21 Army Group General Situation

Gen Eisen haven or TOP JECRET M 538. Copy No. 5 16 - - 12 - 44. 21 Army Group. General Si tuation, the 1. The operations ordered in M 534 dated 2 Nov 44 have now been completed and the enemy has been pushed back across the MEUSE on the front of Second Arny. 2. The floods in the "island¹ area between ARNHEM and NIJMEGEN proclude for the present any operations north- wards across the NEDER RIJN towards the IJSSEL river. Our next operations will therefore bo directed south- eastwards from the NIJMEGEN area, between the RHINE and the MEUSE, vido para 12(a) of M 534. 3. The enemy is at present fighting a defensive campaign'on all fronts; his situation is such that ho cannot stage major offonsivo operations. Furthermoro, at all costs he has to prevent the war from ontoring on a mobile phaso; he has not the transport or the petrol that would be necossary for mobile operations, nor could his tanks compote with ours in the mobile battle. 4. The enemy is in a bad way; he has had a tremendous battoring and has lost hoavily in mon and equipment. On no account can we rulax, or have a "stand still", in the wintor months; it is vital that wo koop going, so as not to allow him time to recover and so as to wear down his strength still further. There will be difficulties caused by mud, cold, lack of air support during periods of bad weather, and so on. But we must continue to fight the enemy hard during the winter months. 5. The main objective of the Allies on the western front is the RUHR; if wo can cut it off from the rest of Gormany the enomy capacity to continue the struggle must gradually pater out. A furthor, and very important, object of our operations must be to force mobile war on the Gormans We will thorefore continue throughout tho wintor to conduct such operations as will : (a) gain intermodiate objuctives towards the RUHR. (b) placo us in a good jumping-off position for a mobile campaign in tho Spring. (c) wear down the strongth at a greator rate than our own. / 6. DECLASSIFIED Authority J.C.S. MEMO Date 1/17/73 By DJH NARS Date 10/12/73 ,