U
Ulf Norman
Guest
Historical background: The Battle of Geel or the Battle for the Gheel Bridgehead took place between September 8th and September 12th 1944. (Geel and Gheel are interchangable, just the new and old spelling.) Antwerp had fallen on September 4th, and on September 7th the Irish Guards captured Beringen. As a result of that, the British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division was ordered to cross the Albert Canal south of Geel (see picture below)
On the German side of the Albert Canal was Kampfgruppe Dreyer of the 85th Infantry Division on its way to be reinforced with two Luftwaffe Flieger Regiments, 51 and 53. On the morning Sept 8th, the 69th Brigade had crossed over at Het Punt (B on map below) and later that evening the 151st Brigade had established a bridgehead at Stelen (A on map below). The Germans counterattacked repeatedly but by morning on the 9th the two bridgeheads were connected and a folding bridge at Stelen allowed armoured cars of the 61st Reece Regiment to cross into the bridgehead. By evening on the 9th, a class 40 bridge at Het Punt allowed the Sherman tanks of the Nottinghamshire Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry to cross also.
By afternoon on the 10th, 6th Durham Light Infantry supported by C Squadron, Sherwood Rangers (including troop leader Stuart Hills) had pushed into Gheel and taken up positions around the marketplace, while the German defenders of the city centre retreated to north of the rail station (see map below). At the same time the Jagdpanthers of 1. Kompanie, schwere Heeres Panzerjager-Abteilung 559 arrived in the area and made its presence felt with more or less continous attacks supported by infantry.
Early afternoon on the 11th the troops of II./Fallschirmsjager Regiment 6 'von der Heydte' arrived in Geel and started pushing the British back around the marketplace. The company commander of 5. Kompanie, Heinz Kohne, fired panzerfausts from Cafe 'Het Schild' (see below)
and knocked out the Sherman of Jimmy McWilliams (see below)
and damaged Stuart Hills tank. With only a Firefly left as tank support in the city proper, the British withdrew from Geel in the evening. On the 12th the badly battered 50th Division recieved orders to pull out and move to the Neerpelt bridgehead (Joe's Bridge), to free Guards Armoured to spearhead Market-Garden. Meanwhile the 15th (Scottish) Division moved into the line south of Geel and the Germans, fearing encirclement with the capture of Joe's Bridge, retreated north behind the Maas-Scheldt Canal. For a detailed description of the battle, check out the PDF with Diddens case study.
Why the Battle of Geel?
1. It is like Overloon one of the forgotten battles, probably because it is so close both geographically and chronologically to Market-Garden, and it does deserve its own rendering in Combat Mission. I consider myself to have a fair knowledge of World War 2 and only recently did I gain knowledge of it
2. Interestingly, for the British 50th Infantry Division it was their second clash with elite troops of the Fallschirmsjager Korps, the first one being Primosole Bridge on Sicily
3. Jagdpanthers! The 1. Kompanie of schwere Heeres Panzerjager-Abteilung 559 supported the Germans and its one of the few cases you can make a historically accurate battle and get to use Jagdpanthers
What I've done so far:
1. Researched the battle, here Diddens study and Hills book have been very valuable, since other sources have been rather scetchy and scant
2. Before I had either of those sources I started on a 2km by 2km map of Geel city center (see below) but some of the primary roads ended up zigzag, so scrapped that map
Short tem goals:
1. Detailed order of battle for each side
2. Weather conditions for each day
Goals in the long run:
1. Two Master Maps to cover the terrain of the battlefield, a southern one where the focus of the fighting was on Sept 8th-9th, and a northern one for primarily Geel city centre and the Sept 10th-12th fighting. My primary sources here would be the 1943 scale 1:50 000 maps of the area (see below) and Google Maps for more detailed positioning of roads, houses, fields, etc., with trying to eliminate the modern roads and buildings
What would help here is to be able to make the Google Map image and the 1943 map in question both semi-transperent to fit them over each other in GIMP and turn them both into overlays for the same area. Haven't figured out how to do that yet but it is doable, I'm sure.
2. A campaign for both the British and the Germans but here I have no experience at all and can use all the help I can get
I'm thinking here it would be best to follow the 6th Durham Light Infantry Bn and C Squadron of Sherwood Rangers on the British side, since they were the ones who penetrated into Geel city centre and 6th DLI was in the battle from the 8th to the 12th.
