It can be said that the "Operation Market Garden" started with success, especially in the ground offensive, with the British 7th Panzer Division advancing and the 50th and 51st Infantry Divisions following up, and the Anglo-Australian 9th Division and the New Zealand 2nd Division as the third echelon, quickly breaking through the defensive line of the German Walz Division, which was weakly defended, and advancing in depth......

In the first few days, many people thought that the operation was successful, and the mentality of everyone who paid attention to the matter varied, but then they gave the British army a head start - the information provided by the United States in advance about the increase in the strength of the German army turned out to be true!

Under the blow of the German army's "sudden" increase in air defense and armored forces, the British paratroopers suffered heavy losses, not only could not complete the scheduled tasks on time, occupied the key points of communication and various bridges, but were constantly strangled by the German army...... And the British ground forces had a huge number of troops, tanks, and armored vehicles, but they were blocked by broken bridges, and they simply could not meet the isolated airborne forces!

By September 25, the British had to admit defeat, and by the end of the battle, the British had lost more than 23,000 men in the three airborne divisions, and only 2,000 men of the 1st Airborne Division, which had suffered the largest losses, had successfully withdrawn, while the German casualties were only about 5,000.

Not only did the British fail to accomplish their objectives, but were forced to go on the defensive along the Maas River after the battle.

——

The results of the battle quickly spread throughout the country, and the British side was certainly silent by the blow, and the high-level officials on the American side were also dumbfounded - even Ayers, who believed in Li Junhao the most before, did not expect that this "Market Garden Operation" would be defeated so badly!

Not to mention what the British side thinks, on the US side, everyone who knows the cause and effect of this incident was once again shocked by the "foresight" of Admiral Pan Sen! Everyone could have imagined: if it weren't for General Pansen's strong demand that the two airborne divisions be withdrawn in advance, the heaviest losses now would have been the American army!

——

On September 26, at the White House advisory meeting, Roosevelt, who came to attend the meeting, looked at it and felt that there was no one missing, so he said: "What about General Panson?" ”

Leahy replied: "General Panson has taken a leave of absence, and last week he went to the land and sea base in Virginia Beach, and the wounded soldiers of the sea and land troops who fought in the Pacific theater are being shipped back one after another, and he has gone to arrange for the treatment of the wounded!" ”

Roosevelt was silent for a moment before he said, "Okay, Chief of Staff, when Pan Sen comes back from his busy work, you let him come, I have something to say to him." ”

——

Also on this day, in the headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Reims, France, the commander-in-chief Eisenhower looked at the official letter in his hand and sighed - because of the defeat of the battle, Field Marshal Montgomery of the British army officially resigned from the post of deputy commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force!

This reminded him of the information he had received from China before: he did not agree with the "Market Garden Operation" before, and after failing to dissuade him, he directly withdrew the two airborne divisions of the US army, and the mastermind of this matter was the "magical" naval and land commander Admiral Pan Sen!

Eisenhower was a very calm and confident soldier and politician, but at this time, he admired the General Panson, who was more than 20 years younger!

Not long ago, he personally arranged for his subordinates to find all the information of General Pan Sen, and after carefully reading and researching it, he was convinced that there were really geniuses in this world, and this Admiral Pan Sen was one of them!

At this time, he remembered another thing - not long ago, when he learned that the British army was going to award the rank of Marshal Montgomery, the US War Department proposed to award Marshall and himself the rank of wartime marshal in order to balance the Allied command sequence, and Marshall immediately refused, claiming that General Pershing, the most outstanding in the history of the US army, was only a special general of the army, and that he would never accept the rank of marshal as a student, even in wartime!

Under the circumstances, Eisenhower could only refuse with his old boss, and now it seems that his decision was very correct, but not because of General Pershing, but because of Montgomery's "encounter" after being promoted to marshal, he was glad that his previous decision was correct - now Montgomery's rank of marshal has become the biggest joke in the Allied forces!

In addition, he weighed it fairly and impartially in his heart, if Marshall and himself were to be named marshal, General Panson seemed to be more qualified!

Well, put these things aside for now, or focus on the battlefield first!

Immediately, Eisenhower ordered the Allied forces north of the Ardennes to occupy Antwerp, Belgium, as soon as possible, break through the German Siegfried Line, and then seize the Ruhr area; The troops south of the Ardennes must break through the Siegfried Line and then take Frankfurt, first occupying the industrial regions of western Germany!

——

On the 28th, Li Junhao returned to Washington, and did not go to work that day, but went home directly to rest.

He spent four days settling more than 2,000 wounded soldiers on land and sea and the bodies of 128 dead soldiers brought back from the Pacific Theater, and during this period he also sent 3,000 soldiers to transport ships to replenish the front line...... This kind of thing is a little unbearable for him, but as a senior commander, he still has to do it!

——

The next day, Li Junhao went to the CIA first - this is already a habit of him, every time he comes back from a trip, he first has to check the recent intelligence summary.

Now he naturally reads the battle reports of various battlefields first, and he already knows about the fiasco of "Operation Market Garden", so he briefly reads it at this time and puts it aside, focusing on several other war zones.

On the Eastern Front, the Soviet army was counterattacking Belarus and fighting fiercely with the German Army Group Center.

In the European theater of operations, after the landing of the U.S. 7th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Alexandre Pache in southern France, and the French 1st Army under the command of Jean de Tasini, the Allied Sixth Army Group was formed, with 21 divisions and about 400,000 men, and was moving north, aiming at Alsace......

However, the Allied 21st Army Group (British 2nd Army, Canadian 1st Army) and 12th Army Group (US 1st Army and 3rd Army), which had already captured Antwerp, Belgium and launched an attack on the German Siegfried Line, were stalled due to supply problems......

The "Operation Market Garden" he insisted on carrying out basically took up all the supplies that the United States had managed to send to the front line before, and the other Allied forces were not even short of fuel for the armored troops, and for this reason, Lieutenant General Patton, commander of the US 3rd Army, had been scolding his mother for many days!

Seeing this, Li Junhao's brows furrowed again, it's really not that he looks down on the British, look, what is going on? For a doomed campaign that affected the normal military operations of the Allies! He had serious doubts about Eisenhower's strategy of balance and compromise in the handling of this matter!

(End of chapter)