In 1944, the Allies hoped they could end the war in Europe before Christmas- push into the German heartland, take out industry, and push into Berlin by December and give all the Allied citizens the world's best Christmas present. The plan called for a two-force approach, airborne assaults to take key bridges and a ground campaign to envelop portions of the Ruhr River.
The assault on September 17, 1944, didn't go as planned. German forces had learned lessons from previous Allied offensives, like a little thing called D-Day, and they made sure to reinforce bridges where possible and blow them up when they couldn't hold them.
In a series of 9 key bridges, the capture of most of them was either delayed or prevented. So, the airborne forces remained isolated as the armored forces couldn't punch through the German defenders without bridges. Over 15,000 troops were killed, captured, or wounded while inflicting somewhere around 10,000 casualties and failing to take the key terrain, guaranteeing that the war would continue into 1945.
YOU ARE READING
7 Worst Military Defeats in Modern History
ActionIt's easy, when you're one of the world's great powers, to think that most battles will go your way. And the ones that won't? Well, you can only lose so badly when you've got better technology, larger formations, and/or God on your side. Unfortunate...
