What was so remarkable about General Omar N. Bradley’s exhortation on Christmas Day to Field Marshal Montgomery to immediately attack the north side of the German salient created during the Battle of the Bulge? Would you support what Bradely recommended?

Tag words: General Omar N. Bradley; Field Marshal Montgomery; Battle of the Bulge; Eisenhower; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Alan Brooke; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Carlo d’Este; Ultra; Frederick Winterbotham; The Ultra Secret; Christmas Day; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Major "Bill" Williams; Patton; Third Army;

As General Bradley travelled to a meeting with Montgomery, in the thick of the Battle of the Bulge, he was puzzled to see the Hollanders, Bradley’s description of them, walking on the sidewalk in holiday dress. How strange was that? The Nazis had just launched a massive attack. There was a real chance that these people would again have their Nazi masters return, but here they were, all dressed up. Bradley got an explanation from his chief of staff, Chet Hansen. What was it?

Tag words: General Bradley; Montgomery; Chet Hansen; Battle of the Bulge; Eisenhower; Patton; Third Army; Bastogne; Otto Skorzeny; Mussolini; Carlo d’Este; A Soldier’s Story; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; David Irving; The War Between the Generals;

Which general was it, who called Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery a tired little fart? Was it Eisenhower? Perhaps General Omar N. Bradley? Or was it General George S Paton Junior?

Tag words: Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery; Eisenhower; General Omar N. Bradley; General George S Paton Jr; Normandy bridgehead; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; General Somervell; LeRoy Lutes; 12th Army Group; Battle of the Bulge; Carlo d’Este; SHAEF; Churchill; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Bedell Smith; Major Hansen; Stars and Stripes; Twelfth Army Group; President Roosevelt; Bronze Star; A Soldier’s Story;

Someone said of Monty’s arrival at US First Army’s headquarters in December 1944 that it was like "Christ come to cleanse the temple." Do you know who said that and why? What does it even mean?

Tag words: Monty; Montgomery; Christ come to cleanse the temple; Matthew 21:12-13; Battle of the Bulge; Adolf Hitler; Eisenhower; Bradley; Patton; narrow front; broad front; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marsal Montgomery; Albert Speer; Erich von Manstein; Sichelschnitt; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Fifth Panzer Army; Sixth SS Panzer Army; Dunkirk; Carlo d’Este; 7thUS Armoured Division; St Vith; Matthew Ridgeway; General Marshall; James Gavin; 82nd AirborneDivision;

True or false. Montgomery penned a pamphlet called Notes on High Command in War which he provided to King George VI, General Marshall as well as to leaders and commanders all over the world, often accompanied with a photograph of himself, and a request for a return photograph of the recipient.

Tag words: Montgomery; Monty; Bedell Smith; Eisenhower; Bradley; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Rommel; the "Desert Fox"; General Brooke; Churchill; 8th Army; Claude Auchinleck; General Alexander; Edgar “Bill” Williams; Operation Husky; General Patton; Operation Goodwood;

To some it was a stupid thing that Monty did. But by God did it inspire the men he lead?

Tag words: Monty; Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Betty Carver; Major General Sir Percy Hobart; 79th Armoured Division; Hobart’s Funnies; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; 8th Army; Basil Liddell Hart; German Army; Bedell Smith; 9th Australian Division; Denis Johnson; Battle of El Alamein; de Guingand; Omaha Beach;

The very first time Monty came across the name Eisenhower was in circumstances that caused him to doubt that man’s suitability as a commander-in-chief.

Tag words: Montgomery; Monty; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Bedell Smith; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Alan Brooke; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Bradley; Patton; Mons; Distinguished Service Order; Field Marshal Haig; Polygon Wood; Menin Road; Broodseinde; Lord Gort; British Expeditionary Force; BEF; Schlieffen Plan; Erich von Manstein; Sichelschnitt; Dunkirk; General Sir John Dill; British Army; Churchill; Auchinleck; Palestine; Operation Torch; Erwin Rommel; El Alamein; 8th Army; Hitler;

Your imagination is far better than anything that Hollywood can throw up on the screen. Steven Spielberg created the terror of the insane semi driver who harassed the driver in his first movie Duel. In Jaws the greatest terror from the shark came when you didn’t see it. So what imaginary thing paralysed the Allied High Command during the Battle of the Bulge.

