A City Too Far
The Dash for Essen
Field Marshal Rommel and his staff were being driven up to the frontlines at Essen, the hotel and Major Harolds command post which were now all but cut-off and overrun by the elite SS-Panzertroops. Sitting out in the ruins of the once magnimous hotel and riverside buildings lay the British wounded and surrounded without any ammunition, Harolds sits on a ledge and blindly stares at the ground with a face full of dirt and rabble.
Across the bridge Rommel's car grows larger and larger and the soldiers dressed in sharp black and polished uniforms stand at attention as the field marshal approaches them. The car pulls strait up to the British soldiers and Rommel and Heissmeyer stand up, Rommel in his sharpe black overcoat steps out of the car and stands beside the car door and looks at the faces of the British soldiers sitting and staring at him. He can see some grow anxious, turning to their partners and asking, "Is that Rommel?" Rommel begins to walks forward and takes out a piece of paper with a name written on it and a German-to-Enlish Translator walking with him. Rommel pauses infront of Major Harolds and looks done at him, in his best English he questions, "You must be the fierce Major Harolds I heard so much about."
The major blindly looks up at the German and National War Hero. He simply smiles and looks back done at the ground and his bloody foot. Rommel takes out a bar of chocolate and hands it to the major, the major sees the gesture but doesn't move. The Corporal translator steps up and speaks clearly in English to Major Harolds, "My field marshal wants you to take this chocolate, it's the finest in all of Germany. We just got the shipment this morning, straight form the Hanover Chocolate Factory." Major Harolds looks up at the marshal holding out the candy bar and he smiles and takes it from Rommel, in his best abled voice he only musters out and weak and virtually unnoticable...
"Thanks."
Rommel gets back up and looks at the carnage that has befallen Essen and can see his panzers and grenadiers continue to march deeper into Essen. The Field Marshal blindly looks at his watch and smiles and turns back to the major, "Where is the rest of you division? Where is your general? Too kill so many is not what we all want."
~ Outside of Dusseldorf, Germany.
Captain Miller looks up at the leading commander of the British Tanks Guards Element and asks, "Why have we stopped? We are so close to Essen. Essen! Those are British and American troops down there, trapped and being slaughtered by elite German forces and waiting for our rescue and you are just going too sit here, after three-fouth's of my men are dead after busting their ass to get that bloody bridge... and... and drink Irish Tea!?"
The British major standing beside the American captain looks at him, "I'm sorry captain but Colonel Martin..."
"If your colonel was here he'd be pushing towards Essen and you know that!"
"Captain! You're not a Tank Commander, I have fifty tanks and all their crews under my command and I'm not throwing their lives away to reach Essen until our infanty support mops up the resistance in Dusseldorf and then we can move safely without losing so many innocent lives!"
"I'M A COMMANDER TOO! Nearly all of my men died so you guys could take that hellish bridge and reach Essen and releave those men dying waiting for you, don't tell me I don't know what it's like to order my men to death. I just did and many of them were, WERE my friends and now they're dead!"
"CAPTAIN MILLER! That's enough, I have my orders. We wait!"
Captain Miller walks backwards too the bridge where the sun is setting behind him and turns back at the British Major, "God Dammit! Must you do everything by the books! By the time your prescious footsoldiers get here the troops in Essen will be all dead!"
~Southwest Corner of Essen, still held by British 1st Airborne, General HQ
General Down walks into his shattering command post and leans against a broken wall and gets news from the radio that the British are still miles away from releaving them and that the British Infantry along the river banks have fully capitulated to the Germans. The Americans still behind them are also trapped and being strangled to pieces as the 1st Airborne is.
"They said we'd be here for five days at the most, we've been here for fifteen!"
"General, are planes still drop supplies to the Germans. Doctor Raab is in the halls, he wishes to speak to you."
"Let him in."
Dr. Raab walks into the room, "General. I'm sorry but there is no more places for your wounded men, I have hotels, no homes and no rooms for these men."
"Outside?"
"Even that is overcrowded sir."
"Doc, I'm sorry to hear that, and I'm sorry I drug you into this thing. You may now leave and return to home on the outskirts of Essen and not need worry about us anylonger."
"General," says a depressed doctor, "I have no home."
~ General Alanbrooke's HQ. Four Miles from Essen. Residence of von Krimmer Family.
Colonel Martin, General Browning, General Horricks and Colonel Joe Carter look at the field infront of them.
Colonel Martin looks at the smoke rising from Essen and can hear the gunfire and explosions well, he looks to the others, "Why don't we just try to bash our way through?"
"I'm not sure if that could be done Marty," says Browning.
"Then that's it, I take full responsibility, my men were not fast enough," comments Horricks.
General Alanbrooke walks out, "No, we should have never attempted this with so little time to prepare. Joe? Do you still have some of those boats?"
"Yes."
"Tonight, we save those that we can. I'm sorry but that's the best we can do, the war will not be over by Christmas..."
The Essen circle is closed, the Allies no longer able to hold on,
Operation Wallenstein has failed. And the lives of so many brave soldiers lost in the most deciesive battle in the west, and possibly the whole war at this point. With the Allies all but expelled from Germany, poorly organized and badly beaten... The rejuvinated German forces under Rommel can have their sight set on the Dutch Shoreline and countryside.
Casualties at Essen:
British, of 18,500: 6500 killed, 10000 wounded and captured, 2000 escaped.
American, of 8800: 1900 killed, 5000 wounded, 1900 escaped.
German Heer, of 10,000: 450 killed, 675 wounded.
German SS, of 19,000: 3500 killed, 4300 wounded.
Operation Wallenstein Brakedown:
Allies: 12 divisions, roughly 10-120,000 men
German: 3 SS panzerdivisions, 1 SS panzergrenadier division, 5 Wehrmacht divisions, roughly around 72,000 men.
*Based on the scale of in-game divisions being made up of 10,000 men + 2,000 per brigade groups.