Montgomery called Market Garden a “rapier thrust to the German heart”.
Patton called it a “f###ing pin prick to the German ass”.
An offensive along a single road was doomed to fail. Even Ike’s Chief of Staff Walter Bedell Smith called it a lousy idea.
Montgomery screwed his own offensive by not clearing the estuaries leading to the port of Antwerp. He captured the port intact but German forces on the estuary islands controlled the approaches making the port unusable by allied shipping.
Compounding the problems was the fact that Von Runstedt had replaced Model as Commander West. Von Runstedt took command 18 days before Market Garden and started moving German forces to more effective positions.
In the end, Montgomery was the biggest reason Market Garden failed. But he went to his death claiming the Americans were the reason for the failure.
“Montgomery screwed his own offensive by not clearing the estuaries leading to the port of Antwerp. He captured the port intact but German forces on the estuary islands controlled the approaches making the port unusable by allied shipping.”
IMO, it was Ike’s fault that he didn’t DIRECT Monty to clear the Scheldt Estuary, to the exclusion of anything else. The entire European battle plan depended upon opening the ports ASAP. But Monty was jealous of Patton’s headlines, and wanted a big splash.