Why Patton Had Three Plans Ready When Every Other General Was Surprised скачать в хорошем качестве

Why Patton Had Three Plans Ready When Every Other General Was Surprised

In December 1944, Germany launched its largest offensive against American forces in the entire Second World War. The Battle of the Bulge caught Allied commanders completely off guard, with over two hundred thousand German soldiers smashing through the Ardennes forest. At the emergency Verdun conference, General Dwight Eisenhower asked his commanders for solutions. While other generals arrived with only vague ideas, General George Patton stunned the room by declaring he could attack with three divisions in just forty eight hours. The officers laughed. Eisenhower called it fatuous. But Patton was not boasting. His intelligence officer Colonel Oscar Koch had identified the German buildup weeks earlier, and Patton had ordered his staff to prepare three detailed contingency plans, codenamed Cent, Nickel, and Dime. When every other Allied headquarters was scrambling to respond, Third Army was already moving north. What followed was one of the most remarkable military maneuvers in history. Patton's forces executed a ninety degree turn, moving over one hundred miles on icy roads in brutal winter conditions to relieve the besieged 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne. This documentary explores how preparation defeated surprise, how one general saw what others refused to see, and why the difference between success and failure is often decided long before the moment of crisis arrives. Featuring verified accounts from Patton's diary, eyewitness testimonies from the Verdun conference, and the incredible story of Lieutenant Charles Boggess and the tank Cobra King breaking through to Bastogne on December 26, 1944. PRIMARY MILITARY SOURCES: United States Army Official Sources Third Army G2 Predicts Battle of the Bulge, 9 December 1944 https://www.army.mil/article/116038/t... Cobra King Led 4th Armored Division Column That Relieved Bastogne https://www.army.mil/article/17393/co... National Park Service Eisenhower and the Battle of the Bulge https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/eise... Library of Congress George S. Patton Papers: Diaries, 1910 to 1945 https://www.loc.gov/collections/georg... MILITARY HISTORY PUBLICATIONS: HistoryNet The Untold Story of Patton at Bastogne https://www.historynet.com/untold-sto... Patton's Finest Hour https://www.historynet.com/pattons-fi... Patton and the Battle of the Bulge https://www.historynet.com/general-ge... Warfare History Network Patton's Fateful Verdun Meeting https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/art... The U.S. 4th Armored Division Siege of Bastogne https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/art... Clear Skies Over Bastogne: Patton's Prayers Answered https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/art... Army Historical Foundation The Battle for Echternach: Patton's Other Objective in the Battle of the Bulge https://armyhistory.org/the-battle-fo... ACADEMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES: Air University (United States Air Force) Logistics and Patton's Third Army https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Port... Hoover Institution (Stanford University) The German View of Patton https://www.hoover.org/research/germa... The Tank Museum (Bovington, UK) Battle of the Bulge: Allied Support https://tankmuseum.org/article/bulge-... Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's Plan of Attack https://tankmuseum.org/article/bulge-... PUBLISHED BOOKS REFERENCED: Martin Blumenson, The Patton Papers: 1940 to 1945, Houghton Mifflin, 1974 Oscar W. Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, Schiffer Publishing, 1971 Hugh M. Cole, The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge, United States Army Center of Military History, 1965 S.L.A. Marshall, Bastogne: The First Eight Days, Infantry Journal Press, 1946 Carlo D'Este, Patton: A Genius for War, HarperCollins, 1995 Harry Yeide, Fighting Patton: George S. Patton Jr. Through the Eyes of His Enemies, Zenith Press, 2011 George S. Patton Jr., War As I Knew It, Houghton Mifflin, 1947