotism, but his smiling face always made me feel safe, and in the early 50's, things weren't too bad for working class people. If you were white.
Cheryl I voted for Eisenhower in 1956 and have been associated with Eisenhower Fellowships since 1953. I met President Eisenhower with a group of Eisenhower Fellows in the fall of 1960. I consider him an excellent WW II general who had to deal with such egoists as Churchill and DeGaulle while trying to win a war. As president, he kept us out of war and was a moderate/conservative on domestic matters. There have been scads written about Ike. For me, the best personal insights are in Susan Eisenhower’s recent HOW IKE LED.
Though Ike was not a civil rights enthusiast, he did dispatch the 101 Airborne division to Little Rock in 1957 to enforce school desegration. Ike said that this was his toughest decision as president, since he had ordered the 101st to parachute/land in Europe on D Day. No one is perfect, but, on balance, Ike was a decent man.
Ike ranked quite low on early C-Span polls of historians/political scientists. He has risen sharply in recent decades, but not as much as Truman.
Eisenhower was a good general, and a better president than many (including my father) thought at the time. I once caddied for his party (the Secret Service foursome bringing up the rear), and afterwards he gave each of the caddies a crisp new $5 bill, a fortune in 1958 to a 14-year old. I still hate golf.
Hahaha! I never thought much of golf either. To me, it looks like an excuse for a bunch of rich people to walk (or ride) around on a nice lawn, pretending to do something. Lol
I was 11 in 1958, but, yeah, $5 was a fortune in those days!
Nice to learn he was generous!
I always loved his warning about the military-industrial complex. Coming from a general, it really was a strong, though unheeded, warning.
Actually. That is a big “if”
Enormous.
My late brother-in-law thought Mark Clark the idiot that you portray. I know Patton had his flaws but I love his comment that “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”
50 years ago, I was enrolled in a pilot program at my public hs to push students, esp females into (at the time equivalent of) a STEM program. My history education lacked. I then entered IIT and didn't learn any more history. This column and my recent reading has become my history lessons. I would be interested in knowing who you (or others on this forum) consider the good ones, and also any other books besides yours that you would suggest. Thank you.