A Bridge Not Too Far - Market Garden Succeeds

[Fulton 44]

1. Operation Market Garden in the early Fall of 1944 was designed to end the war quickly by crossing the Rhine at Arnhem and pushing deep into Germany.
2. It failed because the armored columns couldn't reach the last bridge fast enough and the courageous paratroopers couldn't continue to hold it.
3. It is clear that the failure was due to a variety of items which could be labeled "bad luck". Bad weather, German units happened to be near the drop zones, the Wallies plans were captured early, the armored column was delayed by logistics, crowds of supportive civilians, and indecisive commanders.
4. Let's assume that it succeeds. For some reason there are fewer German units near Arnhem. The drop goes much better. There are fewer delays for the armored column moving up the road and the bridge is taken by the Wallies.
5. How quickly does the war end?
6. Do the Wallies beat the Red Army to Berlin?
7. Does it have any effect on the Post War situation.
8. In thinking this through what assumptions can be made about logistics for the Wallies? Are the approaches to Antwerp cleared more quickly? Do the Allies succeed in capturing a functioning Dutch (or even possibly German) fort?
9. Does anything strikingly different happen on the German side? Is there still a Battle of the Bulge? Is there a race to get units back across the Rhine? Do V-2 launch sites fall earlier?
10. How do the Soviets react? Do they throw more resources into an effort to grab Berlin quickly? Could they?

 

[Post]

Growing up about 15 km northeast of Arnhem, I always wondered about what I saw as a major flaw in the whole plan. If you capture the Rhinebridge at Arhem, you're still stuck on the west bank of the IJssel. To get to the eastbank you need to capture bridge between Arnhem and Westervoort, the bridge at Doesburg or the bridge at Zutphen. Otherwise you're still faced with a rivercrossing.

So I think it wouldn't be the warwinner it was supposed to be. Unless the crossing of the IJssel goes smooth. Which it probably won't because your foothold in Arnhem is still threatened by the Germans from the north and west, and on the east bank the Germans should be able to reinforce quiclly. Although that is flat and open country, so subject to allied airattack. (the north and west from Arnhem is mostly forest, so has some cover).

For the plan to succeed I assume it would be better to drop directly south of the bridge instead at Oosterbeek. Given that a detachment could get from Oosterbeek to the bridge, it's very likely with a drop at the south the bridge could have been taken with more force. Downside would be that the dropzone is flat grassland, so hard to defend against armour.

 

[Post]

Contemporary map of the area can be viewed at:

Topotijdreis: 200 jaar topografische kaarten

Hoe zag jouw omgeving er vroeger uit? Kijk nu zelf op Topotijdreis.nl. De website van het Kadaster met kaarten tot 200 jaar oud.

www.topotijdreis.nl

Caveat: as far as I can see, zooming in further gets you to a map that's not up to date (the bridges at Arnhem and Nijmegen that were fought over only appear on the detailed maps in the 50s). It's possible the detailed map was only updated years after the war.

 

[garfield2]

6. Do the Wallies beat the Red Army to Berlin?
7. Does it have any effect on the Post War situation.

No.
The occupation zones had long been decided on and the Allies saw no reason to spend lives taking ground they would have to give up to the soviets.
People need to stop focusing so much on this, Berlin was always going to be a soviet show.

 

[Wendell]

The Western Allies have to want to beat the Russians to Berlin. As it was in OTL, they were underorders to sit tight along the Elbe if my recollection is correct.

 

[Moriarty]

Though if it DID hasten the WAllies arriving at the Elbe and they sat there while the Russians continued to take heavy casualties to take the area that would be their sector, it could lead to an even more antagonistic Cold War as they had even more casualties to blame on the West who sat watching them die.

 

[Simon]

For some reason there are fewer German units near Arnhem.

That one is easy enough. The II SS Panzer Corps had been withdrawn to the Arnhem area due to how much it had been knocked about, with the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen – one of the two divisions making up the corps – having orders to be transported back to Germany for rebuilding a few days after Market Garden started. Delay the operation by a week and you halve the opposition the paratroopers will face with only the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg still being there.

As an added bonus this gives the British VIII Corps and XII Corp more time to reach their operational starting points and work out any supply issues. The two corps advanced up roughly parallel roads east and west of the main advance respectively to try and act as flank protection, but rushed movement orders meant they made it to their positions and then quickly had to advance north.

 

[Coivara]

I remember reading a long time ago something on the matter in the old defunct CF.NET (RIP), I think it was a thread called "Forgoing Market Garden"*.

The gist of it is that Market Garden was a crap plan that is as the typical crap plan is: Relies too much on multiple moving parts, inadequate logistics, not enough space for improvisation.
Essentially, it would have been better not done at all.

