Operation Market Garden

After the breakout from the Normandy beachheads during Operation Cobra in August 1944, the Allied forces had pushed back the German army hundreds of miles over a period of only a few weeks. By the end of August enough Allied troops were on land to form several armies. To the east, on the right, the US had the 12th Army Group under the command of General Omar N. Bradley, with two complete US armies, the 1st under Gen. Courtney H. Hodges and the 3rd under Gen. George S. Patton, in a line running roughly north-south near the German frontier. To their left the British 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery held the north-east corner in a line running from Antwerp to the US lines roughly along the northern border of Belgium. On their left, on the Atlantic coast, was the Canadian 1st Army which had recently advanced to a line just south of the British.

At this point the offensive halted owing to logistical issues. The only supply source in Allied hands were the shallow docks built on the original invasion beaches, and the nearby deep-water port of Cherbourg at the tip of the Cotentin peninsula. Both of these were of limited use, as the D-Day pre-invasion "softening up" air strikes had effectively destroyed all railway transport in the area. The massive port of Antwerp lay in British hands, but the river estuary leading inland to this port (the Scheldt) in front of the Canadians was still in German control.

Clearly the primary concern for the Allies should have been the advance of the Canadian army to remove the remaining German forces from the area and open Antwerp. Several factors prevented this. First, the entire Allied high command thought the German rout would continue. Second, the Allied high command apparently overlooked the fact that Antwerp could not be opened unless the Scheldt was cleared. Third, the Canadians assigned to that sector of the theater had little "pull" compared to the two generals, Patton and Montgomery.[citation needed] Both consistently asked for all available supplies to be given to them for quick advances. Allied Supreme Commander Eisenhower refused, preferring to maintain a strategy of broad attack across the entire front. As the Normandy breakout offensive faltered, Montgomery, Bradley, and Patton argued anew for thrusting attacks, and Eisenhower eventually asked them for their plans.