Tag words: Bradley; Montgomery; General Marshall; Eisenhower; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Admiral Ramsay; Brooke; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Patton; Battle of the Bulge; Stephen Ambrose; Mrs. Summersby; Carlo d’Este; SHAEF; Hasselt station; Major General Kenneth Strong; Major General John Whiteley;

There have been some great teams of commanders. A great team makes all the difference. Take Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, and JEB Stuart. Or Napoleon and his Marshalls, Ney, Murat, Davout. So how did Generals Eisenhower, Montgomery, Bradley and Patton get along once the Battle for France became fluid after the totally unexpected Operation Cobra breakout followed by the total German collapse? Could the Allied team have been rearranged to give a better outcome? What one historian has offered as his answer to that question should come as surprise to you!

Tag words: General Dwight D. Eisenhower; Montgomery; Omar Bradley; Patton; Carlo d’Este; ETO;Eurpopean Theatre of Operations; Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers; General George Marshall; Bedell Smith; 12th Army Group; Russell F. Weigley; Major General J. Lawton "Lightning Joe" Collins; Major General Charles H. "Pete" Corlett; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Bernard Montgomery; Salerno; Operation Avalanche; General Maxwell Taylor; Anzio; Operation Anvil; Operation Shingle; Operation Dragoon; Churchill; Operation Overlord; Operation Cobra; Brooke; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS;

Do you remember Tubthumping? It was a popular song by Chumbawamba released in 1997. If you can’t remember it, let me give you the chorus, then I’m sure you’ll remember the song – I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down. I think Eisenhower and his lieutenants were about to find out that that song was the song for Hitler’s Germany of 1944 in the West. And then some. Hitler’s Germany was a phoenix that rose from the ashes on the Western front in 1944 after it had been pounded into impotence after the Allied breakout from Normandy in July/August 1944.

Tag words: Tubthumping; Chumbawamba; Hitler; phoenix; Eastern Front; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower; Field Marshal Walter Model; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Volksgrenadier divisions; General der Panzertruppen Otto von Knobelsdorff; Patton; US Third Army; A Genius for War; Daniel Yergin; Napoleon; unforgiving minute; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Bradley; Roosevelt; Morgenthau; Montgomery; Marshall; Kay Summersby; D-Day; 21st Army Group; Lieutenant General Morgan; COSSAC; Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander; Normandy; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Operation Cobra; General Devers; 6th US Army Group; US 12th Army Group; Shellburst; SHAEF; Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force; Martin Creveld; Supplying War; Chester Wilmot;

For over 50 days the Allies had been bottled up in their bridgeheads at Normandy. And then, suddenly, they weren’t. The road to Germany was open. All they had to do was drive into the Third Reich, seize Berlin, and bring about the downfall of Adolf Hitler and his gang – and all of this in 1944 – or so it seemed. What was the feeling at the top when the entirely unexpected breakout happened in July when Operation Cobra burst out of the bridgehead?

Tag words: Normandy; Third Reich; Adolf Hitler; Operation Cobra; Mortain; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Sir Alan Brooke; War Between the Generals; David Irving; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life; Eisenhower; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; General Devers; General Bradley; Major General Kenneth Strong; SHAEF; Patton; Colonel Oscar Koch; Westwall; Siegfried Line; Churchill; Lieutenant General Brehon Somervell; Robert P. Patterson; General Marshall; General Bedell Smith;

World War 2 in Europe ended with the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Western Allies on 7 May 1945 and to the Soviet Union on 8 May 1945. In the last year of the war, 1945, about 2.6 million military personnel died in Europe. The number of civilian casualties were also considerable. After the Allied breakout from Normandy in August 1944 there seemed to have been a chance to end the war in Europe before Christmas – that often heard refrain in World War I and World War II, although after the war this one isn’t brought to mind as much as it should be. Was there any truth to that rumour about World War II in Europe ending in 1944? I’m going to explore that in this series of programmes.

Tag words: World War 2; Nazi Germany; Normandy; Lieutenant-General JCH Lee; General Eisenhower; General Montgomery; Field Marshall Montgomery; General Omar N Bradley; General George S Patton Jr; 21st Army Group; 12th Army Group; 3rd US Army; Shellburst; Anvil; General Marshall; D-Day; Nigel Hamilton; Monty – The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Operation Cobra; Carlo d’Este; Overlord; US Army; Flavius Renatus Vegetius; De Re Militari; Scipio; golden bridge; Argentan; Falaise Gap; Hitler; Mortain; Seventh Army; Fifth Panzer Army; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower: Decision in Normandy; 12th SS Panzer Division; Martin Blumenson; Breakout and Pursuit;

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all inhabitants thereof – what was it that made the West great and enriched the entire world as a consequence? It was freedom. Out of the failed attempt by the mighty Persian Empire, to conquer the impoverished farming land of Greece, the Greeks gave the world a lasting gift. The abstract idea of freedom – which a successful Persian invasion of Greece would have crushed.

