Successful market garden? What does this mean for post war Europe?

So if market garden succeeds and the allies manage to push into Germany earlier what does this mean for post war Europe?


I’m willing to bet that a democratic Germany and maybe even a democratic Poland are in the cards here

Perhaps a Soviet Korea and Greece also?
 
It depends on when Germany actually surrenders.
I don’t see Hitler throwing in the towel just because the British are over the Rhine in Holland. The war won’t end until Hitler kills himself and for that to happen things have to turn pretty bad. Bad like Either British or American Sherman tanks in downtown Berlin instead of Soviet T-34s bad. In other words the Western Allies are still going to have to slug their way across Germany to Berlin. I don’t see Monty getting there by Christmas with winter coming. I’ll say the war ends in March 1945 the earliest.
I think you might get a democratic undivided Germany. The Russians might only get as far as the German border. You might get a divided Poland. Churchill might insist on occupying a piece of Poland if the Western Allies get that Far East. What it comes down to is how far to the east the British and Americans can push into Germany in the winter of 1944.
Korea might play out as OTL and still end up divided. It depends if Roosevelt still bothers asking the Russians to enter the Pacific War. An earlier end to the ETO means the US and Britain might feel they can now divert forces to the Pacific and take Japan out by themselves.
Greece remained communist free OTL so I don’t see why that will change.
 

Ramontxo

Donor
Very much so. Have a succesful Market Garden.Then you have the Wallies over the Rín. Say that Antwerp is opened as it falls. This is surely best posible case for the USA and the UK. As I believe it the war would have ended earlier but the main changes (and not so many) would hace happened in the Balkans. Or so is my (Very Much Humble) Opinión. (Winter coming, Stalin going all out for Berlin. And of course the Nazies fighting ir to the end)
 
Soviets atm are at Vistula river, and how much time would they have needed to renew their offensive is debatable, but sure they are going to try if there is a chance that allies catch too much of their prey. No matter what there is no chance that Allies could get to any part of Poland before Soviets.
 
ATL For Market Garden to fully achieve its objectives, they would need to clear the naval approaches to Antwerp starting the last week of August 1944.
OTL When the exhausted Canadians captured Antwerp, they needed a week or two of rest before they could resume the advance.
ATL Even advancing the few more miles NW would have cut off the narrow Causeway connecting Walcheren to the mainland, hindering German supplies.
OTL During those weeks, Germans reinforced Walchern Island.
ATL WALLIED paratroopers could have contributed more if some were dropped on Walchern.
ATL if Market Garden succeeded in crossing the Rhine in September, they could have avoided much of the winter flooding of the Lower Rhine. If Bradley and Patton had not wasted so much time in Hertgen Forest and capturing Metz, they could have turned northwards and helped "bounce the Rhine" at several more places, actually getting significant numbers of WALLIED troops into Germany before winter.
 
Alternate timeline Western Allied paratroopers could have contributed more if some were dropped on Walchern.
IIRC it was proposed but the airborne commanders refused as it was felt that the terrain was too unsuitable and potentially dangerous.
 
Market Garden was before Stalin and Churchill met in Moscow in October and did the "percentages agreement" and long before Yalta where the Big 3 agreed how to divide Germany.

If successful Churchill will have more leverage at Moscow and presumably with the Allies further into Germany by the time of Yalta the division of Germany may be very different.
 
Getting back to the original question even if the operation had been successful and they'd captured a bridge across the IJssel I'm honestly not sure that it would have achieved massive amounts strategically, the logistical situation was strained so that whilst they migh have been able to put say a reinforced division across to secure the bridgehead they wouldn't be able to supply a large-scale offensive. The planning seems to have mostly been centred around the mistaken concept going around SHAEF and senior Allied capitals that the Germans were on the brink of collapse and that one large decisive victory would tip them over into surrendering. Two potential consequence could be that it makes Operation Plunder easier as it forces the Germans to use troops to contain the bridgehead that were used to defend elsewhere in our timeline, and the liberation on the Netherlands might be sped up - this could however have unintended consequences such as German troops in the north-west that in our timeline held out until the German surrender being evacuated across the IJsselmeer back to Germany.
 
Assuming that the Allies can take complete advantage of the break through and storm the Ruhr etc - the first thing we see is none of that 'Watch on the Rhine/Bulge' Nonsense in Dec/Jan 44/45 and instead the forces husbanded for that operation are used up trying to halt the allies in North West Germany

As for the 'Eastern' European Nations not falling under the sway of the Russians I don't think so - the division of Europe was discussed at the Moscow Conference in Oct 1944 and then ratified at the Yalta conference - although if teh Wallies are further East in Oct 1944 (to early for this I feel) then Churchill might have a better nogotiating point with regards to the 'carving up' of Europe
 
One side effect of a successful Market Garden might be to butterfly away to a greater or lesser extent the "Hunger Winter" of 1944/45 suffered by the Dutch population.
 
How can the Allies manage to get supplied the three army groups moving to Berlin?

Why do they need 3 Army Groups?

Once the western allies have broken the German front they have far superior mobility - see France post Falaise, and Germany post Rhine crossing - that allows them to defeat the Germans in detail.

How many uncommitted German units are in the centre of Germany to stop them?
 
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