Impregnable River Defense Lines?

[BK6583]

My neighbor playing partner and me are in the end game of the "On to Paris" scenario - Aug 5 (first time around for both of us so a lot of mistakes have been made) with me playing the Allies. After what I would term an enormously frustrating experience against the Germans, I'm finally making headway. Much to my shock (I guess I should have reread the manual) the Germans withdraw behind the river at Caan that runs bascically north-south (I forget the name) blowing bridges along the way. When I closed on the German forces behind that river I find that I cannot attack at all - period! Even dinky 3 strength engineer and polizei units and in one hex a one strength artillery unit are garrisoning this river defense line and I simply can't touch them!! Am I missing something here? There is no way to assault across a major river in this game? My German opponent is laughing as he has been able to put every ash and trash unit he owns behind this river, freeing up much stronger units to contain my breakout.

[Rob Gjessing]

You may find (cant remember exactly) that during bad weather turns attacking over the river is not possible, but during clear weather turns it is possible.,.

[Guderon]

Historically it was enormously difficult to attack across major rivers such as the one running through Caen. That's why capturing bridges was so important. The largest airborne operation of the war (Market-Garden, and yes it was a larger drop involving more men than the Normandy drop) was designed with the express purpose of obtaining a bridgehead across the Rhine. It was enormously risky and ultimately failed. But the fact that the allies were willing to take such a risk, not to mention the huge number of assets that were committed to the operation should tell you just how difficult attacking a defended major river line was. That's why the capture of the bridge at Remagen later in the war was such a huge event.