Italy.

This is coolbert:

"those that in both places [Stalingrad and the mountains of Italy] compared the two unfavorably!"

And from a previous blog entry:

"In the aftermath of German and Japanese surrender, there were only two Congressional investigations regarding the conduct of the war. One of course dealt with the debacle at Pearl Harbor. The second dealt with the Italian Campaign, the apparent inadequacy or even outright incompetency of command!"

The Italian Campaign in the aftermath of World War Two [WW2] being the subject of a Congressional investigation. Mark Clark in particular singled out for what was seen as an unimaginative and lackluster command performance. Plenty of recriminations to go around.

Rather than strictly emphasize allied failure, allied ineptness, let me offer a much more valid alternative.

It was not so much that the allied forces were bad as the German was GOOD!

A set of circumstances came together in a bad way, factors that made the military campaign of the allies that much more difficult. The situation was to the disadvantage of the allied commanders and troops in a way that was difficult to overcome.

First you had:

* Good German troops.
* Good German leadership.

Secondly in addition:

* Rugged terrain suitable for the defense.
* Pre-positioned fighting positions. [layers of defense in depth]
* NO room for maneuver on the part of the allies. [allied troops having to go on the attack straight at the German defenses, direct frontal assault!]

"Defense is the stronger form of combat!"

Italy was going to be A LONG HARD SLOG WITHOUT AMELIORATION - - AND EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT!

The idea that Italian collapse would prompt a quick and relatively bloodless German withdrawal from the "boot" of Italy was just not realistic!

It should be noted too that it was just NOT U.S. military forces that had hard time in Italy. The allied contingents across the board - - British, New Zealanders, Polish, Canadians, British Indian army troops, French colonial forces, NO MATTER WHO they were - - all experienced the same difficulty.

Again - - not so much that the allies were bad but that the German was good - - AND - - in large measure, terrain of a difficult nature being put to good use by the defender?

Agreed?

coolbert.