75th anniversary of D-Day...

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crimsonaudio

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September 20, 1944: Day four of Operation Market Garden - fighting in Nijmegen is very heavy as British tankers and US paratroops from the 82nd fight house to house toward the bridge. A forced river crossing is launched and this finally secures the Waal River bridge. Attacks against the British battalion in Arnhem become heavy as the SS commits their armor to the battle. Casualties on both sides are heavy and ammunition for the paratroops is running low. While it was estimated that the 1st Airborne Division, 10,000 strong, would only need to hold the Arnhem bridge for two days, a mere 740 held it for twice as long against far heavier opposition than anticipated.

German forces counterattack the in the Son area hitting the 101st Airborne with a tank heavy force, but intervention by the British tankers stops the German progression.

Geldrop, Someren, and Terneuzen are captured by Allied troops, while elsewhere on the western front elements of Canadian 1st Army are attacking south of Scheldt estuary. US 1st Army attacks Muensterbusch, Weissenberg Hill, Stolberg, Zweifall, and Huertgen. US 3rd Army remains heavily engaged around Metz and Luneville and US 7th Army moves into jumping off positions for attack toward Epinal. French Army B holding positions around Belfort.

In the skies above northwestern Europe, US 9th Air Force supports ground troops up and down the front and RAF Bomber Command sends 646 aircraft to attack besieged fortress of Calais.
German units continue to withdraw from Rimini Line overnight. US 5th Army fights around Monte Prano, Pescia, Firenzuola, and Futa pass.

Pictured: British troops of C Company, 5th Battalion, Border Regiment waiting in ditches near a road, observing German troops 100 yards away, Arnhem, Gelderland, the Netherlands, September 20, 1944.; A convoy of British trucks under German artillery and mortar fire on the road between Son and Eindhoven, September 20, 1944.; Captured British paratroopers being marched away by German troops, September 20, 1944; Sergeant J. Whawell and Sergeant J. Turrell of the UK Glider Pilot Regiment searching a damaged Dutch school for German snipers, Arnhem, Gelderland, the Netherlands, September 20, 1944.

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UAH

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September 20, 1944: Day four of Operation Market Garden - fighting in Nijmegen is very heavy as British tankers and US paratroops from the 82nd fight house to house toward the bridge. A forced river crossing is launched and this finally secures the Waal River bridge. Attacks against the British battalion in Arnhem become heavy as the SS commits their armor to the battle. Casualties on both sides are heavy and ammunition for the paratroops is running low. While it was estimated that the 1st Airborne Division, 10,000 strong, would only need to hold the Arnhem bridge for two days, a mere 740 held it for twice as long against far heavier opposition than anticipated.

German forces counterattack the in the Son area hitting the 101st Airborne with a tank heavy force, but intervention by the British tankers stops the German progression.

Geldrop, Someren, and Terneuzen are captured by Allied troops, while elsewhere on the western front elements of Canadian 1st Army are attacking south of Scheldt estuary. US 1st Army attacks Muensterbusch, Weissenberg Hill, Stolberg, Zweifall, and Huertgen. US 3rd Army remains heavily engaged around Metz and Luneville and US 7th Army moves into jumping off positions for attack toward Epinal. French Army B holding positions around Belfort.

In the skies above northwestern Europe, US 9th Air Force supports ground troops up and down the front and RAF Bomber Command sends 646 aircraft to attack besieged fortress of Calais.
German units continue to withdraw from Rimini Line overnight. US 5th Army fights around Monte Prano, Pescia, Firenzuola, and Futa pass.

Pictured: British troops of C Company, 5th Battalion, Border Regiment waiting in ditches near a road, observing German troops 100 yards away, Arnhem, Gelderland, the Netherlands, September 20, 1944.; A convoy of British trucks under German artillery and mortar fire on the road between Son and Eindhoven, September 20, 1944.; Captured British paratroopers being marched away by German troops, September 20, 1944; Sergeant J. Whawell and Sergeant J. Turrell of the UK Glider Pilot Regiment searching a damaged Dutch school for German snipers, Arnhem, Gelderland, the Netherlands, September 20, 1944.

