What happened to part 2?

@@Muckylittleme Still trying to edit it. It'll be out tomorrow morning. 3 hour movie cut into 2 parts, still takes a minute to edit so all the context of the situations isn't completely lost.

@@TheEclecticBeard Okay, thanks beard.

I appreciate the prompt response, and I wasn’t even thinking about KZfaq’s TOS and the potential for demonetization over something like a copyright strike for providing a factual statement to the audience about a historical military operation. And even though I couldn’t sit through and watch this specific movie on your channel, it prompted me to search for it independently. I consume copious amounts of WW2 military and political history, and aside from Band of Brothers, I think this film was one of the best films of this conflict. Hollywood doesn’t have the most incredible track record when producing historical content. Still, I was pleasantly surprised with the historical accuracy and production value since this film was released in 1977. I told my dad after I watched the movie how impressed I was, and he told me that when it was released that it wasn’t very well received by critics and kind of flopped at the theaters. I don’t know if that was the consequence of how earlier films had depicted the War and military conflict in general or how the educational system taught this event and the corresponding social and political events surrounding the war. I watched the movie already, and I may not watch or even be aware when you plan to share the second half of your reaction because of the KZfaq algorithm, and I fall so many channels I have my notifications turned off. However, I have always enjoyed your reaction videos of TikTok current events, etc. I ♥️ your authenticity, critical thinking, and the fact you are still grounded in reality, unlike some of your contemporaries reacting to current events and pop culture.

I respectfully thank him for his service.

Growing up, my nan had a mirror hanging on the wall with a b & w photo of a man in uniform framed in the centre. It wasn't until I was older that my mom told me he was my nan's brother and he'd been at Arnhem. He'd been taken in by a Dutch family. He was then found and taken prisoner. He died only a few years after getting back home after the war, due to injuries received and ill health which resulted from them.

i wonder if my grandfather knew your dad he also was captured at Arnhem and was a POW

My grandad was with the 1st Airborne and was also captured at Arnhem. He was a POW at Stalag XIIB and then used as forced labour at a town called Uelzen. As the Allies approached all the POW’s were marched away from there and he and two others managed to escape.

I thank your father for his service.

it was an amazing present tation I have watched Clarson present it a couple of times, I also recommend jonny jonson RAF ace spitfire Pilot

Based on a true story in Cornelius Ryan's book, but the man who retrieved the cannister was a member of the Glider Pilot Regiment and not killed, he was obviously interviewed by Ryan after the war - I have a digital copy of the book so it's easy to find: 'Sergeant Lawrence Goldthorpe heard the loudspeaker, too. A few hours earlier he had risked his life to retrieve a resupply pannier--only to discover that it contained, not food or ammunition, but red berets.' Goldthorpe, Lawrence, Sgt. [Glider Pilot Regt]. The story may be part-based on a posthumous VC awarded to RAF pilot David Lord, who stayed at the control of his burning plane as it crashed into Landing Zone 'S' near Reijers Camp farm on 19 September in order to deliver his load of supplies. The film is only 50% historically accurate, much of the narrative has been altered to suit director Richard Attenborough's pacifist desire to make an "anti-war film", so these two incidents were conflated to make them look more futile, instead of making a tribute to David Lord's and Lawrence Goldthorpe's two acts of bravery.

The Longest Day (made early 60s about D-Day) had a similar structure to ABTF and stellar cast. Both based on books by the same WWII journalist (Cornelius Ryan).

Part of the reason the Germans never employed actual paratrooper drops after the opening of the war was the disaster on Crete. German paratroops dropped with little equipment. Their heavy stuff (guns, ammo, supplies, etc) were dropped in separate containers leading to them having to defend themselves with pistols and knives when lots of the containers landed in the other side's hands. Add to that their parachutes basically dangled the trooper by a single cord below the chute which made them spin around and be at complete mercy to the winds. So paratroops would land disoriented and sometimes sick. Their glider troops fared little better since the opposing forces knew where they would land in advance

Love 'Kelly's Heroes' - it's a WW2 film but with a totally 60's attitude.

