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The Battle for Arnhem
News Scotsman ^ | September 12 2004 | Louise Barnett

Posted on 09/12/2004 8:25:30 AM PDT by knighthawk

It was part of the Allied’s Operation Market Garden, the biggest airborne operation in history.

It was devised by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Its aim was to end the Second World War by the end of 1944.

Operation Market Garden consisted of two strands: the occupation of bridges close to the Dutch-German border by airborne troops (Market) and the advance of the Second British Army (Garden).

Some 35,000 British, American and Polish airborne troops were to be dropped into Holland over a three-day period from September 17, 1944.

Once the waterways were secured they would be reinforced by ground troops which would push through into Germany.

The operation failed because of a number of factors, resulting in thousands of Allied troops losing their lives.

Its failure was blamed on the decision to carry out the airdrop on three consecutive days to points up to eight miles from the paras’ targets, losing the element of surprise.

Radio communications initially failed and some of the drops were delayed due to poor weather.

Two powerful German Panzer divisions recuperating in Arnhem after Normandy put up an unexpected and deadly resistance to the Allied effort. It is thought that British military top brass knew of the German presence but underestimated their capability.

A bloody four-day battle at the northern end of Arnhem Bridge cost hundreds of men their lives. Led by Lt Col John Frost, the paras fought until their ammunition ran out.

Only around 2,000 men from the British 1st Airborne Division returned from the ill-fated Operation. Around 8,000 were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.

Before the battle started Lieutenant-General “Boy” Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Air Army, warned: “We might be going a bridge too far.” It was to become one of the most famous military phrases.

The bloody defeat is the subject of Richard Attenborough’s star-studded 1977 film A Bridge Too Far.


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: arnhem; history; marketgarden; operation; wwii
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To: PAR35

It went better than most previous large drops. IMHO, though it wasn't necessary, the river crossings would have succeeded just as well without the airborne drop,


21 posted on 09/13/2004 9:24:05 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Marry not a tennis player. For love means nothing to them.)
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To: PAR35

Don't confuse heavy casualties with a disaster. The German airborne attack on Crete was a strategic success, despite high casualties. With Crete in German hands, the Royal Navy was forced out of the Aegean and most of the eastern Mediterranean.


22 posted on 09/13/2004 9:29:55 AM PDT by Seydlitz
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To: Seydlitz
The German airborne attack on Crete was a strategic success, despite high casualties.

Crete was a success because the Allied troops, due to communications breakdowns, withdrew from strong defensive positions without pressure from the Germans to do so, coupled with a failure to take the fight to the Germans during the early stages.

My view is that Crete was more of a British loss (although many of the troops were from the commonwealth) than a German victory.

23 posted on 09/13/2004 11:54:16 AM PDT by PAR35
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To: PAR35
Allied mistakes helped the Germans, but that is a truism of war itself. The inevitable mistakes of the defeated always aid the victor.

Crete was definitely a German success because of their ability to keep the fight up despite being heavily out-numbered, deprived of heavy weapons, and able to keep the pressue on despite heavy losses. The ability of a combat unit to continue functioning in the face of high losses, like the USMC in the Pacfic island-hopping campaign, is the hallmark of an elite unit.

You will never encounter an Allied veteran who did not have very high regard for the fallschirmjaeger, just as German accounts also speak very highly of Allied paratroops. The sole exception, of course, was the Soviet paratroops, known to military historians as "the first and the worst".

24 posted on 09/14/2004 7:55:48 AM PDT by Seydlitz
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To: knighthawk

Please put me on your list, thanks.


25 posted on 09/14/2004 7:59:38 AM PDT by schu
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To: Seydlitz
You will never encounter an Allied veteran who did not have very high regard for the fallschirmjaeger, just as German accounts also speak very highly of Allied paratroops.

I agree that they were elite troops; the whole concept was fatally flawed, a fact which the Germans realized long before the western allies did.

