Overlord

I think it's interesting how the battles of Anzio and Monte Cassino were affected at least in part by preparation for Overlord. The lecture Weds touched on how there were shortages of troops for those 2 engagements because of plans for Overlord

Auschwitz: A HIstory

For whom ever read this book or knows anything more about the subject please comment- In this book at the very end they speak up prisoners who escaped from Auschwitz and with writer documentation and photographs of what was happening at Auschwitz, Why did the Allies not bomb the camp, and in fact they bomb around it, but still they did not bomb the camp. For anyone that knows more about this subject I am very interested.

weather

I thought the lecture this week showed an interesting point that is often overlooked and that is the weather. The weather in Operation Overlord played an important role in the Allies securing the beaches on D-Day. One has to wonder how Rommel would have reacted if he was present to direct the battle from the beginning and if his troops where prepared could the Allies have succeeded? In addition, I thought the lecture shows that the Allies planned on the strategic level, which was different from the Germans. Their long term planning helped them win on D-Day because they thought of every possible problem and at least had some sort of solution before hand (i.e. Mulberry harbor) unlike their German counterparts in the invasion of Russia.

Presentations

Anzio I thought was interesting because the Allies landed unopposed but they failed to make their drive towards Rome. To me it seems like that Allies again lost a chance to break the German's back in Italy. They failed because they were being too cautious and when they finally did break out they missed the chance to capture a retreating army. I have to wonder what would have happened if the Allies had captured Rome shortly after the landing how that would have changed the war?

After the presentation I believe that Monte Casino should have never taken place because of the terrain the Allies had to overcome, especially when field commanders suggested it be by passed. In addition, I feel that the battle gave the Allies a black eye because they bombed the monastery when the Germans were not using it at all for their defenses. The presentation to me showed the battle of Monte Casino did not play any major role in the war besides just increasing the casualties count on both sides.

Presentations

I thought the presentation of Monte Casino was really interesting. I had heard of the battle but didn't realize that it was made up of four different battles. I had also never thought about how much terrain and weather play into winning battles. The Germans had a big advantage by being in the mountains instead of the valleys like the Allies.

Overlord

I find it great how the Allies were able to decieve the Germans with planning and coordination.  The Allies knew of the unwillingness of the Nazis to adapt to change planning and took advantage of it.  For example, after the Allies had landed in Normandy, the Axis still believed that the larger invasion would occur at Calais.  This unwillingness to adapt was the Achilles heal to Nazi war planning and led to their eventual downfall.

Overlord

I didn't know that overlord was the largest invasion ever. It does fit though, the largest war ever with the largest invasion ever in attempts to turn the tide in europe. They coordinated it with what was happening in italy. I thought it was interesting that they set up and took all the time and effort into tricking the Germans. How did Eisenhower feel about being in charge of such an operation? It was a brilliant manuever though.

Anzio and Cassino seemed to be a little similar. They both contained lots of troops and also had a lot of the same problems for both sides. I think the bombing of the Abbey was just an unafortunate side effect of war. Things happen like that in every war, especially when they weren't very accuatate back then. I thought they were really interesting presentations though.

Presentations and Lecture from Wed.

Wednesday's presentations were well done. It seems like as we get closer to the end of the war, the endurance level of the allies is increasing. The Battle of Monte Cristo is a good example of this. There were four separate battles involved and the allies fought hard in every one of them. They didn't give up even though they were beat back a couple of times. Their growth as soldiers is becoming more and more evident as the semester goes on. Even though I lived in Germany for a while and have seen the differences in cities that were destroyed in the war and cities that were not destroyed, I was still surprised to hear about the destruction of the abbey. This war really was devestating because the world not only lost a huge number of people but also, a lot of art was destroyed or went missing.
In a couple different lectures and presentations it was been said that, sometimes POW's were used to fight for the opposite side. Was there ever a problem with this? Did the Italians, for example, willingly fight for the allies after they surrendered?
I love how well operation overlord worked. The deception that the allies used worked very well and was well planned.

OPERATION OVERLORD

It is amazing to me how the Allies were able to deceive the Germans into believing that there would be an attack on Pays de Calais rather than Normandy.  The fact that the Germans were surprised is a true commendation to the commanders and troops of the Allied forces as they landed the largest amphibious assault of the war at Normandy.              

ANZIO AND MONTE CASSINO

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.   

anzio and

you may recall our instructor saying that the invasion of anzio was a way around the gustav line, and after hearing of the tuff fighting there and noticing from the maps that rome wasn't far from anzio. I have always wondered why the allies didn't go straight for rome since i would have saved time and lives-the anzio operation was in late january but rome wasn't taken until early june

from the reading, it was almost shocking to learn about omar bradley's and others failure to effectively prepare for the omaha landing considering all the other efforts put into making sure that operation would succeed.

Presenting: Anzio and Monte Cassino

Both presentations were full of information. I knew a little bit about the Anzio operation, but I didn't realize how much of a seesaw there really was. It was interestingly timed, because at first the Germans wanted to keep their panzer divisions in reserve for fighting to hold the line formed by the Po River, but then changed their minds and decided to crush the Anzio beachhead and hold the Gustav line with even more reinforcements. Anzio seems to be the guiding concept battle for the later amphibious attack on Inchon during the Korean War. When the Allies found themselves stuck against an extremely defensible position, they opted to go around it to add pressure from multiple sides.
Monte Cassino was that position the Allies were stuck against. I didn't realize that the Allies bombed the monastery, and then the Germans moved in. Moreover, I think the German plan to drop paratroopers in to fortify the ruins of the monastery was a brilliant move. Like was mentioned in the presentation, it seems the Germans realized how defensible rubble can be from their experiences at Stalingrad.

Anzio and Monte Casino

I was amazed at the harshness of the fighting that took place in Italy in regards to the operations at Anzio and Monte Casino. The Allies put much effort into invading the city of Anzio which is apparent by the number and types of forces used. These forces consisted of amphibious infantry, airborne units, and ranger units. I did learn from the presentations that these forces were badly needed in regards to the resistance that the Germans placed before them.
I had always thought that the raid on Monte Casino resulted in the Germans suffering greater casualties. The presentations again educated me on the right path by showing that the Allies had around 50,000 casualties. It was ironic that the bombing of the structure provided the Germans an advantage of getting to fight with better cover and concealment. This also was a strong example of collateral damage in World War 2 with the Monte being eliminated because of the combat that transpired.

Anzio and Monte Cassino

The presentations over Anzio and Monte Cassino were great. I did not realize that they had played a key role in trying to pull eastern German troops into southern Europe. Also it was interesting to hear about the fighting that took place in Italy. This information often gets left out when talking or learning about World War 2. Furthermore I did not realize so many soldiers died from non combat injuries due to trench warfare and other reasons. One thing I might have missed though was where were the Italian forces? Were they mostly defeated or were they just part of the German armies and under their command?