operation comet?

[roqf77]

Operation comet was the pre plan to market garden.

It involved only the first para's and i think dempsy's second army.

however it would of been launched about 2 weeks before market garden thus happening before the reinforcements and the break out of 80k germans from antwerp.

purely theoreticaly but what do people reckon the chances of succses were?

[Kingfish]

Worse than Market Garden. AIUI, Comet called for the capture of the same objectives as M-G, but with less than 1/3 the strength, while the XXX Corp would still have to fight its way up the same road.

[roqf77]

true but that was previous to the deployment of 9th 10th panzer divisions. And before the break out of 80k german troops from antwerp. the point is the german defenders would not have even been at 1/4 strength. i will check but im not even sure if students troops were ready.

[Kingfish]

There was only a difference of a week (Sept 9th to Sept 17th) between when Comet would have started, and M-G did start. While German strength certainly increased during that time, there was still plenty on the ground to oppose the Paras, especially when you consider that some of the bridges would have to have been taken and held by a battalion or less of paratroops.

Edit: even if II SS Panzer Corp wasn't in the Arnhem area for Comet, advanced elements would have shown up far faster than XXX Corp would have.

[ March 04, 2005, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: Kingfish ]

[roqf77]

but he first asked for it on 27th august if it took one week to plan market garden it wouldnot of took one week to plan comet. so it most likely would of started 1-3rd september.

plus 9th and 10th ss divisions were engaged and there orders were to move back from engagement and head to arhem for rest and refit. There is no way of knowing if they could of turned up sooner than if they did. plus the units which slowed 30 corps would not of been there. it still may not of worked, but the major elements that brought market garden down wouldnot off been there.

[Kingfish]

but he first asked for it on 27th august if it took one week to plan market garden it wouldnot of took one week to plan comet. so it most likely would of started 1-3rd september.

I'm not sure where you got Sept 1-3 from. Comet was given the go ahead, and got to within H -4 hours before it was called off.

Reference this site

it still may not of worked, but the major elements that brought market garden down wouldnot off been there.

A lot of things brought M-G down, not just sizeable German forces. The blowing up of the Son brige, which was achieved with minimal forces, threw the timetable off by some 36 hours.