OPERATION MARKET GARDEN - THE BATTLE FOR ARNHEM

[Bob Womack]

The term may have been used in the film but was the term actually used in real life? If it was, it seems a stupid thing to say because the whole point of the entire operation was to capture all of the bridges including, most importantly, the bridge at Arnhem because that bridge led into the heart of Germany.

The exchange is really strange. During planning for Market-Garden Browning was told he would have to hold the Arnhem Bridge two days to which he replied they could hold it for four days. After the operation, when relating this to Urquhart, he insisted that he'd followed that estimate with, "But I think we might be going a bridge too far." So, the plan was to seize all the bridges but many, right up to Browning, seemed to have thought it was simply not possible, right from the outset.


It is significant that Montgomery refused to seek the advice of the Dutch Army officers in exile about his plan. As it turned out, an assault from Belgium was a standard problem on the Dutch Army officer's Academy test. When asked about it after the fact, a Dutch officer laughed and said, "Ah, Monty would have failed the Dutch Army Academy graduation exam. We all knew you couldn't fight up the route he choose - it was an elevated highway that exposed you to fire over every foot you moved. Our leaders had developed a route over a system of back-roads that were largely protected."


Bob