Were any of the major battle plans in WWII changed last minute by officers on the ground?
Upvote:-2
I dont know if this goes directly to your question but Guderian and Rommel certainly ignored orders from higher up when they were in the midst of a campaign and battle. Hitler told Guderian to stop the advance into France well short of where he did.
Upvote:0
The Dragoon operation in the South of France in 1944 shows also, besides the Butler Task Force, many adaptations of the 1rst Free French Army when it was going north along American forces. These were not about modifications, but rather about adaptations.
In the same manner, stands for example the Midway battle where it was to Admiral Nagumi, commanding on the battlefield, to ultimately decides what and when he would attack.
EDIT:
There is another major example: The Second (Third) Battle of El Alamein was planned by Montgomery and was supposed to be breakthrough. The initial failure to break led Monty to direct Australian units towards the North, until the Axis was so tired that he could try again his breakthrough: Supercharge
Upvote:10
One good example of a major plan being modified during a campaign is the exploitation conducted by Task Force Butler during Operation Dragoon (68th anniversary today!)
VI Corps commander, MG Lucian Truscott took elements from various units and put them into a fast-moving task force, led by BG Fred Butler (his Asst Corps Commander). They raced 235 miles through mountainous terrain in an attempt to cut off retreating German forces.
Great article on it can be found here: http://117th-cav.org/Task%20Force%20Butler.pdf
The blog entries I've written about the Operation in general can be found here: http://habap.wordpress.com/category/operation-dragoon/
(I'm working on an article about the battle at Montelimar for the blog, so expect more on Task Force Butler in the coming months.)
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