*by the way, did somebody save their archives? There was so much good stuff there and when it closed I was trying to save as much as I could but I became computerless at the time

 

[Questerr]

1. Operation Market Garden in the early Fall of 1944 was designed to end the war quickly by crossing the Rhine at Arnhem and pushing deep into Germany.
2. It failed because the armored columns couldn't reach the last bridge fast enough and the courageous paratroopers couldn't continue to hold it.
3. It is clear that the failure was due to a variety of items which could be labeled "bad luck". Bad weather, German units happened to be near the drop zones, the Wallies plans were captured early, the armored column was delayed by logistics, crowds of supportive civilians, and indecisive commanders.
4. Let's assume that it succeeds. For some reason there are fewer German units near Arnhem. The drop goes much better. There are fewer delays for the armored column moving up the road and the bridge is taken by the Wallies.
5. How quickly does the war end?
6. Do the Wallies beat the Red Army to Berlin?
7. Does it have any effect on the Post War situation.
8. In thinking this through what assumptions can be made about logistics for the Wallies? Are the approaches to Antwerp cleared more quickly? Do the Allies succeed in capturing a functioning Dutch (or even possibly German) fort?
9. Does anything strikingly different happen on the German side? Is there still a Battle of the Bulge? Is there a race to get units back across the Rhine? Do V-2 launch sites fall earlier?
10. How do the Soviets react? Do they throw more resources into an effort to grab Berlin quickly? Could they?

The failure of Market Garden was not solely due to the armored relief column not reaching them in time.

The entire Airborne operation at Arnhem was a failure from top to bottom. They failed to notice the AA defenses and underestimated the garrison of the town. They failed to find adequate drop zones close enough to the objectives. And they failed to plan for weather making follow on drops of necessary men and equipment impossible.

 

[Aber]

1. Operation Market Garden in the early Fall of 1944 was designed to end the war quickly by crossing the Rhine at Arnhem and pushing deep into Germany.

Not really. The MG plan culminated with XXX Corps north of the Rhine with a bridgehead over the River Ijssel facing east. Of the other Corps controlled by Montgomery, one was clearing the Channel ports, one was covering Antwerp, two were on the flanks of XXX Corps and the Airborne divisions would be tasked with holding Nijmegen and Arnhem.

Exploitation of MG would have required US 1st Army to be redirected, but the Germans would have a say.

To get to the eastbank you need to capture bridge between Arnhem and Westervoort, the bridge at Doesburg or the bridge at Zutphen. Otherwise you're still faced with a rivercrossing.

Which was one of the reasons for including 43rd Division - a very well trained division who had spent much of the time pre D-Day practicing bridging the Thames.

2. It failed because the armored columns couldn't reach the last bridge fast enough and the courageous paratroopers couldn't continue to hold it.
3. It is clear that the failure was due to a variety of items which could be labeled "bad luck". Bad weather, German units happened to be near the drop zones, the Wallies plans were captured early, the armored column was delayed by logistics, crowds of supportive civilians, and indecisive commanders.

Another part of the delay was the choice of US drop zones - nothing south of Eindhoven or north of Nijmegen (the road bridge was captured by the ground forces not the airborne).

4. Let's assume that it succeeds. For some reason there are fewer German units near Arnhem. The drop goes much better. There are fewer delays for the armored column moving up the road and the bridge is taken by the Wallies.
5. How quickly does the war end?
6. Do the Wallies beat the Red Army to Berlin? 7. Does it have any effect on the Post War situation.

See under pt 1 - the Germans are certain to counterattack the bridgehead and the British are too stretched to exploit.

However to counterattack the Germans have to pull forces from elsewhere eg 116 Panzer might not be at Aachen and the US forces might advance towards the Rhine quicker.

8. In thinking this through what assumptions can be made about logistics for the Wallies? Are the approaches to Antwerp cleared more quickly? Do the Allies succeed in capturing a functioning Dutch (or even possibly German) fort?

No Antwerp will not be cleared more quickly; the only sensible way of doing that is preventing the formation of the Breskens pocket south of the Scheldt at the start of September.

A successful MG does cut off the Netherlands from Germany but capturing Amsterdam or Rotterdam would be a challenge as the Germans would flood the countryside.

9. Does anything strikingly different happen on the German side? Is there still a Battle of the Bulge? Is there a race to get units back across the Rhine? Do V-2 launch sites fall earlier?

V2s are affected by the cutting off the Netherlands from Germany. My best guess is that the Germans would focus on the British bridgehead leading to deeper penetrations of the Westwall by US troops and so a worse starting position for a German offensive.

