A Bridge Too Far Battle 1944
A Bridge Too Far, an attempt by the Allies to vault over the Rhine River and into Germany before Christmas 1944.
As the Germans retreated from France and Belgium in the late summer of 1944, the victorious Allies found themselves in a dilemma created by their own success. With most of the Channel ports either still in German hands or damaged too extensively to be of any use, the American, British, and Canadian armies outran their supply lines. Gas, fuel, and munitions had to be driven from the Normandy beaches to the front line, which in some places was 400 miles distant. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, desperately needed to capture the Belgian port of Antwerp, Europe's largest.
Another serious problem facing the Allies was British General (later Field Marshal) Bernard L. Montgomery. Montgomery - or Monty, as he was known to the public - was Britain's most popular general as a result of his victory over German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at El Alamein. Because Montgomery was considered a master of the "set-piece battle," Eisenhower had appointed him as the chief ground commander of the Allied forces for the duration of the Normandy campaign, with the understanding that Ike would then assume direct command on September 1, 1944.
Despite the mixed performance of Montgomery in Normandy (his British-Canadian forces had taken Caen - a D-Day objective - only after a month's worth of battles), the British general was reluctant to give up the ground forces command. Although a brilliant officer, Monty was also aloof and arrogant...and ambitious. He did not seem to understand that the Americans were fast becoming the predominant force in Western Europe, while Britain had reached the limit of her available manpower. He insisted - with the support of some of his superiors in Whitehall - that he be given command of all Allied ground forces, something that was militarily and politically unacceptable to the other partners of the coalition.
Montgomery also proposed a decisive "full-blooded thrust" to cross the Rhine River and take the Ruhr valley, Germany's industrial heartland. He proposed that Eisenhower give him command of forty divisions (pointedly excluding his American rival, Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. and his Third Army) to achieve this.
Eisenhower refused. But on Sept. 4, 1944, the British Second Army captured the port city of Antwerp. Soon after that, German V-2 rockets launched from Nazi-occupied Holland fell on London. This gave Montgomery a chance to propose a contingency plan that might, just might, lead to a bridgehead over the Rhine - and even into Germany itself.
Thus Operation Market-Garden was conceived.
Market-Garden was to be what is known as a combined-arms vertical envelopment. Market, the airborne element, involved the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, the British 1st Airborne Division, and the Polish 1st Airborne Brigade. They were to be dropped - in history's largest airborne operation - in daylight onto a series of drop and landing zones near a series of bridges which linked a single highway from Eindhoven in the south to Arnhem on the Lower Rhine. Garden, the ground element, consisted of British Gen. Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps, a powerful armored force which was expected to make the 64-mile drive to Arnhem in two days. Ironically, this admittedly daring plan was the brainchild of the Allies' most cautious general.
As the Germans retreated from France and Belgium in the late summer of 1944, the victorious Allies found themselves in a dilemma created by their own success. With most of the Channel ports either still in German hands or damaged too extensively to be of any use, the American, British, and Canadian armies outran their supply lines. Gas, fuel, and munitions had to be driven from the Normandy beaches to the front line, which in some places was 400 miles distant. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, desperately needed to capture the Belgian port of Antwerp, Europe's largest.
Another serious problem facing the Allies was British General (later Field Marshal) Bernard L. Montgomery. Montgomery - or Monty, as he was known to the public - was Britain's most popular general as a result of his victory over German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at El Alamein. Because Montgomery was considered a master of the "set-piece battle," Eisenhower had appointed him as the chief ground commander of the Allied forces for the duration of the Normandy campaign, with the understanding that Ike would then assume direct command on September 1, 1944.
Despite the mixed performance of Montgomery in Normandy (his British-Canadian forces had taken Caen - a D-Day objective - only after a month's worth of battles), the British general was reluctant to give up the ground forces command. Although a brilliant officer, Monty was also aloof and arrogant...and ambitious. He did not seem to understand that the Americans were fast becoming the predominant force in Western Europe, while Britain had reached the limit of her available manpower. He insisted - with the support of some of his superiors in Whitehall - that he be given command of all Allied ground forces, something that was militarily and politically unacceptable to the other partners of the coalition.
Montgomery also proposed a decisive "full-blooded thrust" to cross the Rhine River and take the Ruhr valley, Germany's industrial heartland. He proposed that Eisenhower give him command of forty divisions (pointedly excluding his American rival, Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. and his Third Army) to achieve this.
Eisenhower refused. But on Sept. 4, 1944, the British Second Army captured the port city of Antwerp. Soon after that, German V-2 rockets launched from Nazi-occupied Holland fell on London. This gave Montgomery a chance to propose a contingency plan that might, just might, lead to a bridgehead over the Rhine - and even into Germany itself.
Thus Operation Market-Garden was conceived.
Market-Garden was to be what is known as a combined-arms vertical envelopment. Market, the airborne element, involved the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, the British 1st Airborne Division, and the Polish 1st Airborne Brigade. They were to be dropped - in history's largest airborne operation - in daylight onto a series of drop and landing zones near a series of bridges which linked a single highway from Eindhoven in the south to Arnhem on the Lower Rhine. Garden, the ground element, consisted of British Gen. Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps, a powerful armored force which was expected to make the 64-mile drive to Arnhem in two days. Ironically, this admittedly daring plan was the brainchild of the Allies' most cautious general.
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