Talk:Book:Small Gods/Annotations

On the scene in Corgi paperback, page 355, where the various leaders of the invasion force are bickering on the coast of Omnia. I'm not sure if this counts as an annotation, but worth discussing. The various generals and admirals are one immense clash of egos and national prides as to who exactly should be in charge. Apparently this had not been thrashed out beforehand.

This reflects the real need, which had to be extensively debated and agreed on, (with wounded losing egos soothed massively afterwards), as to the correct and absolutely clear chain of command which would apply when a multi-national force arrived on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944. German generals might also have had massive egos, but at least they all represented the same country. Not so the Allies. The choice of Ike Eisenhower as Supreme Commander was pretty much inspired. Never a fighting general, Eisenhower's strengths as both administrator and more importantly as a diplomat, liked and respected by all, made him the only choice for this role. And he needed that diplomacy. The last thing the Allies needed was bickering and ego-clashes as to who was Top General. Therefore the obvious fight was averted by leaving George Patton behind in England whilst Bernard Montgomery was field commander of all nations during the bitter three-month Normandy campaign. Montgomery had to accept his tenure as commander-in-chief of the armies and navies of four nations was strictly limited. His mortal enemy George Patton was deliberately left behind to prevent open war between Great Britain and the USA (at least at the general versus general level). And General deGaulle, even then, was demanding equal representation for the residual French armed forces - he was in the position of Admiral Ram-ap-Ifan, proud commander of a much diminished military. And then Montgomery had to surrender overall command to the Americans, as had been agreed. His ego was soothed by promotion to Field-Marshal.... and so it goes.... it's a wonder our armies got off the Normandy beaches at all. At least the Canadians cheerfully admitted they were the third wheel, and just go on with things... AgProv (talk) 10:28, 14 November 2014 (UTC)