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Germans! Lots and lots of Germans. Please forgive the Hobbit reference, went to see it the other day and reading about pockets keeps making me read it in a Gollum voice. :) But anyway. I've recently been looking at a couple of incidents that turned into missed opportunities for the Allies immediately after the invasion and during the fighting in France, the fighting around Falaise and the South Beveland Peninsula, and was wondering what might of happened if both of them went the Allies way.

In Falaise the main failing seems to of been troops simply being exhausted and the rather confused command with both side looking to each other, and even then Army Group B was badly mauled fighting their way out and had to leave most of their heavy equipment behind. So suppose the Canadians do a little better and are able to advance somewhat faster, Patton's orders aren't overridden and so the gap is sealed. The Germans are still likely to get a number of troops out and it takes some time to grind down resistance in the pocket by continually hitting it with massed air attacks, artillery and troops but in the end an entire German army surrenders and walks into captivity.

For the South Beveland Peninsula perhaps instead of Market Garden they go for the peninsula instead. Several weeks prior to the plan taking shape the British had captured Antwerp with its vital port facilities intact. This was important as it would greatly shorten supply lines for the push into Germany and had the opportunity of trapping General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen's 15th Army of 80,000 men on the south side of the Scheldt Estuary. Instead however von Zangen's men were able to escape by boat to the South Beveland peninsula with most of their heavy equipment and artillery. In September the peninsula could have been sealed by a short advance of only 15 miles past Antwerp, but because priority on supplies went to Market Garden the First Canadian Army paused at Antwerp and then fought the Battle of the Scheldt in October instead. So in this case with Market Garden not taking up a large amount of the supplies, listening to the Navy and seeing the urgency of controlling both banks the 11th Armoured Division under General Roberts is urged on just a little farther and they manage to cut off the peninsula. The Allies move up more troops and from this point von Zangen has the two options of trying to retreat and fight his way out as he was ordered to do, which would of been suicidal considering the balance of forces, or dig in and try and tie up as many troops as possible which he decides to do. Again it takes time but with the advantage more units and the absolute mass of air support they can call on the Germans are slowly ground down and after a couple of weeks the last of von Zangen's man have surrendered.

So what do these two events do to things? The Allies have just captured two German armies in practically as many months and are going to have a functioning port in Antwerp up and running in fairly short order. Do the Germans really have much in the way of other large organised formations left in France after this? It's going to be a race between the Allies consolidating and re-equipping their troops and the Germans trying to reinforce their Siegfried Line with what troops they can pull together which on balance I'm not sure who would win. You can forget about a Battle of the Bulge since IIRC a significant number of the troops used in our timeline would be sitting in Allied POW camps. Are there any major obstacles that would completely bar either of these two events from happening?
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