Situation Report

History - Operation Market Garden

Situation Report

As World War II enters its sixth year, the strength of the German army is rapidly bleeding away. In November 1942, the Eastern Front between Germany and the Soviet Union stretched roughly 2,000 miles from the Barents Sea to the Caucasus Mountains; the Germans reached the suburbs of Moscow before the killing winter cold and determined defenders halt the advance. Now the German line extends barely 1,000 miles from the Baltic coast to the Black Sea. In spite of horrific casualty rates, the massed Red Army formations advance resolutely toward Berlin.

In Italy, German Field Marshal Albrecht Kesselring continues his masterful defense against superior Allied forces. However, his outmanned and outgunned force, depleted by transfers to other fronts, is being driven slowly north. Now the British Eighth Army is assailing Kesselring’s Gothic Line in the east, while the U.S. Fifth Army hammers the German defenses to the west.

In Southern France, Gen. Alexander Patch’s U.S. Seventh Army (landed between Toulon and Cannes on August 15 in Operation Dragoon) continues to slam the German Nineteenth Army backward. By the end of August, Grenoble (north), Theoule (east), and Marseilles (west) are in Allied hands. The Germans are retreating toward the Rhône River valley.

On the Western Front, the German forces are reeling. The fighting in Normandy costs the German armed forces 240,000 killed or wounded and more than 200,000 missing (the majority are Allied prisoners of war). The collapse of the Falaise Pocket in late August leaves remnants of the German Seventh and Fifth Panzer Armies limping toward home; most of the German divisions in Normandy are trapped and mauled in the pocket. While most of these divisions will fight again, none will ever be brought back to full strength; after five years of war, Germany lacks the men, machines, or materiel.

In the southern sector of the Western Front, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s U.S. Third Army is moving across France against negligible German resistance. Patton believes that if his forces are allocated the majority of the materiel flowing across the Normandy beaches, he can drive all the way into Germany and end the war.

In the central sector of the Western Front, the U.S. First Army chases the retreating Germans across the French Plain toward Luxembourg. Here too commanders plead for more supplies; many believe that one more strong push will put their unit across the Rhine and into Germany, and end the war.

In the northern sectors of the Western Front, the British and Commonwealth forces of Field Marshal Bernard Law "Monty" Montgomery’s 21st Army Group pursue the retreating Germans north toward Belgium. This advance threatens to cleave German Army Group B in two, trapping the Fifteenth Army against the Atlantic coast and permanently removing almost 90,000 men from the German order of battle. More importantly, Montgomery’s advance threatens the port city of Antwerp.

By September 1, 1944, the Allied drive in Western Europe is grinding to a halt because of its very success; the Allies cannot move the materiel fast enough to keep up with their advancing forces. Before Operation Overlord - the Allied invasion of Normandy - planners estimated it would take seven months to reach the Franco-Belgian border; it has taken only three. The fact that the Allies have not captured a major port city adds to the problem; supplies must still be landed in Normandy and trucked to the front, now as far as 400 miles away. The problem is further compounded when 1,200 British 3-ton trucks are discovered to have faulty pistons (as do the replacement engines sent from England). Now American, French, British, and Commonwealth units are forced to halt because of fuel shortages.

The growing supply problem makes Antwerp a great prize. It is one of the world’s finest deep-water ports; it has acres of cranes, wharves, warehouses, dry-docks, sluice gates, and locks. Capturing the city and port facilities and clearing the Scheldt Estuary will solve the Allied supply problems in one stroke. To secure Antwerp as a major Allied port it will be necessary for Montgomery to commit significant forces to the task.

The only man with the power to take Antwerp has just moved his headquarters to France. General Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, commander of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces), under orders from Washington, has not only moved his headquarters from London to France, but he also takes direct command of all Allied ground forces in Europe. This move greatly strains the relationship between the quietly determined Eisenhower and the brashly confident Montgomery.