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The crossing of the Waal River by the 82nd in canvas boats powered by paddles under intense German small arms fire is one of the most tremendous acts of desperation in the entire ETO during WWII. In my opinion if we were to sacrifice men in this fashion at anytime since the WWII and Korea War period the entire leadership of the military and government would be sacked. This is where I question Eisenhower and SHAEF leadership to place the very best of US Forces under Montgomery's command considering the historic precedent of incompetent British leadership throughout WWI.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/ar...-504th-pir-h-company-after-action-report.html
 
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TIDE-HSV

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The crossing of the Waal River by the 82nd in canvas boats powered by paddles under intense German small arms fire is one of the most tremendous acts of desperation in the entire ETO during WWII. In my opinion if we were to sacrifice men in this fashion at anytime since the WWII and Korea War period the entire leadership of the military and government would be sacked. This is where I question Eisenhower and SHAEF leadership to place the very best of US Forces under Montgomery's command considering the historic precedent of incompetent British leadership throughout WWI.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/ar...-504th-pir-h-company-after-action-report.html
I have to agree. As I said, I tried to read his memoir but got nauseated. However, he was "the very picture of a modern major general." I was unaware that Montgomery, Alabama, had revoked his honorary citizenship after the war, probably as a result of his continuing criticism of Ike...

History and Headlines
 
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crimsonaudio

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September 21, 1944: It’s day five of Operation Market Garden and the British XXX Corps attacks northward from Nijmegen, making limited progress due to German counterattacks and the exposed terrain. In Arnhem forces of the British 1st Airborne Division, out of ammunition, are forced out of the town but remain north of the Rhine. The rest of the 1st British Division - pinned down in a small bridgehead at Oosterbeek - are hit by continuous attacks. A Polish Parachute Brigade is dropped two miles south of the British position (on the opposite side of the river) in a vain attempt to reinforce the British paratroops, incurring heavy losses on landing. Despite the push but he Germans, Schijndel is captured by the Allies.

German 15th Army completes withdrawal across the Scheldt to Walcheren Island and South Beveland, leaving 64th Infantry Division to hold Breskens pocket on the south shore. US 1st Army attacks around Muensterbusch, Donnerberg, and Huertgen and US 3rd Army remains heavily engaged at Metz, Luneville, Agincourt, and St Clement. US 7th Army opens attack toward Epinal and the Moselle River. French Army B holding positions around Belfort.

In the skies above northwestern Europe, US 9th Air Force provides support to US 1st Army and 3rd Army and attacks transportation targets. US 8th Air Force utilizes 80 B-24 bombers to fly fuel to France. RAF Bomber Command sends 13 aircraft on special operations with supplies and agents for Resistance forces.

Over Germany, US 8th Air Force attacks Mainz with 141 bombers, Koblenz with 144 bombers, and Ludwigshafen with 147 bombers.

Heavy fighting forces the Polish 1st Army to abandon its bridgeheads in Warsaw. Allied Balkan Air Force sends five British bombers from Italian bases to drop supplies to Home Army outside Warsaw overnight.

In Italy, troops of Greek 3rd Mountain Brigade capture Rimini, which had been evacuated by the Germans overnight, and raise a Greek flag on the balcony of the municipal building; the mayor officially surrenders the city at 07:45 in the morning. US 85th Division captured Firenzuola, while other elements of US 5th Army US 5th Army attack Forte dei Marmi, Serra, Futa pass, Torricella hill, and Marradi. Indian 4th Division withdrew from San Marino.

Pictured: 17-pdr anti-tank gun of the 21st Anti-Tank Regiment, British Guards Armoured Division, guarding the approaches to Nijmegen Bridge, September 21, 1944.; British engineers removing German demolition charges from the bridge at Nijmegen, September 21, 1944.; No. 1 Gun (a 75mm howitzer) of 'D' Troop, 2nd Battery, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, 1st Airborne Division in the Oosterbeek perimeter, September 21, 1944.; British 44th Royal Tank Regiment retains control of Hell's Highway in support of the American 101st Airborne Division in the village of Veghel, September 21, 1944.

