Grade Level: SrH-Adult
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No |
Running Time: 50 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No |
Copyright Date: 2004
Available in French: No
|
Hitler's armies were in headlong retreat. Paris was liberated in August, Brussels in the first week of September. Only one thing stood between the Allies and the German border – the Allied generals themselves. Allies At War looks at how the most basic debate remained unsolved – how to conquer Germany itself. Personality differences and radical disagreements in strategy threatened to create a rift between Eisenhower and Montgomery, and burst the alliance open. Until autumn 1944, the direction of the land campaign had been Montgomery's responsibility, but on September 1st, the Supreme Commander, Eisenhower, announced he would take over personal control of the armies in the field. Monty was convinced that only a single powerful British-led thrust into Germany would finish the war, and in an effort to bounce Eisenhower into supporting him, launched the ill-fated drive towards the Rhine – Arnhem. Ike's Generals, Bradley and Patton, insisted the advance into Germany should be on a broad front and that the final victory should be led by an American. Eisenhower chose the broad front and, by spreading Allied troops too thinly, turned hope of an early victory into a pipe dream. Using eye witness testimony and first hand written sources, Allies At War pieces together the bitter behind-the-scenes struggle over strategy. It revisits Monty's disastrous defeat at Arnhem where more than 10,000 British soldiers were dropped into occupied Holland to capture a vital bridge over the Rhine. Archive and drama sequences also capture the bitter and bloody Battle of the Bulge – the German counter-offensive which punched a hole through Eisenhower's ‘broad front'. Monty's leadership of two American armies would help to reverse an embarrassing and costly defeat. As 1945 approached, Monty reminded Eisenhower of the bet he'd made that the war would be over by Christmas. It was time for Ike to pay up. |
