September 17, 1944...76 years ago...Operation began...
I read the book...Then I watched the movie...
I think the movie was OK...It had good battle scenes... Like the artillery barrage scene...The scene where US paratroopers take the bridge...
Entrance to Antwerp should have been secured first...Canadians eventually took care of that later...
Its called Monty! If they thought Patton and McCarthur were premodonnas, Monty wore a prom dress!
Not as well covered, but Monty was a disaster in the D-Day/Normandy campaign as well.
CC
Two American airborne divisions were badly mauled in the week long battle.
Despite intelligence reports, supplied at great risk by Dutch resistance that there were two Waffen SS panzer divisions in the Arnhem area Montgomery still went ahead with the attack. In retaliation the Germans blockaded all food supplies to Holland and many people starved to death. One young Dutch girl by the name Audrey Kathleen Ruston nearly starved to death and for the rest of her life she would always remain very thin and frail. But she would go on to become one of the most beloved stars of Hollywood as Audrey Hepburn. The Dutch people suffered terribly because of Montgomery debacle. To the end that narcissistic Limey prick Montgomery said "I am Market-Gardens sole champion. I consider it an unqualified success!'' To which the then 33 year old regent-in-exile Prince Rupert said "My country can never again afford the luxury of a Montgomery success''.
I was at the doctor the other day and he took blood from my right arm. Then the nurse said I should keep my arm raised so it doesn’t get swollen and hurt. By the time I got home it was a bit swollen and hurting so I took a pill and laid on the bed. I started watching a WW2 documentary on the iPad Pro with my arm raised. Then my wife came in and wanted to know why I was Nazi saluting the WW2 documentary.
Well, the people that were freed in the low countries certainly appreciated it even though the last objective was not met.
The whole thing was a bad idea from the start.....only one main road which was higher than everything around it (to avoid being flooded) which made vehicles on that road perfect targets. Several key bridges to capture. Panzer divisions resting an refitting right near the 3rd critical objective, not enough transport aircraft.
To top it all off, the British had had a major success when they captured Antwerp which was a desperately needed major port. The Germans heavily fortified the Scheldt estuary to prevent its use and the Allies deployed some understrength Canadian divisions to take it against very stiff German opposition. That mission should have been prioritized. Getting Antwerp in operation would largely solve Allied supply problems setting up the next phase of the campaign - the conquest of the Reich.
The key strategic mistake was Ike’s failure to DIRECT Monty to open Antwerp, rather than allowing him to do Market Garden. It was all about logistics.
Was Eisenhower at Antwerp the Biggest Allied Blunder of World War II?
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If the British 1st Airborne Division had the proper crystals in their radios, they could have better coordinated with the rest of the Allied commands. Supplies meant for them that were dropping behind the German lines might have been redirected to the areas they held. Then they could have resisted or withdrawn (if necessary) more effectively. The Polish Parachute Brigade might have been spared their disaster.
As it was, the 1st Airborne couldn’t communicate with the rest of the commands in the operation due to the short range of their broadcast radios. This led to worry in the Allied staffs, miscues as supplies (and the Polish airborne troops) bound for them didn’t reach them, and poor coordination in effectively bringing the elements of the division together.
Mistake#1: Allowing British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery command something....
Mistake#2: a single road
Mistake #3: ignored intelligence indicating that two elite SS Panzer divisions had been stationed in the region
Mistake #4: Not asking “Murphy” what he plans to do!!!
They failed to take into account that airborne operations rarely worked at that time.
I saw the movie for the first time two weeks ago
My dad was there, next to the Battle of the Bulge it was his worst experience. He was not a fan of Monty and disparaged him always.
Monty blew Market Garden before he even got permission from Ike to launch it. There was no German front line in Holland, and Monty had enough gas to go another one hundred miles, but he stopped cold instead of fighting a battle of exploitation that potentially could have captured the Market Garden objectives two weeks before the operation was actually launched. He also could have cleared the approaches to Antwerp, which not only would have relieved the Allied supply problems, but would have kept the German Fifteenth Army trapped on the channel coast. Even if Monty had waited a day or two to allow his soldiers to rest and perform maintenance of their vehicles, he still could have continued to attack, and not allow the Germans to reestablish a front line.
He was mentioned by name in one of Stephan Ambrose’s books. They dropped into Normandy without bullets. He landed near a group of Germans, knifed one and hid out until dawn. His sons had never heard the story when I showed them the passage. Died in his 90s a few years ago.