Fall of the Reich by Duncan Anderson Lloyd Clark

Author:Duncan Anderson, Lloyd Clark [Duncan Anderson, Lloyd Clark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II
ISBN: 9781782742159
Google: SxXPBQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Amber Books Ltd
Published: 2014-06-03T02:51:40+00:00

Le Muy captured

The seizure of Le Muy was more difficult. Exactly a week earlier, the commander of Nineteenth Army, General Wiese had ordered corps and divisional commanders to a map exercise which had taken place in a large hall in Draguignan. This quickly revealed the critical importance of Le Muy, and Wiese had ordered the garrison reinforced by a battle group, Regiment Bründel, from the 244th Division. The commander of 1st Airborne Task Force, Major General Robert T. Frederick, at 37 the youngest general in the American army, had assigned the capture of Le Muy to the British Airborne Brigade. British airborne forces had already acquired a formidable reputation, but the British commander, Brigadier Pritchett, was under strict instruction from the supreme commander in the Mediterranean, General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, to conserve his brigade for future deployments in the Balkans, not waste it in attacks on positions which the enemy, thanks to the Normandy breakout, would soon have to abandon. Interviewed after the war, Frederick was still furious at what happened at Le Muy. ‘They (the British) didn’t even try to take it on the first day and when I asked Pritchett about it he said, “Well, we jumped”. “But why don’t you go in there and take the town?” I asked him. “No,” he said, “there are Germans in there.” So I thought, the hell with it, and I immediately sent them back to Italy.’ Frederick then ordered the American 550th Glider Battalion to attack Le Muy, who advanced slowly behind all the artillery Frederick could muster. At noon the following day a German emissary came out under a white flag and told Frederick that if he would have his artillery cease firing, they would surrender. Frederick told the German that he was going to increase his artillery fire, and that he had better tell his commander to work out a way to surrender as quickly as he could. Without any further attempt at negotiation, the Germans surrendered Le Muy.

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