No Operation Market Garden: what to do with the First Allied Airborne Army?

APMEP. Heading for the Rhine without Antwerp open as a port is always going to stretch your logistics to Breaking point. Even if you get to the Rhine going further will not happen till you have cleared the West Bank as OTL. Thigh the islands in the Schelde were considered unsuitable for airborne operations a limited land grab to isolate them and hold the Germans in the Breskins pocket. Could help fracture the defence and clear the islands quicker. The Island defences were primarily seaward and attacks from the peninsula to seize them on the bounce might work. Here we are talking of operations within reach of long range artillery support from around Antwerpe with the amphibious threat pinning German forces on the coast. Risky, but maybe doable with a small window of opportunity if done without a pause. Having Antwerpe open as a port weeks earlier is a huge advantage to the allies and in hindsight might have been with the risk!?
 
Dropping Paras onto the Island is a no no IMO.

The Germans had flooded much of the Island and had turned many of the buildings into block houses

Miss the Island and Drown

Land on the Island – possibly Drown and definitely in a poor position tactically

Not good for the Paras – it would be a very expensive op for them and no place for Gliders

The Canadians and Royal Marines / Army Commandos backed up by a Battleship or 2 are the best troops for this job

Looking at a map of the OTL Market Garden Op in respect to Antwerp and the surrounding area it’s clear to see that the operation had cut off all the German forces to the West of ‘Hells Highway’ from Germany
Basically same forces as per OTL but don’t go a Bridge too Far ;)

Then with the Right flanks ‘Secure’ the rest of 21st AG minus XXX Corps clear the area between ‘Hells Highway’ and the Scheldt

Once the Island is isolated from the mainland has the Royal Marines and Commandos go in from the sea side with 52nd Lowland Division backing them up the Canadians assaulting across from the Mainland using DUWKs and Buffalos with DD tanks in Support.

In fact pretty as per OTL but with the Thrust of Market Garden being to Isolate the region and not capture the Arnhem Bridge (giving ATL us something else to argue about).

So 1st Br ABn Div – captures Nijmegen Bridge (2 brigades land either side of the Bridge on the morning of Day1) – subsequent ops and landings to support covering operations to occupy the shoulder of land between the Waal and the Lower Rhine (to allow for future operations in this area post Scheldt operations)

82nd US Abn – Captures Grave and associated bridges on the morning of day one with subsequent drops going in at Groesbeek Heights – this to form a strong Right flank to prevent German Reinforcements from attacking into the area from Germany – Eventually to be replaced with Br VIII Corp. No intention to capture Nijmegen

101st to capture all of the Bridges assigned to them as per the OTL op around the area of Eindhoven.

I think had the main thrust been about opening up Antwerp with the Airborne op intending to rapidly occupy the land south then the port could have been opened up a month earlier than OTL.

This would also not over commit the Airborne divisions / Transport commands and this coupled with the additional resources now avaiable from the opening of Antwerp allow them to be reformed earlier as a Theatre reserve / conduct additional ops possibly in late 44.
 
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Andre27

Banned
A deployment to Italy would be somewhat pointless and the airborne would be outside of their theatre. As for south of France, not really. Dragoon was massively successful and the advance north went almost unhindered until the Vosges were reached. Aquitaine's German units surrendered en masse and the countryside at this point was basically the property of the FFI and Maquis.

One thing that nobody has mentioned so far is simply a more reasonable Market Garden. Drop the units on Eindhoven and Nijmegen, but NOT on Arnhem. This will allow Monty to move up quickly, as a lot more troops dropping near Eindhoven means that the Son Bridge might be taken intact, and if not, as OTL, it still won't matter. As for Nijmegen, the bridge could be taken quickly with more troops. The air cargo problem exists, but there is a reason that they call it "the bridge too far". A limited operation that concentrates more paratroops allows for a better defense of the highway and a more intact XXX Corps. Doing this might allow for Monty to get to the Rhine relatively intact and ready to go.

