The Military Life and Times of General Sir Miles Dempsey: Monty's Army Commander by Rostron Peter

Author:Rostron, Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2010-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

Montgomery followed up with a letter to Dempsey suggesting how he should regroup for the offensive. In the manner of an instructor at Staff College advising a student, he suggested he group the 15th, 49th and 11th Armoured Divisions into VIII Corps, 50th and 7th Armoured into XXX Corps and, as it became available, 43rd Division to make up a fourth division in VIII Corps. The great thing was to make VIII Corps as strong as possible. In fact, although Dempsey accepted the spirit of this advice, he did not allot divisions as Montgomery had suggested. He made his own plan.

The intention was to start operations on 18 June and capture Caen by 24 June. However, nature now intervened in the shape of the worst storm in the English Channel for forty years. It lasted until 22 June and brought all ship-to-shore operations to a halt. The British Mulberry Harbour, across which the majority of Second Army’s supplies were unloaded, was badly damaged and by the time the gale’s fury was spent, their build-up was three divisions behind schedule by an average of one week. Dempsey’s operation, which was given the code name EPSOM, had to be postponed.

But this delay gave him time to reconsider the feasibility of pushing O’Connor’s newly arrived corps through the Airborne bridgehead east of the Orne. It was too small to assemble the forces, there were not sufficient bridges and the area was too exposed to enemy fire. Instead he proposed to Montgomery that he put VIII Corps in between I and XXX Corps, directed at Thury Harcourt far to the south.

On 22 June, Montgomery addressed the commanders of all corps and divisions in Second Army. He reiterated his intention to pull the enemy’s reserves on to Second Army so that 1st US Army could carry out its task the easier. He privately expressed his confidence both in Bradley, commanding First American Army, and Dempsey, describing them as anxious to learn and doing so. Montgomery, however, was perhaps more tongue-in-cheek when he described Dempsey as unversed in Army/Air Cooperation, and in need of education in that area. In truth, it was Montgomery who, fuelled by the mutual dislike between himself and his opposite number, refused to deal with Coningham and instead either went direct to Leigh-Mallory (one level up) or Broadhurst (one down). In contrast, Dempsey worked conventionally and fruitfully with his opposite number, Broadhurst.

After two postponements, Operation EPSOM, involving 60,000 men and 600 tanks, began on 25 June. From the left of the British sector, 51st Highland Division, 3rd British and 3rd Canadian Divisions of I Corps were to maintain pressure on Caen from the north, while on the right the 49th Division of XXX Corps, with tank support, was to attack with the high ground around Rauray as its first objective. The main blow was to be delivered by VIII Corps, between the two, using 7th and 11th Armoured and 15th and 43rd Infantry divisions, backed up by two further armoured brigades. They

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.