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TIDE-HSV

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Just a note on some of these Dutch names which look so impossible to pronounce. "J" just indicates the English "long I", so "Nijmegen" becomes "Nīmāgen. "Oosterbeek" is "Ōsterbāk." However, don't even try "gracht" (canal or ditch)... :)
 

Tidewater

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A bit ahead of the flow, but I was in Foy Belgium today (where 1LT Dikes was relieved on Easy Company in the middle of an attack and replaced by 1LT Speirs).
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Apparently the Mark IV was parked at what is now the bus stop.

American foxholes are still visible in Bois Jacques.
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Tom Hanks (and others) have erected a monument to Easy Company, 2-506th PIR.
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The second of those is facing the Foy-Bizory Road.
 

Tidewater

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Unfortunately, I have to report the somebody took a pick-axe or crowbar to the monument.

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There is no indication whether this was a simple act of vandalism or was some misguided SJW deliberately making a statement. Defacing monuments is au courant these days.
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crimsonaudio

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September 22, 1944: Day six of Operation Market Garden, aka “Black Friday”. Polish paratroopers, later joined by British 43rd Division (part of British XXX Corps), attempt reach the Rhine in order to join with the British 1st Airborne Division trapped on the north bank. Bad weather prevents resupply drops to the British paratroops as their ammunition supply dwindles. As leading elements of the 43rd Division attempt to advance to Driel, the fog lifts exposing them to German fire, despite which they reach Driel during the evening. Lacking assault craft, an unsuccessful attempt is made that night to get elements of the Polish brigade across the river. British and Polish engineers on both sides of the Rhine had worked through the day to improvise a crossing using small boats linked by signals cable but the cable kept breaking forcing the Polish troops to slowly row across against the strong current. The attempt is made but the Germans are aware and launch flares, illuminating the river - only 52 soldiers of the 8th Polish Parachute Company survive the crossing before a halt was called at dawn.

German forces launch strong attacks on the airborne corridor at Uden and Veghel that stops traffic on the road and forces British tankers to reinforce the 82nd Airborne. Elements of the British XXX Corps are able to advance to within six miles of Arnhem, but no further, as they meet heavy resistance by German forces. Elst (five miles north of Nijmegen) is liberated. Meanwhile, the German garrison in Boulogne, France surrenders to the Canadian 3rd Division (an element of 1st Canadian Army).

Patton's 3rd Army is once again halted as supply lines are stretched to the breaking point. US 9th Army is driving toward Rhine bridges at Baerl and Duisburg while US 1st Army attacks toward the Rhine and patrol reaches the river on left flank. US 7th Army attacking around Forbach forest, Marienau, Stiring Wendel, and Birnberg hill.

Over Germany, US 8th Air Force attacks Ulm with 282 bombers, Schwabmunchen with 69 bombers, and secondary targets and targets of opportunity with 303 bombers while more than 300 abort due to poor weather conditions. US 15th Air Force attacks rail yards. During the day, RAF Bomber Command sends 128 aircraft to attack Wanne-Eickel during the day then overnight, sends 31 aircraft to attack Berlin, 24 aircraft to attack Essen, and 28 aircraft to attack several ports.

On the eastern front, the leading Divisions of Marshal Fedor Tolbukhin's 3rd Ukrainian Front commenced a crossing of the River Danube near Turnu Severin, Romania, meeting strong opposition from German Army alpine and German Waffen-SS troops under Field Marshal Maximilian Freiherr von Weich's command. Elements of the Soviet Leningrad Front (Govorov) capture Tallin, capital of Estonia, in the Baltics, while in Romania, Soviet forces reach Arad.

British scientists, returning from studying a German rocket research site at Blizna, Poland, found that the crates of rocket parts collected had been switched to ordinary aircraft parts, presumably by the Soviets who wished to retain the rocket parts for their own weapons research.

In Italy, British 8th Army attack between Lake Comacchio and the Adriatic. US 5th Army attacks around Monte Acidola, Madonna di Brasa, Monte della Croce, and Monte Grande d'Aiano. Over head, US 12th Air Force aircraft conduct heavy attacks against transportation lines, supply depots, airfields, and other targets in the Po valley, at the Brenner Pass, and elsewhere in northern Italy.