10. How do the Soviets react? Do they throw more resources into an effort to grab Berlin quickly? Could they?

They ignore it.

 

[Post]

Not really. The MG plan culminated with XXX Corps north of the Rhine with a bridgehead over the River Ijssel facing east.

How where they planning to get that bridgehead? There were no airdrops there. They didn't take the bridge there (or even advanced to it, like they did at the Arnhem bridge).

 

[Aber]

How where they planning to get that bridgehead? There were no airdrops there. They didn't take the bridge there (or even advanced to it, like they did at the Arnhem bridge).

IIRC 1st Airborne Division hold Arnhem, 52nd Division flown into Deelen, Guards Armoured and 43rd Infantry advance to the Ijssel.

43rd Infantry division had heavily trained for assault river crossings before D-Day and did a crossing of the Seine - see Vernon Bridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43rd_(Wessex)_Infantry_Division#Vernon_Bridge

Method - night crossing with boats, build a class 9 bridge to get anti-tank guns across, expand bridgehead and build class 40 bridges.

 

[Post]

IIRC 1st Airborne Division hold Arnhem, 52nd Division flown into Deelen, Guards Armoured and 43rd Infantry advance to the Ijssel.

43rd Infantry division had heavily trained for assault river crossings before D-Day and did a crossing of the Seine - see Vernon Bridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43rd_(Wessex)_Infantry_Division#Vernon_Bridge

Method - night crossing with boats, build a class 9 bridge to get anti-tank guns across, expand bridgehead and build class 40 bridges.

Well, that's a stupid idea, to land in Deelen and to advance to the IJssel.* But maybe I'm reading it wrong.

It's also a bit dense to not capture the bridges across the IJssel between Arnhem and Westervoort (since the road and railbridge are next to eachother, if you do it well you have both a road and a railroadconnection).

* in dutch the i and j in "ij" belong together, so if a name (or sentence) start with it both letters are capitalized.

 

[Aber]

It's also a bit dense to not capture the bridges across the IJssel between Arnhem and Westervoort (since the road and railbridge are next to eachother, if you do it well you have both a road and a railroadconnection).

I have always assumed that the crossing of the IJssel would be further north (Zutphen?) to give a wider front, but am not sure of the details.

With unlimited aircraft Westervoort looks an interesting option for a landing on the first day.

 

[Post]

I have always assumed that the crossing of the IJssel would be further north (Zutphen?) to give a wider front, but am not sure of the details.

With unlimited aircraft Westervoort looks an interesting option for a landing on the first day.

Basically IMO the idea to land in Oosterbeek to capture the Arnhem bridge was an error. They should have landed south of Arnhem*, they'd be closer to the bridge and could have captured it in more force. Incidentally it's also fairly close to the bridges at Westervoort. So if they have captured the Arnhem bridge and taken good position, they may be able to also advance to Westervoort.

* as the Polish paratroopers AFAIK later did, but then the Germans had taken positions there, so they were basically massacred. Do this on the first day and it should be possible to take the bridge. If then you send a detachment with jeeps to the Westervoort bridge, they may be able to take that one, as they did OTL with the Arnhem bridge. Your main force is now at the Arnhem bridge (instead at Oosterbeek as in OTL), with a smaller force at the Westervoort bridge.
An issue may be to hold the dropzone(s), but that was an issue OTL as well.

 

[Simon]

Essentially, it would have been better not done at all.

What was the alternative though? Most of the troops – aside from the airborne units – were British, which would have needed to clear the territory anyway to move up to the Maas and later Rhine rivers.

 

[marktaha]

No.
The occupation zones had long been decided on and the Allies saw no reason to spend lives taking ground they would have to give up to the soviets.
People need to stop focusing so much on this, Berlin was always going to be a soviet show.

Weren't the occupation zones decided at Yalta in 1945(

 

[Cryhavoc101]

Weren't the occupation zones decided at Yalta in 1945(

Yes

So a success at MG might impact the decisions made.

 

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

My two pence worth,

1) XXX Corp moves at 07.00 . . . not at 14.30 hours
2) 1st drop is at night (D-Day style) before midnight and thus have Bereton ordered to make another two jumps next day, early morning and late afternoon then no pissing around (most airborne are on the ground) with trying to recapture landing sites for every drop.

Would that work?

 

[BELFAST]

Part of the problem was market garden ran into the build-up of troops for the battle of the bulge.
You could have no plan for the battle of the bulge and have the troops used there sent to the eastern front to hold back the soviets instead.
Better weather would help, avoiding delays in the drops.
Getting to berlin first is more of a political problem as that area was by agreement going to be in the Soviet zone.

The German army around Berlin would be much more willing to surrender to the allies than the soviets.
Could mean an early end to the war.