Apart from Monty's snootiness and egoism rubbing the yanks the wrong way (and plenty of fellow Brits too), it seems that most of the Brit and Yank staff in this HQ got on well, like in the cinema room where they all laugh together. Is this really accurate? - I've heard and read that as a whole Brit and Yank officers barely tolerated each other through clenched teeth during W.W.II.
shareThe SHAEF staff was well known for the remarkably good relationship between it's British and American officers. Ike had a lot to do with that, since he was absolutely intolerant of any antagonism between the two nationalities on that staff. I must also point out that while there was friction between some British and American officers during the war, overall the services of the two nations worked together better than any two nations ever involved in the same cause during wartime.
shareI concur with DD-931, most British and American officers got on well enough. The egotism was largely confined to the General officer class like Patton and Monty and even then it was a minority. Most just wanted to get the job done and go home.
"I was left in no doubt as to the severity of the hangover when the cat stamped into the room."
Quite agree, it turned out rather well in the end.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
Yup, after they took the time to appreciate each other, the grating competitiveness died out more or less everywhere.
Ike was the right man, in the right place at the right time though. There was nobody on the British side who could have done his job, partly because he knew, like Churchill did, that the most important task was keeping the flow of men, arms and munitions running at full tilt and partly because he had unique skills when it came to extracting the best from his team without internal conflict. There was, for example, no one on the American side who could have done what Montgomery did. But Ike's leadership, supported by Bradley's nouse were both essential in getting him to do it.
I'm surprised his name is never mentioned in the 'Best General of WW2' threads, given what a General does.
Generally speaking they got on pretty well. I think the main areas of contention were the extremely naive views held by some Americans about war in general. They didn't understand what it was like to live in a city where your life could be ended at any minute, they didn't understand the awful conditions people had been living and fighting under for so many years. Strangely enough the nearest this came to being portrayed in a film was in the Longest Day when the American paratroopers were complaining about the invasion being delayed. John Wayne then points out that the British had been living under these conditions for four years.
There was a part in the book 'Band of Brothers' where Dick Winters demonstrates this complete lack of empathy. He bemoans the British lack of fighting spirit when he finds the British troops not firing on a work party of Germans across a river, and orders his men to open fire. If I had been a British Officer I think I would have pointed out that the British had been fighting for four years and Major Winters for four months!
only disappointment was the cuddly portrayal of Trafford Leigh-Mallory, who was probably the *beep* of the RAF of WW2...(many will say Harris, who is far more famous/infamous to the masses)
TLM was the assassin of Keith Park after the Battle of Britain, and probably more RAF men would have survived WW2 without him.
But, of course, the film was not about the internal gears of the RAF..
Well Park didn't get totally 'shafted'; didn't he help organize the defense of Malta once the much needed supply of Spitfires finally arrived?
Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?