Pictured: Major General Robert E. Urquhart of UK 1st Airborne Division planting the airborne flag outside his headquarters near Arnhem, the Netherlands, September 22, 1944.; A German assault gun awaits the British in the battle for Oosterbeek, September 22, 1944.; British tanks advance across Nijmegen bridge over the Waal on September 22, 1944.; Brigadier General A. McAuliffe, CO of Division Artillery of the 101st Airborne Division, meets with Col. Robert Sink, Commander of the 506th PIR, to coordinate the defense of Veghel, Holland. September 22, 1944.

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crimsonaudio

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September 23, 1944: Day seven of Operation Market Garden - XXX Corp artillery is now close enough to the British paratroops at Oosterbeek to provide support fire, though it’s of little help to the desperate situation inside the ever-narrowing bridgehead - the Polish paratroops and British infantry’s last attempt to reinforce Oosterbeek fails. The XXX Corp advance is stopped cold at Driel, and German counterattacks hit the airborne corridor at St. Oedenrode and Veghel, once again closing the road to traffic. The Germans also launch a successful counterattack north of Eindhoven. To the west, Canadian forces from a bridgehead and cross the Escaut canal in attacks aimed at clear German forces from the north bank of the Scheldt.

German forces counterattack Patton’s stalled US 3rd Army’s bridgeheads over the Moselle River. US 7th Army attacks around Epinal and works to cross the Moselle River. French Army B preparing for attacks around Belfort.
Over northwestern Europe, RAF Bomber Command sends 50 aircraft to attack Walcheren Island during the day. US 9th Air Force fighters patrol and attack targets all along the front and US 8th Air Force utilizes 100 B-24 bombers to fly fuel to France.
Over Germany, US 15th Air Force attacks Wels during the day while overnight, RAF Bomber Command sends 549 aircraft to attack Neuss, 141 aircraft to attack Dortmund-Ems canal, 113 aircraft to attack Munster, and 8 aircraft to attack Bochum.

On the Eastern Front, Soviet forces advance from Arad, Romania, to the Hungarian frontier while the Soviet 2nd Shock Army in Estonia reaches the Baltic Sea at Parnu. The Polish 1st Army of Soviet 1st Belorussian Front takes heavy losses around Magnuszew in an effort to relieve Warsaw.

“Why We Fight”
From September 19 to 22, 1944, with the perimeter of the Klooga concentration camp (Estonia) guarded by 60-70 Estonian guards and SS recruits of the 20th SS Division, a German task force began systematically slaughtering the remaining prisoners in a nearby forest. According to Soviet records, approximately 2,000 were shot, then their bodies were stacked onto wooden pyres and burned. When Soviet troops reach the Klooga camp, only 85 of the 2,400 prisoners remaining post-evacuation had managed to survive by hiding inside the camp or escaping into the surrounding forests. The liberation forces found numerous pyres of stacked corpses left unburned by the camp's guards when they fled. SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Aumeier, a German, who was Lagerkommandant (camp commander) for all Estonia, as well as having served at Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald, was subsequently arrested and put on trial for crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death in Kraków, Poland, and executed on December 22, 1947.

In Italy the US 5th Army attacks clear the Futa Pass through the Appenine Mountains (part of the Gothic Line), to the north of Florence. British 8th Army crosses the Marechhia River and pushes north. US 12th Air Force aircraft attack Gothic Line positions and targets throughout northern Italy. US 15th Air Force attacks transportation lines throughout northern Italy with 229 bombers.

Pictured: Four British paratroopers with Sten sub-machineguns moving through a shell-damaged house in Oosterbeek, the Netherlands to which they had retreated after being driven out of Arnhem on September 23, 1944.; British 1st Airborne soldiers using parachutes to signal to Allied supply aircraft from the grounds of Division HQ at the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, September 23, 1944.; Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division move past a burning truck in the town of Veghel, Netherlands, September 23, 1944.; Paratrooper from the 101st Airborne Division examines holes in the front of British Sherman Sherman Firefly, September 23, 1944.

