The deception was partly predicated on the German belief that the Pas de Calais was the most likely place to mount a cross-Channel attack because it was the shortest route from England.  This would shorten the Allied logistical lines which would maximize air support from aircraft based in southern England, as well as maximize the sealift capability by minimizing the time required for a ship to deliver its cargo and return for another trip.   Allied intelligence realized this German pre-disposition, so the Fortitude plan was created to support their thinking.  A fictitious army complete with dummy tanks, trucks, and tents was set up in southern England under the command of American General George S. Patton.  Patton was considered perhaps the best Allied field commander, and so this added to the deception; however, Patton was in actuality being temporally “benched” by Eisenhower for his misconduct in Sicily where he slapped some soldiers in field hospitals who were suffering from “battle fatigue.”  While Patton’s stated intentions were to shame the soldiers into returning to their units and rejoin the fight, the press reported the incident which outraged politicians on the home front.  So to defuse the situation while still keeping Patton available for future operations, Eisenhower assigned him to command the phantom First US Army Group.  German agents soon reported his presence which helped to support the deception story.

Additionally, the Allies conducted routine, but false, radio traffic which they knew would be intercepted by German intelligence. This also created the impression that the First US Army Group was active.  They also periodically moved some of the mocked up tanks and trucks, and created tracks in the fields to make it look as if they were moved so that if the Germans flew aerial reconnaissance, they would believe that there was in fact a real army on the ground.   However, because the German Luftwaffe was under constant attack by the Allied air forces, they likely did not overfly the area.  Nevertheless, the British intelligence had also turned some of the German agents into double agents, so their stories of Allied army activities which they reported back to their German handlers seemed all the more real and part of a coherent story.

The Fortitude pan was successful in achieving is intended result s.  The old military maxim held true:  he who defends everywhere, defends nowhere.  Although the landings in Normandy were strongly contested by the German defenders from fortified positions, the Allies succeeded in part because the bulk of the German armored units were not committed to a strong counter attack sooner.   By the time the Germans realized that this was the main assault, the Allies had already obtained a strong foothold on the Continent, and it was too late to dislodge them.  Sun Tzu could have predicted the result.

Dummy Sherman Tank

However, New Orleans also has had other successes over the years that might not be so well known, such as the founding and the building of the National WWII Museum for which they can also be proud.  The National WWII Museum is a national treasure. Under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Ambrose, the celebrated historian who wrote the The Band of Brothers, The Victors, and D-Day as well as several other books mostly about WWII, the Museum was originally founded as the National D-Day Museum in 2000. In writing about the WWII experiences of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and people on the home front, Ambrose sought to honor their contributions to the victory in WWII. Then in September of 2003, the US Congress designated it as the National World War II Museum which broadened the mission of the enterprise to include all of the many efforts made by Americans at home and abroad during that era. One such American was New Orleans native, Andrew Higgins, who designed and built the flat-bottomed “Higgins Boats” used to storm the shores at Normandy and in the Pacific. None other than the Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower, credited the Higgins boats as one of the most important contributions to the war effort. Now you can learn more about what happened during the war at the Museum which will host the International Conference on WWII in March of this year. To find out more about it visit their website by clicking on the link National WWII Museum at the sidebar on our site.

Higgins Boat approaching Omaha Beach

]]> http://www.victoryprinciples.com/2010/02/leadership-vision-easy-as-1-2-3/ Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:48:14 +0000 http://www.victoryprinciples.com/?p=210 The requirement for having a clear vision of the future is generally recognized as a universal element of effective leadership. Without a clear vision of the future it is impossible for the leader to know where he or she is going, much less convincing their team to follow them. Followers expect that their leaders will not only have a clear vision, but that they communicate it to them before they are willing to embark with them on a risky journey into the future. So how does a leader establish a vision of for the future? It may be as simple as one, two, three.

While nothing is ever as easy as it sounds, a concept can be elegantly simple even though it takes a skilled performance to make it look easy. Such is the case of defining a leader’s vision in three simple steps:

Step 1:  Describe your current state. This step requires that you are brutally honest about the current state of affairs for you and your organization, even if things are not very rosy.  You need to be honest about your people, resources, problems, strengths and weaknesses.  You will also need to assess your operating environment both internally and externally.  Once you have an accurate current appraisal of your situation, then you can move ahead to the next step.

Step 2:  Describe your future state. This should be a more pleasant part of the exercise because you are generally describing a more hopeful future for your organization and your people.  It is the time to think about your goals and outcomes.  What would things be like if you could wave your magic wand to shape your organization in the future?  Be sure to get into details just as you did in the first step, but don’t feel constrained by the current state of affairs.

