Both presentations were very informative because these are two areas that I was not very familiar with in my studies of World War II. I thought it interesting that the Battle of Anzio was also known as Operation Shingle. It is also interesting to note the names assigned to the operations. Why shingle? I did not realize that this battle began as an amphibious operation. In addition, I was surprised to learn that because of the delay in ordering the Allied troops to attack, it resulted in this being one of the worst battles regarding the loss of lives for the Allies. In the presentation on Monte Cassino, once again it was pointed out the heavy loss of Allied troops. The numbers lost are staggering and double that of the German losses. During this presentation, I thought it interesting the four lessons learned by the Allies: do not split up the commands, know the terrain, do not let the offensive retreat, and do not bomb historical sites.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
ANZIO AND MONTE CASSINO
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You brought up some good points. The names of the various battles are pretty inventive. It is interesting to note the difference between the way the allies named their operations and the way the Germans named their operations. Even though I have heard about the high loss of life that the allies suffered, I am always amazed when I hear the numbers again.
I thought the presentation of Anzio was well done and informative. The names of the Operations were inventive to shield the enemies from knowing what the Operation was going to entail. If it were say Operation France and the German supporters heard wind of it, then the enemy would know that the Allies were planning in invasion of that country.
I felt like the the pressentation also did a good job of pointing out a big mistake that people seem to make over and over, building a strong defensive line. I thought this was kind of funny.
The Germans didnt seem to think that the allies could just go around their line. This, to me, was particularly comical sence Italy is surrounded by water. It's just funny to me that they insisted on defending the line when the allies could just go around, the presenter did a good job of bringing this up before talking about the battle.
I also think it's interesting that every operation has a "D-day". It's something that for so long we have associated with Normandy, it was interesting to find out otherwise.
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