There has been a debate some time ago about a more sensible market garden without the bridge at Arnhem, but the general opinion (which i share) is that the operation would have been useless WITHOUT Arnhem.

Without Arnhem the allies would have captured a few bits of land with no real strategic value at considerable cost in resources for the offensive only to be stuck behind yet another river.

Without "Arnhem" it would make more sense to attempt a direct river crossing of the Rhine.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
There has been a debate some time ago about a more sensible market garden without the bridge at Arnhem, but the general opinion (which i share) is that the operation would have been useless WITHOUT Arnhem.

Without Arnhem the allies would have captured a few bits of land with no real strategic value at considerable cost in resources for the offensive only to be stuck behind yet another river.

Without "Arnhem" it would make more sense to attempt a direct river crossing of the Rhine.

They'd be stuck behind the Rhine if this occurred, yes. But the Germans would have been swept back behind the Rhine almost completely on the northern front due to the fact that the counterattacks would have been decisively dealt with due to the fact that Horrocks and XXX Corps would not be throwing off brigades in a head long rush for the Rhine to try to rescue the 1st AB Division and the Polish Brigade stuck in Oosterbeek. Instead, the Germans attacking Hells Highway would meet entrenched British Guards Brigades and well supplied airborne forces and be utterly destroyed in the attempt rather than in OTL when they met fierce resistance in some areas and cut the highway in others and the entire month of October consisted of Allied units with little to no cohesion fighting the Germans to the death over positions on Hells Highway to force them to retreat East or back over the Rhine.

What you would have in this scenario is the Germans entrenched on their side of the Rhine and Montgomery's troops holding their side fairly securely. What you might have is once Antwerp becomes operational, Montgomery is able to cross the Rhine in an amphibious assault similar to that which was eventually launched with Operation Plunder/Varsity, except instead of being done near Germany, it would be done in Holland. The US 13th and 17th Airborne Divisions would likely be ready to go by that point, as well as the British 6th Airborne Division, for the airborne portion, while the troops dropped in Market Garden could form part of the amphibious assault force along with the rest of 21st AG.

This operation could logistically be possible starting in late October at the earliest, but likely sometime in November. This might forestall the Ardennes Offensive, as Hitler would have a very real issue on the Northern flank and need to protect the Ruhr. I think that the initial assault, provided it could be logistically supported, would be very successful. The two German Panzer divisions in the area would be devastated by air raids during October as well as any fighting they should engage in, and the rest of the German Infantry in the area were as Allied Intelligence said, third rate at best. The force in Arnhem over the long winter was a combination of the Volksgrenadier remnants from the 15th Army, elements of Static and Fortress Divsions from the German Atlantic Wall defenses in Holland, ad hoc infantry forces levied from landlocked naval personnel and penal labor batallions, as well as the two SS Panzer Divisions. This is not a strong defensive force. Now, I am not sure how likely it is that this is even launched, as the idea would be for such a crossing to lead to a breakthrough across the North German plain, which is damn near impossible during winter. But still, the complete liberation of Holland was indeed an objective taken seriously by Allied Command, and a Rhine crossing was a target for 1944, not 1945.
 
While the Airborne units were the official reserve, Ike had a lot more than just them to deal with. He had the forces outside of the holdout Channel Ports, who could be replaced by French units at any time, he had new divisions coming into Europe (albeit of low quality; American overspecialization made for Infantry divisions that improved remarkably once in combat (see the 99th and 30th Divisions) but at first had trouble), and he also had enough rear area manpower to form ad hoc divisions on the go, which would suck, but fill a gap if needed.

I agree that its unlikely that Ike sends the Airborne units into Huertgen Forest. But I think he could find a use for them that did not entail futilely holding bridges in Holland and getting crushed by heavy armor.


I agree he would have found better uses for the airborne than a sacrifice play somewhere (look up what Marshall dreamed of doing with them some time)

The Channel Ports were used as basically a way to give newly arrived divisions some live fire training before committing them to the front. Several were blooded that way.
 
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