Saving private Ryan is in my opinion THE best war movie ever made, the first 10 minutes alone make it worth that, I watched it first time in a cinema with surround sound etc I just sat with my chin on my chest throughout the entire storming the beach scene. HAHA it was also the last time I involuntarily shouted something out in a cinema (I was in my late 30s possibly early 40s at the time) it was the part where they had fought their way up the beach and had finally got behind the bunkers that had been slaughtering them, and a bunch of Germans made a run for it, but then stopped and threw up their hands in surrender, it was at that point that I burst out with my very own '2 word' response.

World at War was made by Thames TV.

@@swanvictor887 Doh! Thanks Swan Victor, I should have checked, it's a long time since I've watched it.

@@alexanderbeta-werburghii6176 You were correct about the programme being the best documentary series! Amazing interviews and brilliantly made, still holds up today.

Yes it was

Market Garden was not a bad plan mabey over cooked and tried to do to much with every thing taken in to account and yes they was a lot cockups by all the Allied elements both British and US and if it worked you don't get the Battle of the Bulge Christmas 1944 probaly

It was actually the fastest allied advance against German opposition in the entire September 1944 to February 1945 period. Nearly 100km of German held ground in just 3 days. The rest of the allied advance barely got 100km over the next six months.

It Never Snows In September - The German View Of Market-Garden And The Battle Of Arnhem September 1944 by Robert Kershaw (1990). It's a recommended book, but like A Bridge Too Far it was a pioneering work and later books have corrected the errors and ommissions it contains. I consider both of these books to be a foundation course on studying Market Garden, but caveat emptor, you should not base your final exam answers on them. Rob Kershaw was a British Army Of the Rhine (BAOR) officer in the Parachute Regiment and liaison to the West German Bundeswehr in the 1980s. He was asked by the Staff College at Sandhurst to research Market Garden as he had access to the West German army records and spoke fluent German. The book is the result of his research. The title of the book comes from a quote by 19-year old Leutnant Joseph Enthammer that Kershaw interviewed in 1987, an 'artillery' officer who had been on the technical staff of the largest V2 rocket installation in Europe, based in Marie-sur-Oise. His vehicle convoy had been on the road since 24 August, when the base had been blown up to prevent its capture by the Americans. His V2 rocket unit was moved into a school in the northwestern suburbs of Arnhem (I suspect the Feldkommandantur in the ULO School in Heselburgherweg, now converted to apartments called Paleis op der heuvel - Palace on the hill), and he awoke the next day to see the sky full of parachutes. His first reaction was "that cannot be, it never snows in September!" Enthammer's unit was not to be involved in the fighting and had orders to evacuate to Emmerich in Germany. Enthammer and a few men were left behind as a rear guard, but when they attempted to resume their journey they were stopped near the Arnhem bridge and taken POW. Their documents showed they were technical troops and part of the army artillery arm, but there was no evidence they were associated with the top secret V-2 technology, so throughout their capture by 2nd Parachute Battalion at the Arnhem bridge their captors had no idea their unit had been firing rockets on London.

I don't think that's true at all. The operation failed not because a fragile element of it failed or that the Germans did something unexpected to cause it. The failure was a command failure in one regiment to follow the plan at Nijmegen. What happened after the war was that Gavin did not want to throw a subordinate officer under the bus, which I think most people would agree was an honourable sentiment, and he took most of the blame onto his own shoulders (he was responsible for his divisional plan being carried out after all) and even asked Browning for help in muddying the waters over the relative priorities of the Nijmegen bridge versus the Groesbeek heights, and Browning seems to have been happy to help out in correspondence. Cornelius Ryan in his original research interviewed Gavin in 1967 and Gavin did touch on the internal politics within the 82nd Airborne Division, but that aspect of the story did not find its way into the book and the full story did not come out until about 10-12 years ago, after the key players had all passed away: Lost At Nijmegen, RG Poulussen (2011) Put Us Down In Hell - A Combat History of the 508th PIR in WW2, Phil Nordyke (2012) September Hope - The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, John C McManus (2012) The 508th Connection, chapter 6 - Nijmegen Bridge, Zig Boroughs (2013) It should be noticeable that this film does not show anything about what happened in Nijmegen on the first day at all. It's completely ommitted from the narrative, and the conventional narrative on Market Garden was established by Ryan's book and cemented into the public consciousness by this Hollywood film. People become entrenched in their beliefs, just like the CIA believed OBL was still hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or probably dead, until one analyst proved he was living in a house in Pakistan. History does often work like that.

