Posted on 09/21/2019 6:58:44 PM PDT by aspasia
Thank you.
What is this?
“A Bridge Too Far”
75th Anniversary of the Allied landing at Arnhem, Netherlands, Operation Market Garden.
Reenactment of the airdrops at Arnhem in September 1944. Except that the 9th and 10th SS panzer divisions are not waiting for them (among others).
Operation Market Garden, 75th anniversary.
Commemoration and partial re-enactment of the failed Allied Operation Market Garden, 75 years later. Vintage arms and armor are there from all over the world as well as military and civilian remembrance and re-enactment bodies.
British General Bernard Montgomery was too clever by half and got a *lot* of Allied elite troops killed for nothing. The Dutch still remember the sacrifices made in an effort to liberate them.
The British 1st Airborne Division, and their support in the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade were very valiant men.
I worked with a fine gentleman who served in the Brit 1st Airborne, then later with the US Army thru Viet Nam, and who was still working for Army DOD in Yongsan Korea well into the 90’s. Ben Delahunty was his name and he was the guy who served with and wrote the part of the Movie A Bridge Too Far in which a Brit Para ran out and got a container full of Red Berets, for it was his squad mate. Ben was a Master Parachutist (like myself) and one heck of soldier and colleague.
The commemoration was titled, "75 YEARS FREEDOM."
The EU now wants a military.
I don't know why they would want to reenact such a debacle.
I studied a little about that. It was another Montgomery disaster - Monty wanting to get some glory that was going to Patton and the Americans at the time.
Operation Market Garden, the Charge of the Light Brigade - those and others are examples IMO of the history of flawed and aloof British command.
If it weren't for down-to-earth American command and resources, the world as we know it would not exist.
I don't know why they would want to reenact such a debacle.
I studied a little about that. It was another Montgomery disaster - Monty twisting Eisenhower's arm, wanting to get some glory that was going to Patton and the Americans at the time.
Operation Market Garden, the Charge of the Light Brigade - those and others are examples IMO of the history of flawed and aloof British command.
If it weren't for down-to-earth American command and resources, the world as we know it would not exist.
I’m sure they’re not doing it for Monty. : ) They’re commemorating the heroism of those who sacrificed for their freedom.
And yet The Empire survived into the 1950s. It must have been the individual British soldier, the NCOs, and the junior officers, as at Roarke's Drift, and there were some good generals in the late nineteenth century.
Horrocks was a fine general under Montgomery.
As we say: Eff that poofter Brit poseur Monty. ;-)
I’ll comment more about Monty when I get back to a proper keyboard, but if your logic were to apply to all such events, we would need to tear down all Vietnam memorials and try to forget that ever happened. Do you think that a good idea too?
They are honoring the sacrifice of those who fought (and often enough died) trying to liberate them. The bad plan and planner has no bearing on their valor or courage. There were plenty enough examples in Market Garden when the plan was falling apart and Allied troops decided to surrender or self-sacrifice rather than let Dutch civilians be incidentally slaughtered by German troops. Worth remembering and holding up to future generations as how one should act.
Also pretty sure Monty isn’t going to be even mentioned much there. He was at one point a very good general but then started believing his press.
Yeah, thank God for that!
Market -Garden was an absolute horror show that ended up getting a large number of Allied troops needlessly killed and did nothing to shorten the war. Montgomery called it ‘’an unqualified success’’. The Dutch people suffered horribly at the hands of the SS because of it leaving the then 33 year old Dutch regent-in-exile Prince Rupert to say “My country can never again afford the luxury of a Montgomery success’’.
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