The Battle of Arnhem: The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II Hardcover – September 11, 2018

This is the single most exhaustive and best description of Operation Market Garden ever written. Written with the benefits of an exhaustive research of the British, American, Dutch and German records, the book provides amazing detail to "The Bridge Too Far" in Arnhem, Nethlerlands. The whole plan suffered from the plain fact that it relied on a single road of attack by the British XXX Corps where going off the road was a near impossibility due to the wet, boggy polders, obvious to anyone who has spent any time in The Netherlands (they rarely use fences in pastures as a dug ditch will quickly fill with water creating a natural barrier). The failure to listen to Dutch military personnel about the geographical defeat of the plan was just another in a string of Montgomery ego led disasters. The utter evil -- absolutely barbaric and shocking to the conscious -- actions of the Nazi SS, the German commanders in The Netherlands, the Dutch SS and the average German soldier are properly detailed and the Dutch people would rightly demand a fuller accounting of the barbarous actions during those months. The author thoroughly explores the lack of planning by Montgomery and Browning, the willful self delusion of Montgomery borne from an ego that held little regard for the futility and needless death of British and American troops. Reluctantly and very mistakenly Eisenhower put American Divisions under the command of the British General Montgomery in what turned out to be the greatest loss of any American Airborne Division -- before or since. Montgomery should be a national disgrace to the British, that is clear. Eisenhower began acting as a politician in deferring to Monty's superhuman ego, and abdicated his role as general commanding in a war. The greatest suffering was then endured by the Dutch people. Epic in its tragedy. A lesson in failed leadership by the British and American commanding generals. A shock and outrage to the conscious in the inhumanity and pure evil of the German army. A story that needs to be retold -- and very well done. I would agree with the criticism that the battle maps were not helpful and could have been done better.

This is, without question, the absolute worst nightmare rendition of of World war two history ever submitted for either cogent research, or, descriptive prose.This book is the absolute nadir of describing any history of battle ever written. I read every page of the disorganized drivel I just paid for, with hopes the author would eventually attempt to clairify the reality of this great engagement. Sure, the author must have undertaken a Herculean effort to pile in disconnected prose, historical sequencing and sheer avoidance of cartographic references... But to what cause? Absolute obfuscation.References to battlefield charts are unfathomable. Don't waste a penny of your money, or, a minute of your time. It's simply an awful disservice to a heroic loss

In mid-September 1944, the Allies launched a bold plan in hopes of ending the war in Europe by Christmas. Utilizing both airborne and land forces, the plan was to capture the bridges over the Rhine and then sweep directly into Germany.The plan was bold, but in the end, it proved to be foolhardy, for the Germans had several divisions in the area. To make matters worse, the British XXX corps never completed their objective; to relieve the paratroopers who jumped into Arnhem. Dysfunction was the rule of the day, and eventually, the Allies were forced to cut their losses and get out while they still could."The Battle of Arnhem" is a very good book about one of the classic Allied blunders of the war. Author Antony Beevor has written a compelling narrative about the plans and execution of the battle, from the Allied blunders to the German triumph. He also describes the terrible plight of the Dutch civilians who were nearly starved to death.I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the European theater of World War II. Many know this battle as "A Bridge Too Far", but it was much more than that; it was the Allies' attempt to end the war early. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

I much enjoyed reading this account of Operation Market Garden. It was an event I was already familiar with as I had read other accounts. I lost a lot of respect for General Montgomery, however. His idea of concentrating allied efforts to, in his view, win the war by charging into Germany via crossing the Rhine and heading to Berlin was wrong. He was a thorn in Ike's side and should have been replaced.

very well written and comprehensive account, dealing with the operation from the world-wide context of WW2 down to individual experiences and reminiscences.

With the battle of Arnhem, Anthony Beevor presents a new account of the disastrous operation Market-Garden. The facts are well established and known by many who saw the movie “a bridge too far”. Anthony Beevor does not modify this history but, by including many personal testimonies both from soldiers and Dutch civilians, he gives a gripping and often moving account of a ferocious battle.After the liberation of Belgium by the British army in the first week of September 1944, the Germans were running, but the allied offensive stalled because of their overstretched supply lines. Rather than clearing the estuary of the Schelde, which would have opened the port of Antwerp to allied shipping, Montgomery wanted to win a decisive victory against the German by securing the bridge across the Rhine in Arnhem, 100km away from the front, thus allowing an offensive into the Rhur. The plan involved dropping paratroopers from the US 82nd and 101st airborne division to seize bridges at Eindhoven and Nijmegen, and the British 1st airborne in Arnhem. British armored divisions were to rush on the road through the polders to reinforce the airborne divisions. The British planners ignored advises from the Dutch that it was a high risk operation because the polders were not suitable for the displacement of armored divisions and that the timing was too tight. The operation did not allow for any snag and, unfortunately, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Communications with the 1st airborne were never established because of faulty radio sets, bad weather delayed and hampered the drop of supplies and reinforcements. A British brigade reached the bridge and established a defense perimeter on one end of the bridge, but they were surrounded by SS divisions, and the other British battalions were dispersed and failed to rejoin them. Most importantly, the British armored divisions facing strong German opposition were fighting from 9 to 5 and moved at snail’s pace along the polders road that the Americans had nicknamed Hell’s highway. The paratroopers held a position on the North bank of the Rhine for a week before they were ordered to evacuate. In the end, only 2,500 men out of 10,000 made it back to the British lines. The others had been killed, wounded and/or made prisoners.There are many things to remember from this battle. The first is the extraordinary arrogance and callousness of the British generals who ignored all advises to gamble with the lives of their men. They sent them in an ill-conceived, ill prepared, and poorly executed operation. And they spent the rest of their lives writing their memoirs to pass the buck! It is better to remember the extraordinary courage and the sacrifices of the British paratroopers who kept fighting against all odds. Their courage was matched by that of the Dutch people who helped them, cared for the wounded despite the risk of German reprisals. There were many acts of mercy, at least in Arnhem: British paratroopers and SS cared for each other’s wounded and both sides treated prisoners well. Unfortunately, the German showed no mercy to the Dutch. Those suspected of helping the British were shot. The entire population of Arnhem was ordered to evacuate. Tens of thousands Dutch people died in occupied Holland during the 1944-1945 hunger winter because the Germans would not allow food supplies to reach them.Anthony Beevor’s book is not only a tribute to the courage and gallantry of the men who fought and died, but it is mostly a powerful reminder that war is always a horrible thing.

Not Beevor's best. This multi-phase operation is not easy to follow in these pages. And the maps are terrible. Full of detail that is not in the text. Full of military jargon so that an long sentence about an aspect of the battle is undecipherable to a non-military reader. All those technical references to equipment, firepower, etc., are not needed.

Another example of the powerful writing of this author on military history. Not to be missed if you want to understand what came to be known as “a bridge too far”. Accurate, in-depth and authoritative, it is an even handed accounting of a poorly planned and disastrously executed operation that had virtually no chance of success.

A better historical telling of the Bridge to Far than N Ryan’s and his was very good.