End the war in Europe by ‘44

[KG_Cloghaun]

Operation Market Garden was a bold attempt to end the war in 1944 that failed.

With hindsight, you are the Supreme Allied Commander in the West. It is August 25th, 1944. Paris has been liberated. The Falaise Pocket, although marked with controversy, has netted 50,000 German prisoners. The Germans have retreated behind the Seine river. What would you do differently with the forces at hand to achieve total victory & end the war in Europe by Christmas 1944? Was it possible?

Discuss.

[KG_Panzerschreck]

Well, for one i sure as hell wouldnt of tried Market-Garden.

A full blown assault to cross the Rhine would of been Paramount, obviously, where is the question. I say in the south central region of Germany. The only Really viable open Tank country in Germany. While that was going on have Spoling attacks going on in the north and center of the line.

A punch into the south, the most weakly defended area in Germany could of ended the war early IMHO. Once through Pattons Army could of turned in any number of directions. With a successful Adventure such as this there would of been no Battle Of The Bulge and maybe we could of beaten the Russians to Berlin or forced Hitler to pull more troops off of the Ostfront to oppose the southern thrust. It may of facillitated the Russian's advance towards Berlin and allowed them to take it in late '44.

Who knows but it could at the very least saved all those American, British, Pole & Canadian lives that would of been lost, wounded and captured during Market-Garden and the Battle Of The Bulge and quite possibly the most worthless airdrop of the war and the biggest, Operation Varsity.

[KG_ThorsHammer]

interesting topic.

Market Garden was a very bold plan, it just wasnt carried out very well. No flexibility or backup plans. If it had succeded, the main German defenses would have been bypassed. The plan took every objective except the last bridge, and therefore failed. More aggressive leadership and 30 corps would have (and should have), smashed through sooner and reached arnhem. Supplies reaching the paras would have helped quite a bit, along with reinforcements. In a nut shell, I would have done Market Garden but a little better.

[KG_Soldier]

Market-Garden was a good plan which had little hope for success because of poor intelligence. If SHAEF had known the 11th SS Panzerkorps, including the 9th and 10th panzer divisions, had been sent to Arnhem, they wouldn't have tried it. The Allies didn't have enough supplies to launch a broad front assault. Obviously, they shouldn't have tried it, but underestimating the German Army's resilience was easy to do in '44. Patton needed more supplies than we had in Europe to launch a full scale asssault. Market-Garden was not a stupid idea or poorly planned. The Brit XXX corps moved too slow, but it faced tougher resistance than expected. Market-Garden was one where we just got whipped--and just barely.

[KG_Soldier]

Hindsight is 20-20 Kent. The Allies were itching to use their sizeable airborne forces. They thought they would meet much weaker resistance. And they didn't have enough fuel in Europe to supply Patton for a full offensive. It seemed a quick dash across the Rhine would break the Germans' backs (probably would have). It's easy to see it was a bad decision now. What they should have done is concentrated on the Scheldt(sp) estuary and gotten Antwerp's port up and running and stored up enough supplies for the Spring offensive.