A quarter million of Xerxes' troops perished in his vain attempt to take away this mysterious abstract thing called freedom which was enjoyed uniquely in all of the world by this tiny Balkan country of less than 130,000 square kilometres.

Tag words: Persian Empire; Xerxes; Persians; Achaemenid; Persian Wars; God; Hebrews; Pharoah; Herodotus; The Histories; Victor Davis Hanson; Carnage and Culture; Freedom; hoplite; landowners; Demaratus; Divine Salamis; the rise of the West; Aeschylus; Hellenic civilization; Themistocles; Eurybiades; Athenians; free citizens; Marathon; Battle of Plataea; free men; Athens; Thermopylae; Spartans; Georg Hegel; democracy; Aristotle; Plato; Alexander the Great; Abraham Lincoln; Gettysburg Address; decisive battles of the Western world;

What was the secret ingredient that made the Greeks so formidable a foe that the greatest empire in the world failed to come even close to defeating them?

Tag words: Herodotus; The Histories; Battle of Plataea; Greeks; Pausanias; Xerxes; Mardonius; Sparta; Leonidas; Thermopylae; Vassily Grossman; A Writer at War; Great Patriotic War; Krasnaya Zvezda; Red Star; John Gould; Richard Cohen; Making History; Victor Davis Hanson; Carnage and Culture; Persians; Marathon; Battle of Salamis; Artemisium; Cyrus the Younger;

All the Spartans acknowledged that he was the most courageous Spartan who fought at the Battle of Plataea, but he was unanimously disqualified by them from receiving any honours. Why?

Tag words: Spartans; Battle of Plataea; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Persians; Greek phalanx; Plutarch; Herodotus; The Histories; Lacedaemonians; Pausanias; Mardonius; Athenians; Tegeans; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Boeotians; Richard Nelson; Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars; Artabazus; Aeschylus;

The Persian pursuit of the retreating Spartans looked as if it might be very promising. It was the main weight of the Persian army that was brought to bear against the Spartans. It looked likely to break them with their overwhelming missile fire. Well that was until Mardonius made his big mistake.

Tag words: Persians; Spartans; Herodotus; The Histories; The Battle of Plataea; Pausanias; Lacedaemonians; Mardonius; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Richard Nelson; Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars;

From what was happening on the Greek side it was apparent to Mardonius that the legendary Spartans weren’t the fearless battlefield warriors that everyone believed. In the face of the Persians they were quire cowardly – knowing what I’m about to tell you, you are bound to agree. Right?

Tag words: Mardonius; Spartans; Persians; Battle of Plataea; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Herodotus; The Histories; Artabazus; Asopus River; Alexander of Macedon; Pausanias; Boeotians; Peloponnesian Wars; Athenians;

One of the important figures in the Persian Army had found himself in a life threatening situation. Cunningly he had cut part of his foot off with a knife. Saved his life, and was now standing beside Mardonius influencing the course of the battle for the Persians. What was his name?

Tag words: Persians; Mardonius; Boetians; Athenians; Spartans; Lacedaemonians; Masistius; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Richard Nelson; Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars; Tegeans; Pausanius; Herodotus; The Histories; Plataea; Medes;

True or false: the ancients had some knowledge of treating pleurisy and collapsed lungs using syringes and bladders?

Tag words: Pleurisy; collapsed lungs; breastplates; Roman commander Lucullus; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Alexander the Great; Spartans; dog tags; hoplites; Herodotus; antibiotics; James Jones; The Thin Red Line; Battle of Cannae; hemorrhaging; edema;

The ground ran red with blood. At the Battle of Pydna, in 168 BC, how much blood was spilled on  the battlefield?

 15,000 litres?

30,000 litres?

45,000 litres?

Tag words: Battle of Pydna; Leo Tolstoy; War and Peace; Napoleon; Xerxes; Ten Thousand; Theban Sacred Band; Battle of Leuktra; Thermopylae; Plataea;