September 3rd 1944, Brussels & Antwerp liberated

[Joris]

Today, 64 years ago Brussels and Antwerp were liberated after a mad dash from the Normandy hedges. This fantastic feat was followed up by one of the worst blunders in the war, not liberating the Scheld which gives the German 15th Army the chance to escape and fight another day.

 

The escaped 15th army tipped the balance in favour of the Germans during operation Market Garden, one of the reasons this operation failed.

 

Eventually the Scheld was taken in October / November 1944 but not after a terrible price has been paid both in soldiers and civilians killed and property destroyed. when the dikes were bombed and fertile land flooded.

 

[AlienFTM]

There was a question a few days ago about a badge on a vehicle, attributed to Second Army and mentioning First Army. This map helps to see the two armies, apparently side by side but not in fact.

 

Across the bottom third of the map. passing just south of Brussels in a line marked by XXXXX. This indicates a boundary line (blue = friendly) and XXXXX indicates that it is an Army Group Boundary.

 

On the LHS is a rectangle, numbered 21, superscripted XXXXX, subscripted MONTGOMERY and marked BR on its LHS. This indicates 21 (British) Army Group commanded by Monty. If this box had a flagpole, the base of the flagpole would indicate the locate of Army Gp HQ, but this is not a tactical map.

 

Above the Army Gp boundary is another boundary, marked XXXX. This is an Army boundary. Boxes indicate that on the left was First (Canadian) Army commanded by Crerar and on the right, Second (British) Army under Dempsey. Note that First British Army deployed to North West Africa on Op Torch and linked up with Eight Army advancing from Noth East Africa so the identification of each Army's nationality is important in this case.

 

At the top of the picture, Zangen's 15th Army (shown in red) does not need qualifying because it is explained in the legend.

 

On a bigger, or finer detail map, you might have seen Army Corps (XXX), Divisions (XX), Brigades (X), Regiments/Battalions (''), Squadrons/Companies/Batteries ('), Troops/Platoons (oo) or Sections(o).

 

Here endeth today's lesson in map-reading symbols.

Edited September 3, 2008 by AlienFTM
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