Volume 1 covers the mounting of the operation and the crucial first two days of the battle. The story opens with the planning and preparation of the double undertaking - of Market by the newly created First Allied Airborne Army in the UK and Garden by the British Second Army on the Belgian-Dutch border. The scene then switches to describe the German military situation in the Netherlands on the eve of battle. The massive initial airborne landings of September 17, 1944, are then recounted with equal attention to each of the three airborne divisions involved. The break-out battle by the Guards Armoured Division, spearhead of the ground army, is likewise illustrated with a wealth of photographs. The second day of the operation, September 18, sees the Guards reaching the 101st Airborne at Eindhoven, making their first contact with the airborne army.
Operation 'Market Garden' was the largest airborne operation in history and its aim was to end the war in Europe by Christmas 1944. On 17 September, twenty-thousand men were dropped behind enemy lines to seize a number of vital Rhine bridges in the Netherlands over which the British Second Army would advance. But they had underestimated what the enemy was still capable of achieving, and their advance was blocked by two resolute German SS Panzer divisions. Reinforcement soldiers coming by land, had been delayed by stiff German resistance and bad weather, and were eventually prevented from reaching Arnhem. This resulted in 6,000 British paratroopers being taken prisoner. The two US airborne divisions who also held their ground suffered 3,500 casualties. 'Market Garden' was an utter defeat for the Allies. Lloyd Clark gives a chronological overview of the operation, from its initial conception through to the end of the battle. It emphasizes both parts of the operation from the air and on the ground, as well as the participation from all parties involved - Britain, America and Poland fighting for the Allies, and also the actions of the German defenders. Lavishly illustrated with some 200 archive photographs and paintings, this book sheds new light on what actually happened in Arnhem.
Following the successful landing by the Allied armies in Normandy in June 1944, Hitler's forces battled for two months to contain the bridgehead. However, when his last-ditch attempt to recover the initiative with Operation Luttich - the counter-attack from Mortain on August 7 - failed, it was an implied admission that his armies in the West had been defeated. From that starting point, Jean Paul Pallud takes up the story, following in the footsteps of the Germans as they retreat across France.
The battle of Normandy ended as the Allied armies crossed the Seine at the end of August 1944, a month after Operation Cobra had broken the stalemate. The Allies harried the retreating Germans, who left their tanks and heavy weapons south of the Seine, and by mid-September the Allies were coming up against the defenses of Germany itself, the impressive Westwall. As far as the Allies were concerned, the Germans were beaten. The scent of immediate victory was in the air, the only question was where to apply the coup de grace. Logistics demanded that this should be a single thrust rather than Eisenhower's broad front approach. Montgomery--the architect of victory in Normandy--proposed a daring plan to circumvent the Westwall, thrust towards Berlin, and make use of the newly created 1st Allied Airborne Army. The plan was simple: use the Paratroopers to hold key bridges along a single route along which British XXX Corps would make an advance that would be "rapid and violent, and without regard to what is happening on the flanks." US 101st Airborne would land north of Eindhoven; 82nd Airborne at Nijmegen; British 1st Airborne at Arnhem--the so-called "bridge too far." Unfortunately, the plan was flawed, the execution imperfect, and the Germans far from beaten. In spite of the audacious actions of the Paratroopers who would cover themselves with glory, Operation Market Garden showed that the German ground forces would still provide the Allies with stiff opposition in the West. And then, in 1977, A Bridge Too Far came out. With levels of realism that wouldn't be approached for twenty years, the movie produced a view of the battle that subverted reality and permeated public perception. Just as George C. Scott produced the definitive Patton, so A Bridge Too Far provided an unnuanced view of the battles that historians have battled to correct ever since. As with its companion volumes on D-Day, the Bocage, and the Ardennes battlefields, this book provides a balanced, up-to-date view of the operation making full use of modern research. With over 500 illustrations including many maps, aerial and then-and-now photography, it will provide the reader with an easy-to-read, up-to-date examination of each part of the operation, benefitting from on-the-ground research by Tom Timmermans, who lives in Eindhoven.
THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER The great airborne battle for the bridges in 1944 by Britain's Number One bestselling historian and author of the classic Stalingrad 'Our greatest chronicler of the Second World War' - Robert Fox, Evening Standard ______________ On 17 September 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the growing roar of aeroplane engines. He went out on to his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders carrying the British 1st Airborne and the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions. He gazed up in envy at this massive demonstration of paratroop power. Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. But could it ever have worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch, who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war. The British fascination with heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths. Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student himself called 'The Last German Victory'. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single, dramatic battle. It looks into the very heart of war. ______________ 'In Beevor's hands, Arnhem becomes a study of national character' - Ben Macintyre, The Times 'Superb book, tirelessly researched and beautifully written' - Saul David, Daily Telegraph 'Complete mastery of both the story and the sources' - Keith Lowe, Literary Review
On 20 September 1944, a force of US paratroopers launched a desperate, near suicidal river crossing in an effort to reach their airborne brethren trapped at Arnhem, only to see their efforts squandered by British tank crews who, instead of racing ahead, sat down to drink tea. The story of the Waal crossing – as told by American veterans of the operation – has become a part of the Arnhem legend, a legend of airborne heroism set against the timidity of the armoured forces sent to relieve them; of American professionalism wasted by British incompetence. But what really happened? Why was the operation even necessary? Using first-hand accounts and official records, Operation Market Garden examines the legend of the Waal Crossing and the truth behind it, revealing how a culture of elitism mixed with national and personal rivalries led to arguably the greatest western Allied defeat of the war.
“Reveals much of what history has tended to gloss over . . . should be a must read for all who have an interest in this operation” (Airborne Quarterly). After Normandy, the most spectacular Allied offensive of World War II was Operation Market Garden, which planned to join three divisions of paratroopers dropped behind German lines with massive armored columns breaking through the front. The object was to seize a crossing over the Rhine to outflank the heartland of the Third Reich and force a quick end to the war. The operation utterly failed, of course, as the 1st British Airborne was practically wiped out, the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions became tied down in vicious combat for months, and the vaunted armored columns were foiled at every turn by improvisational German defenses. Some have called the battle “Hitler’s last victory.” In this work, many years in the making, David Bennett puts forward a balanced and comprehensive account of the British, American, Polish, Canadian, and German actions, as well as the strategic background of the operation, in a way not yet done. He shows, for example, that rather than a bridgehead over the Rhine, Montgomery’s ultimate aim was to flank the Ruhr industrial area from the north. The book also deals as never before with the key role of all three Corps of British Second Army, not just Brian Horrocks’ central XXX Corps. For the first time, we learn the dramatic untold story of how a single company of Canadian engineers achieved the evacuation of 1st Airborne’s survivors back across the Rhine when all other efforts had failed. Also revealed is the scandal of how Polish Gen. Sosabowski was treated by the British military authorities, and how the operation would have failed at the outset but for the brilliant soldiery of the two American airborne divisions. Respectfully nodding to A Bridge Too Far and other excellent works on Market Garden, the author has interviewed survivors, walked the ground, and performed prodigious archival research to increase our understanding of the battle, from the actions of the lowliest soldier to the highest commander, Allied and German.
