Gen. Lucas and Anzio
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phylo_roadking
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Gen. Lucas and Anzio
What happened to John P. Lucas after he was relieved of the command of Operation Shingle and sent home? I have a date of death of December 24th, 1949, but no detail on what happened to him between 1944 and 1949.
"Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle." - Malcolm Reynolds
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John W. Howard
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Lucas
Hey Phylo:
He was sent back to the States to command the US 4th Army in Texas, which was a training command. Was commander of the advisory group to China 1946-1948 then was in command of the US 5th Army as his last military assignment, a states-side command. He never quite recovered from being relieved of his command at Anzio and his brother always attributed his rather quick death following the war to that event. Best wishes.
He was sent back to the States to command the US 4th Army in Texas, which was a training command. Was commander of the advisory group to China 1946-1948 then was in command of the US 5th Army as his last military assignment, a states-side command. He never quite recovered from being relieved of his command at Anzio and his brother always attributed his rather quick death following the war to that event. Best wishes.
John W. Howard
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phylo_roadking
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Carl Schwamberger
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Whatever his personal feeling his career did not suffer much.
I'd heard this one before, but ran across it again in Atkins book 'Day of Battle'. Patton paid Lucas a vist shortly before the Anzio operation. After looking over all the plans from Alexanders stratigic concept, thru the 5th Amys plans, & the plans for Lucas's corps he pronouned the corps operation a "..suicide mission".
I'd heard this one before, but ran across it again in Atkins book 'Day of Battle'. Patton paid Lucas a vist shortly before the Anzio operation. After looking over all the plans from Alexanders stratigic concept, thru the 5th Amys plans, & the plans for Lucas's corps he pronouned the corps operation a "..suicide mission".
Re: Gen. Lucas and Anzio
Gen Lucas blew it at Anzio he was told not to stick his neck out by Mark Clark but he had too there was so much riding on the operation.
I can understand if he didn,t want to get of the beach on the first day because he didn,t have enough people but he sat there for a week and had 70,000 people and still didn,t move.
He had massive air and ship power supporting him and if the germans counterattacked they wouldn,t of been able to do it on a wide front there armour and other vehicles had to stick to the roads which made them vunerable to air attack and ship and artillary fire.
He should have left one division to dig in on the beach to provide a solid base and the rest should have moved off.
Great chance lost.
I can understand if he didn,t want to get of the beach on the first day because he didn,t have enough people but he sat there for a week and had 70,000 people and still didn,t move.
He had massive air and ship power supporting him and if the germans counterattacked they wouldn,t of been able to do it on a wide front there armour and other vehicles had to stick to the roads which made them vunerable to air attack and ship and artillary fire.
He should have left one division to dig in on the beach to provide a solid base and the rest should have moved off.
Great chance lost.
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John W. Howard
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Re: Gen. Lucas and Anzio
Hello Gents:
Lucas did not have enough troops to advance to the Alban Hills; he would have been cut off and destroyed in detail had he tried. His force was never strong enough to force the the German X Armee to abandon the Cassino line. However there were things he could have done to make Shingle Force's positions stronger on the defensive, and for the coming offensive. That he did not take and hold key towns and positions, was his greatest mistake. Best wishes.
Lucas did not have enough troops to advance to the Alban Hills; he would have been cut off and destroyed in detail had he tried. His force was never strong enough to force the the German X Armee to abandon the Cassino line. However there were things he could have done to make Shingle Force's positions stronger on the defensive, and for the coming offensive. That he did not take and hold key towns and positions, was his greatest mistake. Best wishes.
John W. Howard