British paratroopers at Oosterbeek during Operation Market Garden, September 1944. Imperial War Museum.↗
In September 1944, Bernard Montgomery's ambitious airborne operation aimed to capture a series of bridges into Germany and end the war by Christmas. At Arnhem, the plan met the SS.
Field Marshal Montgomery proposed Market Garden on September 10, 1944, convinced that a single powerful thrust could crack Germany's collapsing western defenses and end the war before winter. The plan: three airborne divisions capture bridges over Dutch waterways, with British XXX Corps driving a corridor to link them up. The final bridge at Arnhem over the Rhine was the strategic prize. General Browning reportedly told Montgomery: 'A bridge too far.' He was right.
On September 17, 35,000 paratroopers descended in one of the largest airborne operations in history. The American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions captured most of their objectives. The British 1st Airborne at Arnhem ran into a problem Allied intelligence had not anticipated: two SS Panzer divisions—the 9th and 10th—were in the area refitting. Ultra signals intelligence had detected them but the warning had not reached the planning echelon that could have changed the decision. The paratroopers dropped onto veterans in tanks.
Only one battalion—the 2nd Parachute Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel John Frost—reached the Arnhem bridge's north end. Frost's 740 men held the bridge ramp for three days against mounting SS pressure, waiting for XXX Corps which was stuck on a single-file road the Dutch called 'the Devil's Highway.' Frost's force was destroyed on September 20 as ammunition ran out. A total of 2,163 men from the 1st Airborne escaped across the Rhine; 8,000 remained behind, killed or captured.
Market Garden failed for knowable reasons: drop zones were too far from the bridge (7 miles); radio equipment was inadequate for the terrain; the plan assumed XXX Corps could maintain 15 mph on a single road; and intelligence warnings about German armor were available and ignored. Montgomery never fully acknowledged these failures.
Simon & Schuster, 1974
Crowood Press, 1994
Cassell Military, 2002
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