Step 3:  Define “close-the-gap” strategies. Now you will need to think creatively.  Answer the basic question:  “How do you intend to get from point A to point B, from the current to the future state?”  You may have several strategies, but you should tie them together under a “grand strategy” or a concept.  The supporting strategies can define more specific approaches to certain aspects of your concept.  Individual strategies can be further refined into tactics.  These are more discreet steps to take for the immediate future.  One aspect of your strategic approach may be to gather the right resources and capabilities.  These are usually defined in two broad categories:  people and resources.  Getting the right people on board who have the right skills is often one of the first steps that a leader must take to move ahead.  This cuts to the core of the leadership challenge.  Although leaders have the overall responsibility for the success of their organization, they need to have the right team of people around them to make sure that everything that needs to get done actually does get done.  Picking the right people is a key leadership responsibility.  Likewise, making sure that the people have the necessary resources is also a key leader responsibility.  These are often some of the first “close-the-gap” strategies, but the basic requirement in this step is to articulate the strategies and actions necessary to guide the team into the future.

So this is a simple, three-step process for defining the leader’s vision:  1) describe the current state, 2) describe the future state, and 3) define the close-the-gap strategies. The process can be more complex or take more time depending on the individual situation.  Some leader’s find themselves in dire circumstances and don’t have the luxury of time to get lots of input to forge ahead.  If this is the case, a leader may make a personal reconnaissance of the situation and get input from just a few key people before deciding what to do.  In other circumstances, a leader might have more time because things don’t seem so desperate.  In these cases leaders will often bring more people into the discussions over an extended period of time.  For example, the leader might even designate several teams of people, one for each of the steps.  This could be the same people or a mix of different people who are hand-picked by the leader for their expertise in a particular aspect of the discussion.  How this gets done will be determined in part by the leadership style of the leader.  Nevertheless, these are all just variations of the same, simple three step process.  So if you become the leader of an organization or team, think about using this three step process to come up with your vision.  It could be as easy as one, two, three.  Best wishes in seeing your future success!

This post has been submitted for publication as an article at ezinearticles.com

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COL. Leonard Kloeber, Jr. Author

Click here for a copy of the article:  Seven Key Leadership Lessons for Success.

To all those who have purchased a copy of my book this year, I want to extend my personal thanks to you for your support, and I wish everyone who reads this post best wishes for the coming year.  Make 2010 your best year ever.

Leonard Kloeber, Jr - Author

Also in September, General Eisenhower authorized British General Montgomery to conduct Operation Market Garden which was intended to be a lighting strike through Holland and into Germany across the Rhine River. His plan was to use three airborne divisions to seize critical bridges in Holland which would be used by an armored force thrusting from the Belgium border across Holland and into Germany by crossing the Lower Rhine River at Arnhem. The two pronged Market-Garden plan was given priority for supplies and logistics among other Allied operations. This infuriated other American commanders, particularly General Bradley and General Patton who had to restrain his Third Army and conduct only limited attacks further south in France while Market-Garden was in progress.

The Market-Garden battle did not unfold as Montgomery had planned: Most of the bridges were seized after heroic action by the paratroopers, except for the last one at Arnhem over the Rhine as the armored columns were delayed along the way. Consequently, the Allies got mired in Holland instead of making it into Germany. The British paratroopers could not hold onto the Arnhem bridge until relieved and sustained many casualties until they were ordered to withdraw those who could still make it back to rejoin the Allied line. From then on the phrase “a bridge too far” was born to explain what happened, and this phrase is now commonly used to describe stretch goals which are unlikely to be achieved in whatever the endeavor.

Yet despite the disappointment in Operation Market-Garden, the German army had been taking horrendous losses on both the Western and Eastern Fronts as well as in Italy. Thus, many observers and soldiers alike were envisioning a quick Allied victory and some even predicted that hostilities would end by December, but this also was not to be so. Hitler had been planning his own major thrust through the Ardennes Forest to knock the momentum out of the Allied advance and split their force in two by launching a blitzkrieg strike from lower Belgium into the Allied line towards the North Sea port of Antwerp on the coast. He hoped that if he could succeed, he might be able to get the Western Allies to agree to a separate peace accord so that he could focus his attention on the Red Army in the east. So, in October and November, the Germans began massing their panzer forces for a December attack through the Ardennes where the Allies had considered it to be unlikely that the Germans would be able to conduct offensive operations. The Germans were counting on the element of surprise in addition to a swift advance, and if everything went their way, the winter weather conditions would limit the Allies from using their vastly superior air forces.

