Operation "Market Garden"

[Dani]

Maybe most of you heard about operation "Market Garden" (mostly - I'm not afraid to said that because even I read and saw - after reading and saw "A Bridge Too Far").
In your point of view "Market Garden" could had any chance of success if...
a)Patton could help 30th Core (of Bradley);
On Arnhem 1st Army should been deployed closer to the bridge;
c) On Arnhem Polish Brigade should been deployed together with the First Army;
d) If Brits should not stop for 5'o'clock tea and overnight staying;
e) You name it..
?

[dragos]

QUOTE

e) You name it..

2nd SS Panzer Corps did not exist in the area

[Dani]

QUOTE

QUOTE e) You name it.. 2nd SS Panzer Corps did not exist in the area

And Dutch channels too! No channels - no bridges!

[dragos]

I remember a documentary on Discovery about this operation. The conclusion was: could this operation have succeeded with better planning? The answer was no.

[Dani]

I saw as well that documentary. Anyway col. Frost and his men fought a bloody battle up there on Arnhem Bridge! Hail and honours to him and to all who fought in that battles (1st Army, 101st, 82nd, 30th Core, Polish Brigade and also to Germans - there are too many units on the German side to remember here :wink: ).

[Chandernagore]

Well it's easy to dump the operation after the facts because you've got hindsight that Montgomery did not have.

I don't like Montgomery. His fame is undeserved IMO. He was much more like a McClellan than a Sherman.... expept in the Market Garden operation 8)

But let's say this in his defence :

- You don't know which bridge is too far until you fail to reach it.
- Your intelligence services sometimes fails to locates the refit areas of SS Pz divisions.
- It would have taken Merlin to predict what it would be (and how much time it would take) to drive on Dutch roads under artillery fire right to the Rhine.
- It was not the first (and last) time the Allies fucked up an intelligence task or a military operation. Much the same as everybody else, no surprise.

[Carol I]

My opinion is that Operation Market Garden was a long-shot operation. It implied an 150 km offensive on a front line only a few meters wide (basically the width of the road). Not that much chances of success unfortunately. If I remember correctly the operation was criticised from the very beginning, with some even considering it some sort of an ego-boosting activity for Montgomery who was sidelined during Operation Overlord. But I guess they eventually thought: "It's a crazy idea, but let's try it and see what will come out of it!".

On the other hand, the planning of the operation was not as bad as its practical implementation. Errors in deploying the troops, bad luck with weather that delayed the re-supplying of the paratroopers, faulty intelligence information etc., they all contributed to the eventual failure of the operation.

But nothing said above minimises the bravery, heroism and sacrifices of those who took part to the operation.

[Carol I]

I have done a search in Google for Operation Market Garden and I have found these two sites that seem quite interesting:

http://www.marketgarden.com/

http://www.rememberseptember44.com/

[PanzerKing]

Well the British knew that German tank units were there...they had pics of them and just flat out neglected to care about it.

Also, it doesn't make matters any better when the enemy has found an exact copy of the plans too.

[Dani]

QUOTE

Also, it doesn't make matters any better when the enemy has found an exact copy of the plans too.

I wonder why that allied officer was in that glider with all plans? What he is supposed to do?

[PanzerKing]

If I remember correctly, the plans were left accidently in one of the empty gliders.

[C-2]

Market Garden,in my opinion ,sort of a "ww2 Galipoli".Soldiers sent to death without much of inteligence information.

[Dani]

QUOTE

If I remember correctly, the plans were left accidently in one of the empty gliders.

By whom? They used to walk across all the airbases with top secret plans in their pockets? :loool:

[johnny_bi]

QUOTE

By whom? They used to walk across all the airbases with top secret plans in their pockets?

The episode is presented in Cornelius Ryan's book "A bridge too far". Some German officers disregarded the plan considering that the document was too perfect to be real... But many others did believe that the documents were not fake... Among them, if I am correct, was Bittrich (I hope that my spell is correct) - the commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. An other officer that was sure that the plan was not a fake was Student, whose troops were scattered along the allied "highway" to Arnhem...

[Dani]

QUOTE

QUOTE By whom? They used to walk across all the airbases with top secret plans in their pockets? The episode is presented in Cornelius Ryan's book "A bridge too far". Some German officers disregarded the plan considering that the document was too perfect to be real... But many others did believe that the documents were not fake... Among them, if I am correct, was Bittrich (I hope that my spell is correct) - the commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. An other officer that was sure that the plan was not a fake was Student, whose troops were scattered along the allied "highway" to Arnhem...

johnny_bi, the Ryan's book doesn't mention how it comes that the plans were in that glider but mention only what you said already. That's why I am wondering about.