@@davemac1197 I appreciate the additional information and I'll look into some of the sources you cited to see if my opinion changes. My interest in this operation started largely because of the involvement of the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade under General Sosabowski. I have family members who fought in France with the Free Polish forces and others with General Anders in the Polish 2 Corps.

@@donpietruk1517 - that's interesting, and there are plenty of misunderstandings on the role the Poles played at Arnhem. The worst one being the suggestion that they were made scapegoats for the failure of the operation, which is an appalling slur, and also technically impossible because of their late arrival. To be frank, their planned role if things went well was simply to complete the eastern sector of the planned divisional perimeter around Arnhem on D+2, but it was not to be. The Brigade made an important contribution - unplanned - to helping save the remnants of the 1st Airborne Division in Oosterbeek and enable their evacuation across the Rijn. Montgomery wrote to General Sosabowski after the operation to praise him and his Brigade for their efforts and to ask for recommendations for awards. He then received reports from Browning and Horrocks that Sosabowski was difficult to work with (Gene Hackman got that bit right if not the accent) and he was insubordinate to Horrocks at the 24 September Valburg conference (not in the movie), and that prompted Montgomery to write to Alan Brooke (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) to have the Brigade removed from his command and perhaps sent to Italy where other Polish units were serving. This somehow got conflated into the scapegoating thing and I think that is ignorant and inexcusable. Even the Germans complained that the Poles were firing on their medics, but Geneva Conventions notwithstanding, I can't really blame the Poles! Another inaccurate allegation made and appears in this film is that the Polish parachute drop was a slaughter on the drop zone, but this is not accurate. Casualties were light and only minimal fire came from German units to the east of the rail line because they were not expecting the drop in their rear on the unscheduled and re-arranged drop zone near Driel. The reason the entire 1st Battalion failed to arrive (except for their mortar platoon, which neatly replaced the missing 2nd Battalion mortar platoon) was that a radio recall message went out due to bad weather, but only the lead plane of the 1st Battalion serial received the recall and turned around. They dropped days later on an 82nd Airborne drop zone near Grave and road marched to join the Brigade. The problem with the Polish Parachute Brigade is that they were under the command of the Polish Government-in-exile based in London, and only attached to the British Army operationally, so it was always a difficult relationship to manage. The Brigade was raised (from an ordinary rifle brigade given parachute training) in the hope they could be used in the Warsaw uprising, but Warsaw was out of aircraft range of British bases and the Soviets refused permission to use bases in Russia. I'm sure you're aware of the cynical tactic by the Soviets of stopping their advance during the uprising, allowing the Germans to put it down. The Polish story at Arnhem is not a happy one, but their contribution was overwhelmingly positive. It's unfortunate they got caught up in some of the BS surrounding the operation, as has happened to many of the key British players as well. I hope you explore some of the recent references. The best overall work on Market Garden as a whole is Swedish historian Christer Bergström's Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2 (2019, 2020), based on unpublished documents and interviews in the Cornelius Ryan Collection at Ohio State University and seeks to debunk the many myths contained in the Hollywood film.

Thanks for your comment, but if you're interested in the background, this story really does deserve a second look because much of what I first read in A Bridge Too Far way back in 1977 before seeing the film in the cinema turns out to be bunk, and that's thanks to new evidence that has emerged only in the last 10-12 years. Swedish historian Christer Bergström has probably done the best revision of Ryan's work in his book, Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited vols 1 and 2 (2019, 2020), using unpublished documents and interviews in the Cornelius Ryan Collection held at Ohio State University, and seeks to debunk the many myths in the film.

