Read the domain name of this site online in plain text

Please visit the mobile phone to read synchronously

In the German Western Front General Command, Li Mo was carefully studying the map. The Allied forces were attacking very quickly, and the vanguard had entered Belgium. The Allied attack route was only 250 kilometers away from the Ardennes Forest. Fortunately, the Allied forces did not intend to pass through the Ardennes Forest.

The Ardennes Heights have been a strategic location in Central Europe since ancient times. It is located in southeast Belgium, northern Luxembourg and northeastern France, with an area of ​​about 10,000 square kilometers. Because there are many forests here and the roads are steep and difficult to walk, Eisenhower did not plan to take the Ardennes Forest as an offensive route, otherwise Li Mo's big pocket tactic would probably go bankrupt.

"Master Moder, come and see, now the Allies have entered Belgium, I guess they want to continue attacking the Netherlands, and then bypass the Ziegfeld defense line from the Netherlands and directly attack the German land. Since these Allies want to die, I plan to help them.

Now I order you to freely mobilize the garrisons in the Netherlands and Belgium to attack these bold Allied forces. These bridges will be the focus of the Allied forces' struggle. They will definitely send a large number of paratroopers to raid. Don't we have a few SS armored divisions that are resting? Now I will allocate them to you to command and teach them a lesson!

...

Eisenhower knew very well that it was very unwise to use flesh and blood to attack a solid fortress-style defense line like the Maginot Line, so Eisenhower planned to attack Germany from Belgium to the Netherlands like Germany invaded France, thus avoiding the strong attack on the Maginot Line and Ziegfe Line.

To achieve this strategic concept, Eisenhower formulated the "Platform Garden Operation".

The tactical theme of this operation is to seize a series of bridges on the main rivers in the Netherlands that are still controlled by the German army after the largest airborne troops in history, through the rapid movement of ground armored forces, through the coordinated operations; the strategic goal is to seize control of these bridges, allowing the Allies to cross the Rhine, the last natural barrier on the German border, to end World War II in a short time when the German army has not yet stood firm.

In June 1941, after the Allies landed in Normandy to open up the second battlefield, in order to defeat Nazi Germany as soon as possible, on July 25, 1941, the 3rd Allied Army led by Patton took the lead in rushing out of the Normandy area and began a great pursuit of the German army on the French plains. The Allied forces gradually began to be filled with optimism.

In order to detour the Ziegfeld defense line from the north and take the Ruhr area of ​​Germany directly to "end the war before Christmas", the British Marshal Montgomery, who has always been known for his prudence, proposed a bold and adventurous plan code-named "Market Garden". This action aims to seize a series of important bridges across rivers such as the Rhine and Val, and then go straight to the German hinterland from the Netherlands, striving to end the European battlefield operations before Christmas in 1941.

The content was that the 30th British Army launched a ground attack on Antwerp, and the 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division used the leapfrog tactic to airborne the three places in Eindhoven (Eindhoven, Nhoven), Nijmegen (Nemegen) and Arnhem (Anheng, Anheng) at the depth of the 63-mile battle. The bridges on the Rhine were captured.

After the Normandy Landing, the Allied Airborne troops suffered heavy losses and had to reorganize them into the 1st Allied Airborne Corps, which was under its command of three US Airborne Divisions, two British Airborne Divisions, and a paratrooper brigade of the Polish Army. We hope that all airborne troops participating in the European battlefield could fight under unified command, and General Eisenhower agreed to this concept on June 20, 1941.

The entire Market Garden Action can be divided into two parts:

Market action: refers to the combat of airborne troops. The 1st Allied Airborne Corps is responsible for capturing bridges and nearby areas in the Rhine River Basin.

Operation Garden: The ground forces mainly composed of the British 2nd Army advance northward, with the British 30th Army as the vanguard.

The troops participating in the "market operation" are three of the five divisions of the Allied 1st Airborne Corps, namely Major General Taylor's 101st Airborne Division, which is scheduled to land in the north of the British 30th Army. They are responsible for occupying the bridge northwest of Eindhoven in the Soon area and the Feher Bridge. The distance between the 101st Airborne Division and the 30th Army is also the closest of the three airborne divisions.

The distance was the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army by Brigadier General James M. Gavin, who landed in the northeast of the British 30th Army and attacked Heraver and Nijmegen Bridge. Major General Uquet's British 1st Airborne Division and Polish Paratrooper Brigade landed on the farthest north from the 30th Army, and was also the end of the 30th Army's march - Arnhem. The British 1st Airborne Division must occupy the highway bridge in Arnhem and the railway bridge in Osterbek.

Garden Action

In the British attack zone, the 30th Army (1 armored division and 2 infantry divisions) carried out the main assault. Its mission is to break through the enemy's defense in a narrow frontal area, and use the airborne troops to advance to the front lines of Eindhoven, Hravo, Nijmegen and Arnhem through river obstacles.

In order to implement artillery preparation and artillery support, 880 artillery pieces were concentrated in the attack zone of the 30th Infantry Army. The 8th and 12th Infantry Army should operate on the two wings of the assault group to expand the breakthrough front. In order to implement aviation support for the group's operations, more than 650 aircraft were used. The comparison of forces in the British zone was beneficial to the German army: infantry and artillery, aircraft and tanks had an absolute advantage.

On September 17, 1941, the US and British Air Force used almost all of its own assets, including more than 5,500 transport aircraft, 2,596 gliders, more than 8,000 combat and bombers, 568 artillery pieces, 1,927 military vehicles, and 5,230 tons of supplies. The largest airborne combat operation in the history of human war was launched. The "Market Garden" operation was mainly commanded by the British army, and the ground operations were mainly responsible by the British army.

Half an hour after the first batch of airborne, at 2:15 pm on the 17th, General Horox, the commander of the 30th Army, ordered the "Garden" troops to launch an attack. The Irish Imperial Guard Armored Division began to attack the five battalions of the German defensive forces on the front. The 43rd Regiment and the 50th Regiment followed after the Imperial Guard Division and quickly advanced several miles.

The German Walz Division detachment, which entered the position defense front of the 30th Army, was unable to exert its combat effectiveness in a hurry. The vanguard of the Irish Guard Armored Division attacked from the road and divided the Walz detachment into two parts. The German defense line began to collapse and was driven back to the left and right sides of the road.

However, the balance of fate seemed to be leaning towards the Germans from the beginning. Due to intelligence errors, Montgomery had no idea that in the areas where the Allied forces were scheduled to land, the Germans had deployed two armored divisions of the SS 2nd Armored Army and some of the airborne troops of the 1st Army.

Allied airborne troops lacking heavy equipment airborne over German armored troops. Moreover, the US military conducted altitude parachuting, with an average parachuting height of 366 to 457 meters, much higher than the standard parachuting height of 244 meters in World War II. In the skydiving area, German anti-aircraft guns continued to fire, and many people were killed by the German army before they landed on the ground.

…(To be continued)

...
Chapter completed!