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TIDE-HSV

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IDK why they would bomb Wels, Austria. There is a farm implement factory there which I guess could have been manufacturing war materiel and there was a sub-concentration camp there. I've actually spent some time there and have friends there still...
 
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Tidewater

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It has always been my contention, since I read the details of the plan for Op MARKET-GARDEN, that yet another gross error was made in planning the operation.
The operation was a race to build up combat power at the decisive point, which was the last bridge (the one over the Rhine).
In the plan, the ground planners wanted the air guys to do two trips from England to Holland on D-Day.
The air planners wanted to do only one trip because the pilots would be tired and more likely to make mistakes if they had to fly two trips.
Ike weighed in and accepted the air guys' view. One trip on D-Day.
Two problems:
1. Two trips would have just about doubled the Allied strength across the Rhine on D-Day. The UK 52nd Infantry Division (Airland) was waiting to be ferried in once the British 1st Airborne Division secured a landing strip.
2. The Germans were not stupid and they moved AAA into the area and got them ready to fire on D+1, etc. so flying to Arnhem became quite dangerous, cargo planes being notoriously slow and at medium altitude.

Because of Ike's continued concern for the airmen, the entire operation failed. (Maybe it would have failed anyway, but two divisions across the Rhine would have made Model's job a lot more difficult.)
 

Tidewater

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One more thing. After a stunning success through the month of August and early September, I think the Allies were becoming more than a little cocky. They believed the Germans were done.
Well, even if the Allies did succeed in getting the bridge at Arnhem, how would the Germans have reacted? They would have know that this ws a serious threat and they would have thrown everything they had at that salient.
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As it was the Germans threw the II Parachute Corps and the II SS Panzer Corps at the salient and that was enough to give the Allies fits. If the Allies had taken the Arnhem bridge, the Germans would probably have thrown a lot more at that salient and it would have gotten really sporty.

Kind of like (and again I'm getting ahead of the narrative here), even if the Germans had succeeded in taken Antwerp in December 1944, what would the Allies have done? They would have spared no expense on blood and treasure to break the German encirclement, because losing the war would have been the alternative.

Clausewitz posited the concept of "culmination," the point at which the attacker loses his comparative advantage over the defender and can no longer continue the attack. The attacker has to stop and recock at that point, go over to the defensive, rebuild supply lines, recoup losses, etc. The Allies reached that point on 23 September 1944.
 

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September 24, 1944: It’s Sunday - day eight of Operation Market Garden. British XXX Corps (part of the British 2nd Army) reach the south bank of the Rhine to the west of Arnhem, while other elements of British XXX Corps enter Germany southwest of Nijmegen. The troops of the British 1st Airborne Division continue to resist on the north bank despite shortages of both food and ammunition. XXX Corp artillery is now close enough to the British paratroops at Oosterbeek to provide support fire, but is unable to end the desperation inside the ever-narrowing bridgehead. German counterattacks hit the airborne corridor at St. Oedenrode and Veghel, once again closing the road to traffic. Polish paratroops and British infantry make a last attempt to reinforce Oosterbeek but fail.

The Germans seal off US Third Army's bridgeheads across the Moselle River, south of Aachen, Germany. US 1st Army remains on the defensive just north of Aachen. US 7th Army attacks Girmont, St Die, and St Amer while continuing to clear enemy units from Epinal.

Over northwestern Europe, US 9th Air Force fighters patrol and attack targets all along the front. RAF Bomber Command sends 188 aircraft to attack Calais, but only 126 bomb due to weather conditions, with 8 lost to AA fire. US 8th Air Force utilizes 41 B-24 bombers to fly fuel to France.

On the eastern front, elements of German 18th Army withdrawing to Moonzund Islands off the coast of Estonia. German 8th Army and Hungarian 2nd Army offensive comes to a halt around Cluj.

In Italy, British 8th Corps liberate Marradi as part of the continued push against the German Gothic Line, attacking around Montebello, Poggio Berni, and Camerano. US 5th Army attacking around San Ippolito, Monte Coroncina, Covigliano, Palazzuolo, and Marradi. US 12th Air Force aircraft attack Gothic Line positions in support of Allied ground forces.

