Patton II.

This is coolbert:

"Defense is the stronger form of combat" - - Clausewitz.

EASIER TO DO AND YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH MORE WITH LESS!

Thanks here in all instances to Eric Margolis and his article as seen at the Lew Rockwell Internet web site!

Patton conclusion!

"HOW METZ GAVE PATTON A BLOODY NOSE"

That Lorraine Campaign as was fought during the Second World War [WW2] much to the discredit of Patton. Repeated and foolish and ill-conceived American frontal assaults against fortifications manned by second-rate German troops armed in a second-hand manner very counter-productive.

Patton the commander a staunch advocate of  fast-moving maneuver armor warfare and constantly seeking "the flanks" of the enemy stymied in a big time manner by fortifications as constructed in the period immediately in the after of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870!!

Read the whole article by Eric.

"In Lorraine, Patton’s bloodiest campaign, he was up against some of Germany’s toughest officers. Of these . . .General Hermann von Balck, who performed the kind of flexible defense he had practiced in Russia on the Chir river. Thus on the Moselle and in the siege of Metz, the Germans forced Patton, short on gas and ammunition, into practicing the type of piecemeal attack that he deplored in others, and leading von Balck to speak of  'the poor and timid leadership of the Americans'”

In all instances the use of the word "timid" as applicable within the military dimension pejorative!!

"Patton and his 3rd Army remained immobilized while the war went on elsewhere. Patton’s plan to race across the Rhine and be the first Allied general to storm Berlin was frustrated by old forts and rugged German defenders. Finally, the Americans brought in French officers who had served on the Maginot Line to advise how to attack the forts."

Once more, second-rate German troops fighting strictly defensively with second-rate equipment but occupying formidable fortifications and commanded by superior commanders who knew their battlefield savvy a tough combination to beat.

coolbert.