The Great Mistake: The Battle For Antwerp And The Beveland Peninsula, September 1944

by Beale, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780750932868
• ISBN10: 0750932864
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-15
• Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd

Summary

Inefficient command structures, conflicts between Allied commanders and differing American and British military cultures all contributed to a huge missed opportunity, described by many historians as 'The Great Mistake'. On September 4, 1944, the British 11th Armoured Division entered Antwerp, capturing the docks intact with Belgian assistance. It was 85 days, however, before the first Allied cargo ship reached the docks on November 29. Some 80,000 soldiers of the German Fifteenth Army slipped across the Scheldt Estuary and escaped towards Germany along the Beveland peninsula. Had 11th Armoured Division immediately sealed off the peninsula where it joined the mainland, the Allies could have eliminated the Fifteenth Army and opened Antwerp's port much earlier, potentially allowing them to cross the Rhine and defeat Nazi Germany in 1944.

Table of Contents

Maps	vii
Foreword	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
What was the Great Mistake?	1	(11)
German Forces, August--September 1944	12	(14)
Topography, Weather and Civilians	26	(12)
Allied Forces: Command Structures and Commanders	38	(22)
The Painted Veil	60	(8)
Perception: Politicians and Commanders	68	(16)
Perception at the Sharp End: Euphoria	84	(10)
Allied Strategies	94	(15)
German Strategy and its Execution	109	(20)
Allied Operations 4--17 September	129	(16)
Retribution: Operations, September--November 1944	145	(28)
The Unforgiving Minute	173	(13)
The Reasons Why	186	(15)
Envoi: Teaching Grandmother	201	(6)
Appendix One German Formations in the Great Mistake	207	(2)
Appendix Two Allied Orders of Battle	209	(4)
Sources	213	(4)
Bibliography	217	(6)
Index	223