On the German side, it would probably be most interesting to follow II./Fallschirmsjager Regiment 6 and the Jagdpanthers of 1. Kompanie, schwere Heeres Panzerjager-Abteilung 559 in their fight for the city centre Sept 10th-12th
That's all I have energy to write for now
References:
Didden, Jack; 'Fighting Spirit: Kampfgruppe Chill and the German recovery in the West between 4 September and 9 November 1944, a case study'; chapter 3.2 Gheel on p. 123-141; https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/22610247/pdf-hosted-at-the-radboud-repository-of-the-radboud-university-/124
Hills, Stuart; 'By Tank into Normandy'; Chapter 8 Gheel
On the German side of the Albert Canal was Kampfgruppe Dreyer of the 85th Infantry Division on its way to be reinforced with two Luftwaffe Flieger Regiments, 51 and 53. On the morning Sept 8th, the 69th Brigade had crossed over at Het Punt (B on map below) and later that evening the 151st Brigade had established a bridgehead at Stelen (A on map below). The Germans counterattacked repeatedly but by morning on the 9th the two bridgeheads were connected and a folding bridge at Stelen allowed armoured cars of the 61st Reece Regiment to cross into the bridgehead. By evening on the 9th, a class 40 bridge at Het Punt allowed the Sherman tanks of the Nottinghamshire Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry to cross also.
By afternoon on the 10th, 6th Durham Light Infantry supported by C Squadron, Sherwood Rangers (including troop leader Stuart Hills) had pushed into Gheel and taken up positions around the marketplace, while the German defenders of the city centre retreated to north of the rail station (see map below). At the same time the Jagdpanthers of 1. Kompanie, schwere Heeres Panzerjager-Abteilung 559 arrived in the area and made its presence felt with more or less continous attacks supported by infantry.
Early afternoon on the 11th the troops of II./Fallschirmsjager Regiment 6 'von der Heydte' arrived in Geel and started pushing the British back around the marketplace. The company commander of 5. Kompanie, Heinz Kohne, fired panzerfausts from Cafe 'Het Schild' (see below)
and knocked out the Sherman of Jimmy McWilliams (see below)
and damaged Stuart Hills tank. With only a Firefly left as tank support in the city proper, the British withdrew from Geel in the evening. On the 12th the badly battered 50th Division recieved orders to pull out and move to the Neerpelt bridgehead (Joe's Bridge), to free Guards Armoured to spearhead Market-Garden. Meanwhile the 15th (Scottish) Division moved into the line south of Geel and the Germans, fearing encirclement with the capture of Joe's Bridge, retreated north behind the Maas-Scheldt Canal. For a detailed description of the battle, check out the PDF with Diddens case study.
Why the Battle of Geel?
1. It is like Overloon one of the forgotten battles, probably because it is so close both geographically and chronologically to Market-Garden, and it does deserve its own rendering in Combat Mission. I consider myself to have a fair knowledge of World War 2 and only recently did I gain knowledge of it
2. Interestingly, for the British 50th Infantry Division it was their second clash with elite troops of the Fallschirmsjager Korps, the first one being Primosole Bridge on Sicily
3. Jagdpanthers! The 1. Kompanie of schwere Heeres Panzerjager-Abteilung 559 supported the Germans and its one of the few cases you can make a historically accurate battle and get to use Jagdpanthers
What I've done so far:
1. Researched the battle, here Diddens study and Hills book have been very valuable, since other sources have been rather scetchy and scant
2. Before I had either of those sources I started on a 2km by 2km map of Geel city center (see below) but some of the primary roads ended up zigzag, so scrapped that map
Short tem goals:
1. Detailed order of battle for each side
2. Weather conditions for each day
Goals in the long run:
1. Two Master Maps to cover the terrain of the battlefield, a southern one where the focus of the fighting was on Sept 8th-9th, and a northern one for primarily Geel city centre and the Sept 10th-12th fighting. My primary sources here would be the 1943 scale 1:50 000 maps of the area (see below) and Google Maps for more detailed positioning of roads, houses, fields, etc., with trying to eliminate the modern roads and buildings
What would help here is to be able to make the Google Map image and the 1943 map in question both semi-transperent to fit them over each other in GIMP and turn them both into overlays for the same area. Haven't figured out how to do that yet but it is doable, I'm sure.
2. A campaign for both the British and the Germans but here I have no experience at all and can use all the help I can get
I'm thinking here it would be best to follow the 6th Durham Light Infantry Bn and C Squadron of Sherwood Rangers on the British side, since they were the ones who penetrated into Geel city centre and 6th DLI was in the battle from the 8th to the 12th.
On the German side, it would probably be most interesting to follow II./Fallschirmsjager Regiment 6 and the Jagdpanthers of 1. Kompanie, schwere Heeres Panzerjager-Abteilung 559 in their fight for the city centre Sept 10th-12th
That's all I have energy to write for now
References:
Didden, Jack; 'Fighting Spirit: Kampfgruppe Chill and the German recovery in the West between 4 September and 9 November 1944, a case study'; chapter 3.2 Gheel on p. 123-141; https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/22610247/pdf-hosted-at-the-radboud-repository-of-the-radboud-university-/124
Hills, Stuart; 'By Tank into Normandy'; Chapter 8 Gheel
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