Guards Attack

Stiff German resistance had thwarted Horrock’s plan to smash out of the XXX Corps’ bridgehead on Sunday and link with the Americans in Eindhoven in less than three hours. By nightfall on the 17th, Lt. Col. Vandeleur’s tanks had only reached Valkenswaard – six miles short of the day’s …

1944-09-18

108

A035

Stiff German resistance had thwarted Horrock’s plan to smash out of the XXX Corps’ bridgehead on Sunday and link with the Americans in Eindhoven in less than three hours. By nightfall on the 17th, Lt. Col. Vandeleur’s tanks had only reached Valkenswaard – six miles short of the day’s objective – where orders to halt the advance were received. To the east of the highway, heather-covered dunes cut by small streams made the area barely negotiable for armor. To the west, the wooden bridges were too frail to support Shermans. Unaware of the destruction of the highway bridge at Zon, his men had spent the night chafing at the seemingly unreasonable delay by their commanders. Cheers went up from the Irish as orders finally came to move out. Although the scouting patrols of the Household Cavalry had warned of Germans in good defensive positions up ahead, Vandeleur’s force met little opposition as they neared the village of Aalst, halfway to Eindhoven.

Aalst, Holland

Operation Market Garden was a failed World War II military operation fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. It was the brainchild of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery and strongly supported by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. The airborne part of the operation was undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps of the British Second Army. The objective was to create a 64 mi (103 km) salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by seizing a series of nine bridges by Airborne forces with land forces swiftly following over the bridges. The operation succeeded in liberating the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, creating a 60 mi (97 km) salient into German-held territory limiting V-2 rocket launching sites. It failed, however, to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, with the advance being halted at the river.

British

German

Scenario Type = Standard