Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shermanny

My opponent withdrew from the area. I don't recall there having been any combat to speak of.

During design, I advocated for making the terrain of this part of the Netherlands more difficult.

It cannot in any case have been entirely impassable because the Germans did, after all, dedicate several divisions to its defense.

quote:

ORIGINAL: emeg

.Hi Shernanny. Thank you for your reaction.

Your opponent made the choice to withdraw :) Thus ignoring the historical fact, a personal order from Hitler, to defend Fortress Holland at all costs.

I know (I am Dutch) about the German attack against the Rotterdam area in May 1940 from North Brabant (the Breda direction). To take Rotterdam from the south the attack was supported by a successful German airborne action against the Moerdijk Bridges, built across The Hollands Diep, being the 1,5 to 2 km wide water body between Breda and Dordrecht. At the same time other German airborne actions took place in Rotterdam and the The Hague area, resulting in heavy fights with Dutch marine troops near the William (Willem) Bridge in the center of Rotterdam. In fact the Germans used in 1940 against Rotterdam the same assault method as the allied forces did during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

But there were huge differences between May 1940 and the 1944-1945 period. The defending forces in 1940 were much weaker, and in 1940 the Dutch were defending their own population. The German's were defending enemy territory and after a lot of German civil victims too (by example due continuous bombing rains against German cities) there was not much mercy left for the fate of the population, also resulting in a huge scale famine in the western Netherlands during the last five months of the war.

As you advocated, the terrain in the western Netherlands (but also in other parts as between the major rivers) needs i.m.o. somewhat more attention. As Normandy have its bocage hexes, the map needs i.m.o. polder landscape hexes too. Polderland, being protected against a (temporary) higher than land water level of rivers, lakes or the sea, can be deliberately flooded (inundated).

Examples during World War 2 of inundated (by water overwhelmend) polderland are Men's Island between the Waal and Lower Rhine Rivers at the front between Nijmegen and Arnhem after Operation Market Garden, or the Walcheren Island after RAF Bomber Command breached there the sea dikes at several places (in that case to hamper the German defense) during the Battle of the Scheldt.