Scheldt '44 Market Garden (expanded) Allied AAR - settled for a Draw turn 69

[ComradeP]

Turn 21, 13:00 September 19th 1944.



Mostly a lot of movement in the south as divisions reposition as described in the previous post. The pressure from 11th Armoured Division in the flank of Division Erdmann and the other units in the area is also intended to force the Germans to withdraw from Valkenswaard so my forces can use the highway.



The 101st Airborne glider units will screen Gemert. 107. Panzer Brigade is in the area.

Guards Armoured Division will enjoy some R&R west of Grave until the divisional engineers can establish a bridge across the Maas.

3rd Infantry Division engineers will bridge the Zuid-Willemsvaart at Beek, so my forces can use the primary road to Gemert. There will be mostly muddy days at the end of the scenario, so the Allies can use all the primary roads they can clear/all the primary roads across various canals with intact or repaired bridges.



The Germans were 1 turn too late to block 1st Airborne from moving across the Nederrijn. This was the moment where I was starting to believe that 1st Airborne might be saved.

I moved some 1st Airborne units forward in T-mode last turn, which resulted in one of the companies being blasted by artillery. It was still the most efficient way to "capture" as many hexes as possible in one move. As units can't move and assault in Broken terrain, the units would still be where I left them at the end of my turn. About 1 battalion of the 82nd Airborne is moving across the Waal each turn, but other reinforcements will have to wait until a bridge can be constructed across the Waal at Nederasselt or Ravenstein.

The repositioning of German units also resulted in significantly reduced pressure on the 1st Airborne perimeter and the 82nd Airborne bridgeheads at Neerbosch and Heumen. 1st Airborne would lose its first company on the German phase of the turn to multiple assaults (assault losses are rarely evenly distributed, one unit in the stack will take most of the beating), but other than that losses are acceptable.

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I just noticed that some of the name tags in the T7 south screenshot ended up in the wrong place, the image has been updated.