Talk:John P. Lucas

Relief of command
The reason for the relief of Lucas by Truscott was not, repeat not, his alleged failure to push inland to the Alban Hills immediately on landing at Anzio. All the American commanders, including Mark W. Clark and Lucas's successor, Lucian Truscott, were agreed that to sned part of his force (only two divisions) up to the Alban Hills without consolidating the beachhead would have been suicide.

Opinions on this subject break down somewhat along national lines. Though the Americans supported Lucas, the British, alomst to a man, condemn him for consolidating the beachhead before driving inland. Harold Alexander was one of those holding this view. But it must be remembered that SHINGLE was Churchill's project, and it was a bad idea to start with. Lucas was a scapegoat for them. They all fell in line behind Churchill's views.

Lucas was, in the final analysis, removed because of his chronic pessimism, which was picked up by his staff. Replacing him with Truscott was the right move.

It cannot be taken away from Lucas, however, that he was in command all the time the Beachhead was in danger from Kesselring's and von Mackensen's armies. Lucas deserves better from history than he has received.

John SD Eisenhower author, THEY FOUGHT AT ANZIO to be published in the spring of 2007


 * The above sounds like OR, NPOV and self-published material. All contraventions of WP policy.

Relieved of Command
This section is terrible. It seems like revisionist history.

I note the editor above made some comment that blame comes down to nationalist lines, the British condemn Lucas, the Americans condone.

Well considering the undeniable facts, that the landings went largely unopposed, that the road to Rome (if a reconnoitring force had been sent out) lay open, the resulting failure to drive inland created, arguably, 43,000 unnecessary combat casualties (7,000 killed, 36, 000 wounded or missing).

Compare Anzio to the Normandy Landings. Breakout was the key, and Eisenhower knew that (hence the fear of the Panzer Korps in the Pas de Calais)

Maybe Lucas was combat weary, but that does not excuse the fiasco that followed, while he was in command.

The Americans got hemmed in by Kesselring's forces and were shelled and strafed for weeks on the beaches.

In the end, Lucas had to go.

I note that the editor who has written the apologist peace makes no allusions to Patton for instance, if he hadn't have been relieved himself for striking a soldier, Anzio would have been so, so different.

Why? Patton was an attacking general not a defensive officer sitting in his dugout. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.154.104.160 (talk) 22:46, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

tags, Sep 4

 * While I do not disagree with the intent of the tags added on 9/4/09, there were so many that it made the section almost impossible to read. Surely the section tags are enough to make the point that the section needs referencing an containsa lot of uncited POV.
 * The notion that Patton or anyone else could have taken and held Rome with a two-division force is plain silly; the differences between Anzio and Normandy are far too numerous to mention.
 * regards, DMorpheus (talk) 00:02, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

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