Initially the Germans got lucky, and their attack, which began with a massive artillery barrage on December 16th, was soon followed up with a blitz by their panzer units. They pushed through the American lines where Eisenhower has posted a mixed group of new units, and combat hardened units that were recuperating on what was considered the “quiet front.” The resulting German advance created “bulge” in the Allied line and hence the largest battle on the Western Front ,and the largest for American forces in any theater of WWII, would be known thereafter as the “Battle of the Bulge.” While the combat experienced units put up a valiant defense in the face of overwhelming German forces, the inexperienced units mostly fell back in disarray and many soldiers were taken as POWs in front of the advancing Germans.

Eisenhower quickly moved into the breach some of his experienced units that were being held in reserve including the paratroopers from the American 82^nd and 101^st Airborne divisions, but they were not equipped for winter warfare and were short on ammunition and supplies. The 101^st was sent to the town of Bastogne where there was a junction of the main roads that ran through the area. If this town could be held, then it would likely stall the German advance and buy time for additional Allied forces to be brought into the fight.

While the paratroopers who were supported by some available armor units from the American 10^th Armored Division dug in around Bastogne, Eisenhower called a conference with his major commanders to deal with the situation. As the Germans had hoped, the weather kept the Allied aircraft on the ground, and they were able to maneuver more freely such that they surrounded the pocket around Bastogne by December 21st. At the Allied commander’s conference, General Patton announced that he could redirect elements of his Third Army that were positioned to the south of the pocket to begin an attack north within 48 hours much to the surprise of the other senior commanders. The Allied commanders then set forth to counter-attack the Germans from the south with Patton’s Third Army and also from north with a combined American and British effort forming a pincer to cut off the German advance and relieve Bastogne. They planned to turn the unexpected crisis into an opportunity to defeat the Germans who were now mired in the bulge without supplies and reinforcements of their own.

As promised, Patton began his advance north towards Bastogne, but the northern force did not begin simultaneously because General Montgomery, who was generally a more cautious commander, wanted more time to prepare his units. This was also controversial since Eisenhower had placed the American First and Ninth Armies, a part of Bradley’s command, under Montgomery because the bulge had cut them off from Bradley’s HQ. It was primarily the Americans who would also attack from the north, and not the British. Meanwhile the Germans had sent an ultimatum message requesting the US commander in Bastogne to surrender his forces or be destroyed. Despite the dreadful conditions and shortages of ammunition and food, General Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101^st Airborne answered with a one word reply – “nuts!” As the weather conditions improved on December 23^rd the Allied air forces were able to attack the German panzer formations and provide limited supplies by air to the embattled forces in Bastogne. The improved weather conditions also allowed the Third Army to continued their attack, and they eventually reached Bastogne by December 26^th bringing additional supplies and evacuating the wounded.

A frustrated Eisenhower urged Montgomery to finally commence his attack from the north on January 1^st 1945, however, Montgomery did not get going until January 3^rd due to another snowstorm. Nevertheless, the British and American forces in the north had played an important part in the battle by thwarting the German advance towards their primary objective, Antwerp, and now that they began their counter-attack, the Germans were forced to pull back to their original lines – but leaving most of their armor and heavy equipment behind. Just as had happened in Normandy, the Allies had failed to fully shut the back door on the retreating German army, but they had substantially depleted their ability to conduct any more offensive operations having suffered estimated 80 – 100,000 casualties and losses of critical equipment. Although the Americans had also suffered a similar loss, it was the Germans who were now totally defensive whereas the Americans could continue to replace losses in men and equipment. Following the battle, Winston Churchill said of the Americans: “This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory”.

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site, at the north end of its ½ mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

The memorial consists of a semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end containing large maps and narratives of the military operations; at the center is the bronze statue, “Spirit of American Youth.” An orientation table overlooking the beach depicts the landings in Normandy. Facing west at the memorial, one sees in the foreground the reflecting pool; beyond is the burial area with a circular chapel and, at the far end, granite statues representing the U.S. and France.

American Cemetery Video Tour

Gravesite, Amercian Cemetery - Normandy, France

On the other side of the narrow strip between the canal and the Orne River, two of the gliders landed near their bridge, but the other mistakenly landed over two kilometers away. Despite the loss of one third of their strength, the remaining two platoons succeeded in seizing the river bridge. With the bridges secure, the engineers were disarming the explosives that were set by the Germans, Dr. Vaughn was setting up his aide station, an d Major Howard’s radio operator was sending the success signal: “Ham and Jam” onto higher headquarters. Then, just before 0100 hours, the paratroops of the British 6^th Airborne began to drop from the sky. One of their battalions had the mission to join Major Howard’s D Company at the bridges. Like all the paratroopers that night, they were scattered and mis-dropped away from their intended drop zones. Nevertheless, the battalion commander, decided to proceed to the bridges even though he had only gathered about one third of his force. Isolated groups of paratroopers would infiltrate into the British lines throughout the night.