26 posted on 09/14/2004 8:54:50 AM PDT by PAR35
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To: schu

I put you on the Europe list.


27 posted on 09/14/2004 10:03:08 AM PDT by knighthawk (We will always remember We will always be proud We will always be prepared so we may always be free)
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Netherlands prepares to commemorate 60th anniversary of battle of Arnhem

THE HAGUE (AFP) - This week the Netherlands will honor the thousands of mainly British and Polish soldiers who took part in the failed attempt to seize a bridgehead north of the Rhine river near Arnhem between September 17 and 23, 1944, a tragic episode in the Allied advance on Germany.


Britain's Prince Charles and Dutch Queen Beatrix will be present along with hundreds of veterans for the religious ceremony to commemorate the battle on Sunday September 19, in Oosterbeek near Arnhem.


On Thursday the veterans will march over the bridge "for the first time in ten years and probably the last time, taking in their advanced age," Jos Rouwen of the commemoration organising committee said.


Immortalized in the movie "A Bridge Too Far" by Richard Attenborough, the battle of Arnhem left 1,700 soldiers, mainly British, dead.


The troops were supposed to seize a bridge over the Rhine river in a daring operation, code named Market Garden, devised by British general Montgomery to allow allied troops to enter Germany through the Netherlands in a surprise advance to end the war in 1944.


Thousand of British, American and Polish paratroopers were dropped above the Netherlands in the largest airborne and glider operation in history to occupy bridges and waterways from Belgium to Arnhem to open the way for the allied tanks.


"It was a chain of bigger and smaller military operations that all had to succeed in time. One weak link could cause the failure of the whole operation," Dutch historian Geert Mak writes.


In Arnhem the allied forces were dropped too far away from the bridge, at some 12 kilometres (7.5 miles), and encountered unexpected heavy resistance by German troops on the way.


Despite warning from the Dutch resistance the allied command did not count on the presence of two German SS Panzer divisions and to top it off the British had been given faulty transmitters and could not contact their command.


The bridge is now named after British lieutenant colonel John Frost who together with 600 men held the bridge for four days before being overrun.


Of the 10,000 paratroopers dropped over Arnhem, more than 1,700 were killed, 3,000 were wounded and 2,000 were able to return to allied ranks. The remaining troops were captured by the German forces.


For the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the battle of Arnhem the Dutch have paid for the veterans to come and will house them with families in and around the town.


Four hundred veterans, 350 British and 50 Poles, will attend the commemorations.


"For the local people these men are heroes, we admire their courage. My parents, who lived close to the bridge during the war, always told us about the soldiers," Rouwen told AFP.


Arnhem's inhabitants and local businesses have donated more than 650,000 euros (800,000 dollars) to help organize the events.


The veterans will march on the bridge from 1100 GMT on Thursday. On Friday they will lay wreaths in the different military cemeteries and at various monuments around Arnhem.


Paratroopers including four veterans will re-enact the landing on Saturday in Ede, close to Arnhem, before Sunday's official commemoration ceremony in the presence of Prince Charles, Queen Beatrix and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1538&ncid=732&e=4&u=/afp/20040914/wl_uk_afp/netherlands_wwii


28 posted on 09/14/2004 11:01:46 AM PDT by knighthawk (We will always remember We will always be proud We will always be prepared so we may always be free)
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To: knighthawk

I'd like to be on the Europe-list, whenever you have the time, please enlist me.


29 posted on 09/15/2004 1:03:29 AM PDT by Atlantic Friend ( Cursum Perficio)
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To: Atlantic Friend

I added you to the Euro-list. Welcome!


30 posted on 09/15/2004 9:13:08 AM PDT by knighthawk (We will always remember We will always be proud We will always be prepared so we may always be free)
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To: knighthawk
For the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the battle of Arnhem the Dutch have paid for the veterans to come and will house them with families in and around the town. A commendable courtesy for a commemoration.
31 posted on 09/18/2004 8:09:41 AM PDT by cornelis
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