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Post by Ben Burgess on Nov 11, 2004 17:24:19 GMT -5
Welcome to what I hope will be the first of a number of interesting and thought provoking debates at our fledgling forum. This week we are hoping to analyze Market Garden, the operation made famous in Cornelius Ryan's book 'A Bridge Too Far' and the subsequent film made during the 1970's. Seen as a great gamble by the usually cautious Montgomery it was frowned upon by both Patton and Bradley. A chance to end the war in 1944, however, proved too tempting to Eisenhower. Was the Operation too ambitious or its undertaking simply not good enough? And was it an utter disaster or did it have some saving graces? Whatever your opinion, there's space for it here. You can find out more about aspects of Market Garden by visiting our article here www.yoursites.co.uk/the_battle_of_arnhem.htmI look forward to hearing your opinions. Regards, Ben
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Post by historyus on Nov 11, 2004 17:57:47 GMT -5
I think another crucial point in analyzing Market Garden is to consider the alternatives. Would a drive on the Siegfried Line really have been advisable? Should the impetus have been given to Pattons own drive towards Germany? Its a fairly sizeable issue to debate, good choice though.
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Post by Jan Hyrman on Nov 15, 2004 3:17:15 GMT -5
Well, I would say that it was both. A disaster, but a partial success. It was a undisputed disaster due to the considerable losses inflicted upon the Allied troops by the unexpected resistance encountered, but many lessons were learned.
For example, the 2nd Tactical Air Force was never allowed to participate in the operation to any serious extent, which was definetely a step backward. The unit had wide experience with close support during offensive operations and could have provided serious assistance to the airborne troops. Also, if the 21st Army Group planners with their extensive experience had their say, it might have turned out at least a bit different, but all the planning was done by the 1st Airborne Army back in England...
On the other hand, all these are just big IFs and nothing of the above may have mattered in the end. Who knows...
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Post by Jan Hyrman on Nov 24, 2004 7:53:32 GMT -5
And by the way - to what extent do you think the Allies would be able to exploit a complete success of the operation? What do you think the crossing of the Rhine at such an early stage would cause in respect to the capture of Berlin?
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Post by Ben Burgess on Nov 25, 2004 20:24:57 GMT -5
I believe the success of Market Garden and the effects of its aftermath would depend greatly on how quickly the allied forces would have been able to recover from the losses they may have sustained. Had they been able to exploit the advantage fully in the event of a success, a winter campaign may have been mounted, avoiding the set backs caused during the Bulge (coincidentally our archive is desperately short of articles on this period of the conflict for any potential contributors reading!) and perhaps even (dare I say it) reaching Berlin before the Soviets.
Obviously this is only speculation, although had this happened it cannot be doubted that the world would have been a much different place.
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Post by Jan Hyrman on Nov 26, 2004 1:26:12 GMT -5
Well, we can probably conclude that it definetely was a disaster and a weighty lesson hard learned by the Allies. Out of the approximately 35,000 paratroopers and airborne troops, including Polish troops from the Polish Independent Brigade Group, some 2,400 returned safely back. The casualties, including dead, wounded and captured, were therefore about 93 %... Too bad those two SS-Panzerdivisionen were trying to get some rest in the area, recovering from the fierce fighting in France - Montgomery could get the bridges he need for his badly coveted drive for Berlin
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Post by ZZZ on Aug 30, 2007 1:20:19 GMT -5
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Post by hgfhfg on Sept 17, 2007 0:46:34 GMT -5
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Post by ghgfhfg on Sept 20, 2007 2:30:57 GMT -5
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Post by sdfa on Nov 5, 2007 4:11:27 GMT -5
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