Can we say "pencil-like thrust?" Yes, I knew that we could. Just what Ike thought Monty was proposing in his "dash to Berlin" plan. Colorado, I think you hit the nail on the head with your observation that Monty was prodded by Patton's success, and very jealous. Even Patton would not have sanctioned this plan. It wasn't feasible.
I had always thought the followup plan was to turn south and drive in behind the Rhine toward the Ruhr. That’s the first I’ve seen that they planned to turn north, away from Germany.
Yep, these books only cost a dollar for 160 pages of history, photos and maps. Damned good historians like Geoffrey Jukes, Earl Ziemke and John Keegan were contributing authors. I still have about two dozen in my library. I started my history library with these gems. Now you know where my allowance money went. These books and giant Sweet Tarts and Charms Big Pops. Forget girls; not on the radar screen. Me on theirs, that is.
"Pencil-like thrust." I think I'll leave that one alone!
It was an absurd plan. There was one two lane road for the entire advance. Much of the road was elevated above squishy polders that could not support heavy armor, so there was no room to maneuver. Any stop of the advance leaves airborne troops dangling in Arnhem. The Brits had no sense of urgency and no idea how to pull off such a daring operation. In my opinion the only commander who would have had a chance to pull this off would be Patton, who would kick butt pushing the advance 24/7 until he either got to Arnhem or it fell.
But I agree with you that Patton was too good a commander to adopt such a foolish plan.
It is also interesting to note that the British never even bothered to finish the plan and get over the neder-rijn. They abandoned the plan and turned east to the more direct route into Germany. If you think about it, isn't the more direct route, going over one big river, better than an indirect route through watery Holland? Arnhem finally fell as sort of an afterthought in the aftermath of Operation Plunder, when Monty finally got across the Rhine, but I am getting way ahead of myself.
He didn’t think the airborne troops would be spread too thin?
henkster, do have a link to this map? I agree with colorado tanker, it is a helpful map.