Monday's Movies

I am not sure what the Allies were thinking when they planned the Hurcan Forest and Ardennes Forest battles.  Hurcan Forest did not have a real objective because it was so difficult to get through, and they did not really need to get to the other side.  Then these poor soldier were sent to the Ardennes Forest to recuperate where it was supposed to be very far from the war.  Without any warning or reinforcements they were fiercely attacked.  What were they thinking?  

This Week's Presentations

I had trouble keeping up with the Battle of Budapest movie, and lack of detailed visuals also made it more difficult for me to understand what happened.  Despite this I was able to learn from discussion with my peers and reading.  The most important part of this battle was that the Germans pushed to fight this part of the war, and this caused them to have more difficulty from the war.  

The most interesting part of the Battle of Seelow Heights was that there were so many casualties for both sides.  This gave the Soviets an advantage because they had many more soldiers than the Germans.  The loss of soldiers was bad for them, but so close to the end of the war made winning the war more important.  With this advantage they were able to push through the war and win.  

Class

The videos that have been shown in class this week have been very helpful to me. I think it is important to hear as many first-hand accounts of the war as possible, and the video makes things much more vivid in general. The first-hand accounts help us to remember and acknowledge the importance of events that sometimes don't get more than a glance, such as the battle of the Herken Forest.

The Donald Duck propaganda was also very interesting. Watching things like this from the WWII era make me wonder. I may just not be noticing, but why don't we see more obvious and outright forms of propaganda about war today?

Presentations

Monday

Operation Varsity was in March of '45 and was the Allied plan to get the army over the Rhine River. It was the airborne phase of OPERATION PLUNDER. It was considered the most successful airborne op of the war. In addition, it is the most concentrated drop in history and the largest single airborne drop. It was the only time Germany was invaded by air.

Wednesday

The Battle of Budapest was between the Soviets and the Germans. The 1st week consisted of uncoordinated attacks from all directions. It was part of Operation Margarethe and was the bloodiest since Stalingrad. Soviets sustained from 100,000-160,000 casualties.

General Class

I enjoyed the movies that went along with class this week; it is always best to get the picture from those who were actually there. Especially the segments on the battle of the Herken Forest. I had never heard of it until now, and well, it seems that's the case because, as Churchill said, the winners write the history books and that battle didn't go too well for the winners. It seems like a lot of our troops got chewed up in there, what with it being a defensive dreamland/offensive nightmare to begin with, and the Germans adding artificial enhancements to the already formidable natural defenses of the terrain. As was mentioned in class, the Germans were very good defenders, but towards the end of the war they simply didn't have the reserves to conduct mobile defenses as Model had done back east in Russia during the winter of 41 and so forth. But give them a chance to neutralize the American airpower and armored mobility, and they were very capable of exacting a high toll on those sent against them. It seems that many of Germany's impressive tactical victories involved forests. Ardennes, 1940, Herken Forest, etc. Oh, and I also enjoyed the abbreviated class length. That was a nice bonus.

The Week

I really liked watching the videos during the week. It gave you a perspective into what the troops were going through during the war and the environment they were living in. The cartoons were also entertaining. They were a little disturbing through because Donald Duck was heiling Hitler. I don't see how it won any awards though, but times were different then. The battles seemed to be turning around. The americans not going after Berlin was fine by me. Not taking unnecassary loses was a smart move. Lets just let the other countries take all the loses. They still played a crucial role though in going south and destroying the pockets of resistence. They both moved swiftly and the war ended shortly there after. Did this boost Trumans standings politically? Did he recieve a lot of the credit for the war ending so fast or did the Russians?

I find it interesting how the US perspective about the Soviets changed so much following the war. During the war we were allies against the Nazis, yes perhaps because they were the lesser evil but I think our country's ideology is flawed since following the war we condemed all that had to do with the Soviets during the Cold War.