Pictured: The haystack at right would have softened the landing for this paratrooper who took a tumble during operations in Holland by the 1st Allied Airborne Army on September 24, 1944.; A Sherman tank and infantry of 11th Armored Division cross a canal at Someren in The Netherlands, September 24, 1944.; The casualties mount inside Oosterbeek: A paratrooper takes cover as a jeep burns during a German mortar attack on 1st Airborne Division's HQ at the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek, September 24, 1944.; German reinforcements arrive in the Oosterbeek area, September 24, 1944.

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UAH

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Found a couple of recent videos done by a Brit on Operation Market Garden. Each has some interesting footage shot last year in the exact locations where the battles took place.

The first is the Battle of Nuenen which was depicted in the series Band of Brothers.


The second is the Ambush of The Irish Guards on 17 September as they advanced toward Arnhem to relieve the airborne troops there.

 

Tidewater

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I guess one valid question is why Market Garden didn't end Montgomery's career...
I would guess two things: coalition warfare and the context.
Who was going to fire Monty, Ike? An American firing (heretofore) the most successful British commander of the war? Might put the Alliance under strain. The U.S. came into the war as the junior partner. A quick look at the disparity of forces deployed in September 1944 would show that that torch had been passed and now the British were the junior partner, but it would not do to point that fact out too openly. Fighting alongside allies is sometimes complicated. I bet Hitler wished Germany had some allies in the fall of 1944. All they had left was Hungary (and only for the time being).

Second, the context. The Allies had broken out of Normandy, liberated almost all of France. It appeared in September that the Germans were on their last legs. To relieve Monty at that point would have been to admit defeat, break momentum towards victory and bolster German morale. The commanding general of U.S. forces in Haiti in the 1994 "intervasion" was Major General Meade (no relation). Meade was a disaster as a general. He was a disaster as a human being. If I firefight broke out and Meade was present, his life wasn't worth a dime because his own soldiers would have killed him first. He sucked. Rather than admit they sent the wrong guy by relieving him and forcibly retiring him, the Clinton Administration "promoted" him to a do-nothing three-star job, then retired him a few years later.

Better to keep Monty and give him tasks he could not screw up. Monty was fairly good at defensive battles. He was acceptable at set piece, slow deliberate offensive battles.
 
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crimsonaudio

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September 25, 1944: Operation Market Garden ends. At dawn the 1st Airborne Division receives orders to withdraw from Oosterbeek across the Rhine (Operation Berlin). This cannot be done until nightfall and in the meantime the division struggles just to survive. The Germans form two potent SS battle groups and make a significant push along a narrow front in the eastern sector which succeeds in breaking through the thin front line endangering the division. The attack meets with increasing resistance as it pushes deeper into the British lines and is finally broken up by a heavy bombardment of the 64th Medium Regiment. Using trickery to make the Germans believe their positions are unchanged, the 1st Airborne Division begins its withdrawal at 10 PM. British and Canadian engineer units ferry the troops across the Rhine, covered by the Polish 3rd Parachute Battalion on the north bank. By early the next morning they had withdrawn 2,398 survivors, leaving 300 men to surrender on the north bank at first light, when German fire prevented their rescue. Of approximately 10,600 men of the 1st Airborne Division and other units who fought north of the Rhine, 1,485 had died and 6,414 were taken prisoner of whom one third were wounded. A few remaining troops are hidden and sheltered by Dutch families.

The British 2nd Army expands the now useless corridor to Arnhem by taking Helmond and Deurnem, while to the south the newly arrived 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division attacks the Germans holding the highway, which the Allies will take the next day. This is the last major action of Market Garden.

On the Channel coast, the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division (Canadian 1st Army) opens a large-scale attack on surrounded German garrison at Calais - a difficult operation as around 20,000 French civilians have not been evacuated. US 9th Army is assigned to move from western France to sector from St Vith through Luxembourg between US 1st Army and US 3rd Army. US 1st Army shifts its frontage northward, including sector around Peel marshes and Nederweert-Wessem canal while German forces counterattack against US 3rd Army around Marsal and Moncourt. US 7th Army captures Epinal and attacks toward Bruyeres and Tendon and French 1st Army making small attacks around Belfort sector.

