Serious Allied rifts in 1945.

[Michael Kenny]

I recently re-read The Goebbels Diaries and noted how he made much of civilian unrest in recently liberated areas and his belief differences in policy between Britain and The USA could be exploited to cause an US withdrawal from the war. I just assumed it was him seeing what he wanted to see but decided to check out his claims and to my surprise he was more or less spot on with all his observations. There was a very serious falling-out between USA/UK in December 1944 over Italian Government positions and the situation in Greece. Newspapers and politicians in both countries were attacking the other in very insulting ways and even Churchill made some very intemperate comments to Roosevelt. In fact the 'Monty Press Conference' in Jan 1945 was very much just the latest round in the ongoing newspaper war and he was always going to be viciously attacked no matter what he had said.
It is not a well-documented spat and few seem to realise how bad it was. I am working through old newspaper reports (as it was mainly an editorial-driven public slanging match) and hope to get a better picture of the situation before I post it here.

[LineDoggie]

Seriously doubt we would pull out of the Allied cause over Italy or Greece

We knew the Soviets Murdered thousands of Polish POW's @ Katyn and stayed in the alliance.

[Michael Kenny]

Seriously doubt we would pull out of the Allied cause over Italy or Greece

It is a complicated trail that includes the Broad Thrust/Narrow Thrust divide among the Allies. Though often blamed on Monty alone this argument was central to the problem. It blew up in early December with Churchill refusing to accept Count Carlo Sforza in any new Italian Government and this got entangled with US criticism of British soldiers taking sides in the fighting in Greece.

From 'Ambiguous Partnership: Britain and America, 1944-1947'

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Not helped by :

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That The Bulge Offensive happened in the middle of all this was unfortunate timing and a gift to the Germans.

[Michael Kenny]

We knew the Soviets Murdered thousands of Polish POW's @ Katyn and stayed in the alliance.

That was one of Churchill's complaints. Why was the USA criticising The UK whilst ignoring Soviet transgressions.

[Michael Kenny]

Overview from Ambiguous Partnership:

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