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Xadrez BélicoWar as a Chess Game
Topic · 03 battles

Western Front, 1944

Three moves in western Europe, from June 1944 to January 1945. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, where Germany was not expecting the main blow: 156,000 soldiers ashore that day, by sea and by air.

In September, Operation Market Garden dropped about 35,000 airborne troops over the Netherlands to seize a series of bridges along a single road; the plan stopped short of the last one, at Arnhem.

In December, in the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler repeated the move of 1940 through the same forest, toward Antwerp. St. Vith, Bastogne, the lack of fuel and the clear skies stopped the columns less than 10 km from the Meuse.

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Battles on this topic

  • View from inside a landing craft with the ramp lowered: soldiers with packs and helmets wade waist-deep toward a flat beach, under low clouds 15 Premieres Dec 31, 2026
    World War II, 1944

    D-Day

    6 June 1944 · Coast of Lower Normandy, between the Cotentin Peninsula and the Orne River, France

    On D-Day, the Allies landed in Normandy, where Germany did not expect the main blow. The bluff, the panzers and the weather explain the rest.

    Episode 15Read the game →
  • Aerial view of a steel arch bridge over a wide river, with houses on the upper bank and destroyed vehicles piled on the ramp at the northern end 16 Premieres Jan 07, 2027
    World War II, 1944

    Operation Market Garden

    17 to 25 September 1944 · The corridor from Eindhoven to Arnhem, in the provinces of North Brabant and Gelderland, the Netherlands, by way of Son, Veghel, Grave and Nijmegen

    Why did Operation Market Garden fail? About 35,000 airborne troops landed in Holland in 1944; a plan of bridges in series stopped short of the last one.

    Episode 16Read the game →
  • A German heavy tank advances along a muddy road with snow in the fields, beside a long line of helmeted American soldiers, prisoners 17 Premieres Jan 14, 2027
    World War II, 1944–1945

    The Ardennes

    16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945 · The Ardennes, Belgium and Luxembourg — from Monschau and the Elsenborn Ridge, in the north, to Echternach, in the south, and as far as Celles, near Dinant, by the Meuse River

    In the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler repeated his 1940 move toward Antwerp. Why St. Vith, Bastogne, fuel and clear skies stopped him short of the Meuse.

    Episode 17Read the game →
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