Description
Object description
British officer served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence with Allied Force Headquarters in North Africa and Italy, 1943-1944; served as Assistant Chief of Staff for intelligence with Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in GB and North West Europe, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence with Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in GB and North West Europe, 1944-1945: question of General Dwight D Eisenhower's choice of broad front advance as opposed to single thrust into Germany; need for more port facilities to support Allied advance into Germany, 1944; reasons for failure of Operation Market Garden; visits to General Omar Bradley to discuss German build up prior to Battle of the Bulge, 12/1944; effect of impression gave by General Bernard Montgomery that he had saved Americans during Battle of the Bulge; American impression that General Bernard Montgomery advanced slowly.
REEL 2 Continues: reiteration of visits to General Omar Bradley to discuss German build up prior to Battle of the Bulge, 12/1944; reasons for appointment of General Bernard Montgomery to command northern flank during Battle of the Bulge, 12/1944; question of threat posed by Otto Skorzeny; General Dwight D Eisenhower's attitude towards Anglo-American thrust towards Berlin.
REEL 3 Continues: reiteration of General Dwight D Eisenhower's attitude towards Anglo-American thrust towards Berlin; question of slowness of British realisation that weight of operations in North West Europe lay with Americans; General Dwight D Eisenhower's realisation of shift in Anglo-American contribution to campaign in North West Europe. Recollections of period as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence with Allied Force Headquarters in Italy, 1943-1944: Italian surrender negotiations and signing, 1943.
REEL 4 Continues: plan to land paratroops to capture Rome, 1943; reasons for choice of Salerno as landing site on Italian mainland; background to planning for landings at Anzio; differences in British and American strategic plans; Prime Minister Winston Churchill's attempt to maintain American troops in Italy; his personal strategic view.