Rick Atkinson - The Day of Battle - 09/23/08

Rick Atkinson
"The Liberation Trilogy"
September 23, 2008
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Ann Arbor, Michigan

[@pelonehedd7631]

A very good narrator as well . I have the Army at Dawn CD and His Narration is the best. A Friends Dad was one of the early Army swimmers who went first in North Africa. For many years He ran a used book store in San Francisco.

[@AnnArborVerite]

HIs voice is not 'perfect' but its authentic as the book author

[@mottipier]

Ho letto i primi due libri della trilogia e fra pochi giorni inizierò l ultimo. Testi di una gioia assoluta, dove si equilibrano con garbo i fatti storici, la cronaca militare, le scelte tattiche e strategiche, le curiosità e qualche aneddoto ben piazzato. Più arioso e leggero del pur grandissimo liddell hart e del tecnicissimo hastings nonché dei tanti altri che rendono la mia pensione un vivere fantastico.

[@paulgee8253]

Great series of books. Writing style is crystal clear and respectful.

[@hey_joe7069]

I'm glad i don't judge these on the inevitable "Know it alls" in the comment section, who probably couldn't even write a book report when they were in High School. if they even made it that far. i'd miss out on a great hour and ten minutes if i did.

[@johnharris9450]

Atkinson is a genuine history whisper. Take Dan carlin- and add much minutia, and historical depth and that is a classic Atkinson narrative.

[@RoseUnseen]

Got one of his books in the bundle , decided to check this out before reading AMAZING

[@morecowbell164]

Incredible..... exceedingly impressive, outstanding

[@AnnArborVerite]

A great newspaper/beat reporter in his early days.

[@RKarmaKill]

Thank you Mr. Atkinson

[@cirrocumulus7554]

Just have to concur with the rest of the crowd and write that he's an excellent military historian, together with Anthony Beevor and a few others..

[@johnburns4017]

Beevor is a story teller, with a lot of facts omitted or distorted. Hastings is no better.

[@richardrichard5409]

@@johnburns4017 really, evidence?

[@johnburns4017]

@@richardrichard5409 Read the drivel he writes.

[@thevillaaston7811]

Cirro cumulus What do Atkinson, Beevor, Hastings, and so bring to the subject? They are not old enough to have been there, not old enough to have interviewed the key people involved. Almost all of the key statistics and documents have long since been in the public domain.

[@bigwoody4704]

More Monty victims Barrie Rodliffe joined 26 Sept 2013 Giovanni Pierre joined 28 Sept 2013 John Peate joined 28 Sept 2013 *John Burns* joined 07 Nov 2013 John Cornell joined 13 Nov 2013 *TheVilla Aston* joined 20 Nov 2013 Beevor has been knighted and won all of the historical literary awards of note,read the bio. He doesn't have his nose in Bernard's backside like little villa and blisterhead Burns

[@paulmanson253]

There is a Churchill quotation about Montgomery that goes,"Magnificent in defeat,insufferable in victory." This from a man who was a good friend to the general postwar. Monty did a good job wearing out his welcome most of his life it would seem.

[@TheFreshman321]

paul manson Montgomery won more battles than either Patton and Bradley. Monty faced 87percent of German armour and the best German Troops. He took more ground than any General in the west - going as far as Hamburg. At the Bulge when Bradley panicked and Hodges went missing abandoning his command, Eisenhower put Monty in command of two US armies in the north. I could go on.

[@ppumpkin3282]

@@TheFreshman321 doesn't change the fact that he was an ass.

[@johnburns4017]

@@ppumpkin3282 Opinionated slur.

[@johnburns4017]