Meanwhile the Germans were preparing to counter-attack as they were trained to do. Their experienced commanders knew that it was best to launch an immediate attack before the British could set up a defense. One of the regimental commanders from the 21^st Panzer Division, Colonel Von Luck,  put his men on alert in the vicinity of Caen, but could not proceed without orders. The German high command had maintained tight control on all their armored formations and most even required approval from Hitler himself before they could be employed.  Approval would be slow to come; however, small advance panzer elements were near the vicinity of the canal bridge, and they started a probing attack. Although they were not exactly sure of the situation a few tanks and infantry in self-propelled vehicles slowly clanked toward the bridges. As they proceeded, one of the British sergeants positioned himself with a PAIT gun, a crude anti-tank weapon. Sergeant Thorton courageously waited until he had a good shot and was able to knock the lead tank out of action. Fearing that the British had additional anti-tank capabilities, the Germans decided to hold off until they could get a better picture of the situation in daylight; nevertheless, they kept up infantry probes and their snipers engaged targets in and around the bridge. Realizing the importance of the bridges, the Germans mounted other attacks throughout the night including using a river gunboat and frogmen. Again using only the light weapons they had brought with them and some of the German weapons that they had captured, the British held off these advances throughout the night and into the morning.

At around 0730, the British 3^rd Infantry Division accompanied by Commandos began landing on Sword Beach. As they proceed inland, they met more determined resistance at prepared strong-points. The 21^st Panzer had finally been ordered into the battle and was proceeding in the direction of the beach. Further counterattacks on the bridgehead took their toll, but the glider men and the paratroops held on. Then at about 1300 hours, they heard the sound of bagpipes. It was bagpiper, Bill Millin, leading the way for Lord Lovat’s British Commandos who were bringing with them British armor and heavy weapons. With their arrival, Major Howard could now say that he had fully accomplished his mission; however the price in causalities was heavy. History now remembers this action as the Battle of Pegasus Bridge and the bridge was so named in honor of the Pegasus insignia of the British Airborne.

Here is a link to a Google map of the bridge today:  Google Map Pegasus

Original Pegasus Bridge

Major Howard was a remarkable leader who came up through the ranks. Before the war, he enlisted in the British Army and served for six years attaining the rank of sergeant before he left the service to become a police officer in Oxford. After the war began, he was recalled back to military service. His leadership skill was quickly recognized by his superiors and not only was he promoted to sergeant major, but also selected to receive a commission as an officer. By 1942 he was promoted to the rank of major and commanded D Company, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry as a part of the elite 6^th Airborne Division. Howard was masterful trainer, and relentlessly drove his unit to a high standard of readiness through incessant training exercises. When the Overlord Plan for the invasion was conceived and the requirement arose to seize these key bridges, Howard’s unit was selected because the division commander recognized it as one of his best units. Shortly after the mission was given to Howard, his commander told him that he would be given whatever resources he needed including an additional two platoons of infantry, a platoon of engineers, and even a medical doctor who would accompany the assault. Howard not only continued his tough training regimen, but once he knew his mission and had access to current intelligence about the target, conducted multiple practice runs with a variety of scenarios on mock-ups of the targets.

Eventually, his unit was prepared for almost any imaginable contingency that could arise during this difficult night assault. Howard’s plans called for landing his unit in six gilders within close proximity of the bridges and catch the German defenders off guard. Using surprise and shock action, he planned to quickly overcome any resistance and then set up to defend against a counter-attack. While the assault troops seized the bridges, the engineers would disarm any demolitions that the Germans had set to destroy them rather than have them fall into enemy hands. Since the night landing by gliders was extremely hazardous, Howard prepared his men by making sure that everyone was ready to step up if one or more of the gliders missed the target, or if key people were killed or wounded during the assault phase. As his men went into action it was the intense training that had prepared them for this difficult assignment and gave them high confidence that they could accomplish the mission no matter what happened. They were the first Allied unit to land on French soil and they were ready.

Major John Howard Memorial

So if you like history and are interested in learning more about what happened on June 6, 1944 these are some great references that you can simply “click-on” to without having to do the research.  If you have any friends who might also have an interest, sent them here by using the share button on this post.   Learn from History!