Thursday, February 15, 2007
This Day in American History--Twofer
On this day in 1989, the second class battleship USS Maine blows up in the Havana harbor, which event will certainly start the Spanish-American war, while it is far from certain that it was enemy action which blew the ship up. I personally believe it was an accidental coal dust explosion in the fuel bunker (or possibly a fire in a coal bunker next to a powder magazine or Cuban rebel action or..).
On this day in 1944, we obliterate with bombs the ancient monastery atop Monte Cassino, Italy. This was a mistake, as the rubble made a good defensive position for the Fallshirmjaeger. Lt. General Mark Clark, largely in charge of the 'side show' in Italy, was the least talented of our field commanders and made a lot of such mistakes. My father thinks he should have been shot for his criminally negligent tactics. I'm slightly less blood thirsty and think he should only have been relieved of command when he passed on trapping the Germans in order to get the glory of liberating Rome in early June, 1944. Certainly a large amphibious landing on the Adriatic coast north of Ancona could have ended the war in Italy in a month while, by starting at Sicily on July 9, 1943 and slogging it up the whole country, we didn't even get to Austria before the war ended 17 months later, at the waste of thousands of Allied soldiers' and Italian partisans' lives.
On this day in 1944, we obliterate with bombs the ancient monastery atop Monte Cassino, Italy. This was a mistake, as the rubble made a good defensive position for the Fallshirmjaeger. Lt. General Mark Clark, largely in charge of the 'side show' in Italy, was the least talented of our field commanders and made a lot of such mistakes. My father thinks he should have been shot for his criminally negligent tactics. I'm slightly less blood thirsty and think he should only have been relieved of command when he passed on trapping the Germans in order to get the glory of liberating Rome in early June, 1944. Certainly a large amphibious landing on the Adriatic coast north of Ancona could have ended the war in Italy in a month while, by starting at Sicily on July 9, 1943 and slogging it up the whole country, we didn't even get to Austria before the war ended 17 months later, at the waste of thousands of Allied soldiers' and Italian partisans' lives.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:28 AM 