The finest army in the world from mid 1942 onwards was the British under Montgomery. From Alem el Halfa it moved right up into Denmark, through nine countries, and not once suffered a reverse taking all in its path. Over 90% of German armour in the west was destroyed by the British. Montgomery, in command of all ground forces, had to give the US armies an infantry role in Normandy as they were not equipped to engage massed German SS armour. *Montgomery* stopped the Germans in every event they attacked him: ▪️ August 1942 - Alem el Halfa; ▪️ October 1942 - El Alamein; ▪️ March 1943 - Medenine; ▪️ June 1944 - Normandy; ▪️ Sept/Oct 1944 - The Netherlands; ▪️ December 1944 - Battle of the Bulge; *A list of Montgomery’s victories in WW2:* ▪️ Battle of Alam Halfa; ▪️ Second Battle of El Alamein; ▪️ Battle of El Agheila; ▪️ Battle of Medenine; ▪️ Battle of the Mareth Line; ▪️ Battle of Wadi Akarit; ▪️Allied invasion of Sicily; ▪️Operation Overlord - the largest amphibious invasion in history; ▪️ Market Garden - a 60 mile salient created into German territory; ▪️ Battle of the Bulge - while taking control of two shambolic US armies; ▪️ Operation Veritable; ▪️ Operation Plunder. *Montgomery not once had a reverse.* *Not on one occasion were ground armies, British, US or others, under Monty's command pushed back into a retreat by the Germans.* Monty's 8th Army advanced the fastest of any army in WW2. From El Alamein to El Agheila from the 4th to 23rd November 1942, 1,300 km in just 17 days. After fighting a major exhausting battle at El Alemein through half a million mines. This was an Incredible feat, unparalleled in WW2. With El Alamein costing just 13,500 casualties. The US Army were a shambles in 1944/45 retreating in the Ardennes. The Americans didn't perform well at all east of Aachen, then the Hurtgen Forest defeat with 33,000 casualties and Patton's Lorraine crawl of 10 miles in three months at Metz with over 50,000 casualties, with the Lorraine campaign being a failure. Then Montgomery had to be put in command of the shambolic US First and Ninth armies, aided by the British 21st Army Group, just to get back to the start line in the Ardennes, with nearly 100,000 US casualties. Hodges, head of the US First army, fled from Spa to near Liege on the 18th, despite the Germans never getting anywhere near to Spa. Hodges did not even wait for the Germans to approach Spa. He had already fled long before the Germans were stopped. The Germans took 20,000 US POWs in the Battle of The Bulge in Dec 1944. No other allied country had that many prisoners taken in the 1944-45 timeframe. The USA retreat at the Bulge, again, was the only allied army to be pushed back into a retreat in the 1944-45 timeframe. Montgomery was effectively in charge of the Bulge having to take control of the US First and Ninth armies. Coningham of the RAF was put in command of USAAF elements. The US Third Army constantly stalled after coming up from the south. The Ninth stayed under Monty's control until the end of the war just about. The US armies were losing men at unsustainable rates due to poor generalship. Normandy was planned and commanded by the British, with Montgomery involved in planning, with also Montgomery leading *all* ground forces, which was a great success coming in ahead of schedule and with less casualties than predicted. The Royal Navy was in command of all naval forces and the RAF all air forces. The German armour in the west was wiped out by primarily the British - the US forces were impotent against massed panzers. Monty assessed the US armies (he was in charge of them) giving them primarily a supporting infantry role, as they were just not equipped, or experienced, to fight concentrated tank v tank battles. On 3 Sept 1944 when Eisenhower took over overall allied command of ground forces everything went at a snail's pace. The fastest advance of any western army in Autumn/early 1945 was the 60 mile thrust by the British XXX Corps to the Rhine at Arnhem. *You need to give respect where it is due.*

[@terrysmith9362]

@@johnburns4017 Now you will be upsetting Big Woody

[@jamesmarshall9598]

the works are very detailed then well told, never realized tanks can trundle

[@Purple_Pixel]

Excellent speaker

[@MrWahooknows]

Anyone else struck by the width of this guy's shoulders? Maybe a bad suit?

[@johnburns4017]

The Allies successfully gained a bridgehead at Anzio. General Lucas failed to break the stalemate. Churchill said: _"I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat onto the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale"._ Lucas was relieved of his command.

[@bigwoody4704]

Churchill was the whale and Monty as expected was worse in Italy than Sicily. He was sent back home to plan for Caen. Which he did for 6 months,then ran it into the sand immediately for 43 days

[@johnburns4017]

@@bigwoody4704 Rambo a quiz. Name the British general who had to take command of two shambolic US armies in the German Bulge attack? 20 points for the correct answer.

[@mitchellcuddy8393]

"over 🥚 the 🍮" love it!!!

[@Stephen-wb3wf]

21:31 Best part of the video.

[@mortalclown3812]

Video begins at 5:00.

[@dirkbonesteel]

40 min in questions start and they are extremely interesting. Before that very little info. lots of poetic words and about 10 min of info.

[@spamhog]

Do skip! Q&A is much better!

[@4OHz]

I enjoy of his research and his work but why do I get the feeling Rick likes to hear himself speak?

[@4OHz]

Out of Italy? The Allies didn’t even get to Austria by the wars end - not as soft as Winnie thought.

[@Bidimus1]

For those that think Italy was not useful 15th Airforce

[@nickhomyak6128]

Certain Italian Units never surrendered; When talking Sicily Italy should be mentioned before Germany; so then Italian and German forces in ..

[@spamhog]

Not history. Feel-good storytelling

[@marcaskew61]

Well, it is history because it is well-researched, but for me, his anecdotal style is very close to Ken Burns- type syrupy narrative. It’s a style pioneered by Cornelius Ryan in A Bridge Too Far. As a writer, Atkinson seems to have a fixation for repeating pretentious adjectives - eg. “Annealed” - Ok once, but repeated throughout a book it’s annoying - this suggests quick writing for fast publication. But I think of a lot more military history books that are worse, and at least he tries to be fair minded - more that a lot of American writers. I can only refer to A Time of Battle, which is the only one of his books that I’ve read.

[@ppumpkin3282]

@@marcaskew61 no such book

[@mitchellcuddy8393]

People were less pessimistic back then, plus we were in our infancy with propaganda.

[@davelane4055]

Well at least Jerry Ford pardoned Nixon when will Trump not be percucted