Over northwestern Europe, US 9th Air Force fighters patrol, attack targets all along the front, and hit transportation lines. RAF Bomber Command sends 872 aircraft to attack Calais, but only 287 bomb due to poor weather conditions. US 8th Air Force utilizes 125 B-24 bombers to fly fuel to France. RAF Bomber Command sends 70 bombers to Belgium carrying fuel for ground forces.

In an act that exhibits the growing desperation in Nazi Germany, Hitler organizes the Volkssturm, a militia that drafts men as young as 13 and as old as 60.

Over Germany, US 8th Air Force attacks Frankfurt with 410 bombers, Koblenz with 257 bombers, and Ludwigshafen with 400 bombers. RAF Bomber Command sends 48 aircraft to attack Mannheim overnight.

British prisoner of war Lieutenant Mike Sinclair was killed by a German guard while attempting to escape from the Oflag IV-C camp at Colditz Castle in Germany. He had attempted to escape several times prior, and through these attempts had earned the respect of his captors. The Germans buried him in Colditz cemetery with full military honours - his coffin was draped with a Union Flag made by the German guards, and he received a seven-gun salute. For his "relentless devotion to escaping whilst a POW" he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Order after the war's end, the only lieutenant to be awarded the medal during World War II for an action in captivity.

In Italy, British 8th Army attacks across the Uso while US 5th Army continues to batter German positions. US 12th Air Force aircraft attack Gothic Line positions in support of Allied ground forces and attack targets in northern Italy.

Pictured: A destroyed German "Tiger II tank of Wehrmacht's 2nd company, 506th Heavy Tank Battalion (2./s.Pz.Abt. 506) at the beginning of Weverstraat street in the Dutch town of Oosterbeek, September 25, 1944. This tank received hits from a British 57 mm, 6-pounder anti-tank gun (Ordnance QF 6 -pounder) under the command of Lieutenant Adrian Donaldson - not fewer than 7 times, but it did not inflict any harm to it,. The tank then found the AT gun position and destroyed it. After that, the tank was immobilized with hits on the chassis by a 75-mm howitzers and finally destroyed by two rockets launched by PIAT.; On September 25, 1944, near Koevering, this Sherman tank from the 44th Royal Tank Regiment was commanded by Lance-Sergeant Walter Worley. His tank was supporting the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in an attack to push Germans away from Hell’s Highway when it was hit by a German Jagdpanther. Worley’s tank caught fire and he and two of the crew were killed.; A German Sturmhaubitze 42 (tank destroyer) at Arnhem.; Surviving Airborne troops taken prisoner at Arnhem, September 25, 1944.

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TIDE-HSV

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I would guess two things: coalition warfare and the context.
Who was going to fire Monty, Ike? An American firing (heretofore) the most successful British commander of the war? Might put the Alliance under strain. The U.S. came into the war as the junior partner. A quick look at the disparity of forces deployed in September 1944 would show that that torch had been passed and now the British were the junior partner, but it would not do to point that fact out too openly. Fighting alongside allies is sometimes complicated. I bet Hitler wished Germany had some allies in the fall of 1944. All they had left was Hungary (and only for the time being).

Second, the context. The Allies had broken out of Normandy, liberated almost all of France. It appeared in September that the Germans were on their last legs. To relieve Monty at that point would have been to admit defeat, break momentum towards victory and bolster German morale. The commanding general of U.S. forces in Haiti in the 1994 "intervasion" was Major General Meade (no relation). Meade was a disaster as a general. He was a disaster as a human being. If I firefight broke out and Meade was present, his life wasn't worth a dime because his own soldiers would have killed him first. He sucked. Rather than admit they sent the wrong guy by relieving him and forcibly retiring him, the Clinton Administration "promoted" him to a do-nothing three-star job, then retired him a few years later.

Better to keep Monty and give him tasks he could not screw up. Monty was fairly good at defensive battles. He was acceptable at set piece, slow deliberate offensive battles.
The reasons I had supposed. Then Monty spent the rest of his life blaming everyone else for his failures, especially Ike...
 
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