A bold and possibly decisively attack. Was worth the risk.
Imagine how the world would look now if it had been successful, and the allies had crossed the Rhine into Germany and ended the war before the Soviet forces arrived in Berlin.
It was SO close …. A couple of tactical decisions, a little extra push by 2 or three units and Arnhem bridge could well have been taken.
Oh and Al Murray (🍻 pub landlord!) has an excellent pod cast about it in his WW2 history series
The folly with Arnhem lies squarely at Montgomery’s door (as it happens, by most contemporaneous accounts was most likely on the spectrum).
Quite the mix of tactical/4D chess brilliance (Notth Africa and his participation in the Allied breakout from Northern France), blatant narcissism and obstinacy (verging on dickishness). Even fellow Brits couldn’t stand him.
For the plan to have worked, everything had to go like clockwork. Stupidest thing one can do in combat is assume anything. Once contact is made, there is always the potential for shit to go tits up. Which it did, in this particular case – and (among others) paras died, unnecessarily, because of it.
2 Comments
A bold and possibly decisively attack. Was worth the risk.
Imagine how the world would look now if it had been successful, and the allies had crossed the Rhine into Germany and ended the war before the Soviet forces arrived in Berlin.
It was SO close …. A couple of tactical decisions, a little extra push by 2 or three units and Arnhem bridge could well have been taken.
Oh and Al Murray (🍻 pub landlord!) has an excellent pod cast about it in his WW2 history series
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0A1fXtARoaOgDvQhHolvuU?si=1FMWNHg3Su-NvwIvwOUEcQ
The folly with Arnhem lies squarely at Montgomery’s door (as it happens, by most contemporaneous accounts was most likely on the spectrum).
Quite the mix of tactical/4D chess brilliance (Notth Africa and his participation in the Allied breakout from Northern France), blatant narcissism and obstinacy (verging on dickishness). Even fellow Brits couldn’t stand him.
For the plan to have worked, everything had to go like clockwork. Stupidest thing one can do in combat is assume anything. Once contact is made, there is always the potential for shit to go tits up. Which it did, in this particular case – and (among others) paras died, unnecessarily, because of it.