The Western Approaches museum is here in Liverpool 😊😊😊

*Bogarde. That's true, but the quote may have its origins in Browning's deliberations with Montgomery on selecting the target Rhine crossing on 3/4 September for Operation Comet - the British 2nd Army sector was between Arnhem in the Netherlands and Wesel in Germany. There were a number of pros and cons with both options but Arnhem means crossing an extra river because the German Rhine splits into the Neder Rijn and the Waal after crossing the Netherlands border, so the Arnhem option means an additional major bridge to secure. It turned out that Browning was right on both the time the Arnhem bridge could be held and the operation going a bridge too far.

I really wonder about that. Did Browning say it before the mission, or after it had already proved to be a failure? Doesn't really matter though does it because the risks were assessed and the mission went ahead regardless, just like Pickett's Charge and the invasion at Gallipoli.

@@thomast8539 - it's said afterwards in the film by Dirk Bogarde as a reference to an earlier conversation, but in reality it's recorded by Cornelius Ryan as during a planning meeting, I think the 3/4 September meeting of Browning and Montgomery to chose the target between Arnhem and Wesel for Comet (scheduled 7/8 September and finally cancelled on the 10th) and only recorded in Dempsey's diary, but the next paragraph records Montgomery asking Browning when he can be ready and Browning replies the 15th or 16th, with a citation of '* Minutes of the first planning meeting, First Allied Airborne Army operational file 1014-1017.', which must be for Market Garden. Either way, I'm think it was very well judged by Browning because the tanks did get to Nijmegen in less than two days and 1st Airborne held Arnhem bridge for four. Browning was also proved right to dismiss the aerial photo of tanks in the Arnhem area when the photo was found in a Dutch archive in 2015 and studied by the RAF's Air Historical Branch, so I think Browning has been very under appreciated in the intervening decades.

@davemac1197 Roy Urquhart wrote to Browning's widow, the author Daphne du Maurier and personally apologised for the way he was portrayed in A Bridge Too Far.

Model dismissed the captured documents. It was General Kurt Student of 1.Fallschirm-Armee that received the documents captured from a glider that crashed near his headquarters at Vught translated, and found a resupply schedule for 101st Airborne Division (the glider was carrying the 101st's liaison officer to Browning's Corps HQ at Groesbeek). Using his own airborne experience he understood the significance of the information and was able to extrapolate the airlift schedule for all three divisions from this single document. Model was not convinced, so Student used his own Luftwaffe chain of command to arrange for fighter cover over the drop zones at the appropriate times. Thankfully the airlifts were delayed by bad weather and the fighters were back at their bases in Germany being refuelled when the transports arrived. The German SS units of II.SS-Panzerkorps at Arnhem were not Stalingrad veterans, but had first fought at Tarnopol in Ukraine, before being transferred west to Normandy after the Allied invasion, and after holding open the neck of the Falaise pocket to allow other units to escape they were withdrawn to the Netherlands to refit. Tarnopol was a fortified city and the fighting was described as a mini-Stalingrad with severe street fighting. I have studied A Bridge Too Far on a scene-by-scene basis and just compared it to Cornelius Ryan's incomplete book (he had terminal cancer and published it unfinished) raather than what we know to be true today, I found that 50% of screen time was historically accurate, about 40% altered to suit the director's politics, compromised or conflated to compress events or characters, and other changes to get actors on board the project, and about 10% that's just made up and didn't happen at all. Bless your grandmother and greetings to all our friends in the Netherlands from the UK.

Like the Aussies feel about Breaker Morant heh?

*Horsa. If your great uncle was one of the 12 pilots who flew the 6 Horsa gliders that captured Pegasus Bridge by coup de main on D-Day in Normandy, then it's almost certain he was due to be one of the pilots to fly a similar mission for Operation Comet to capture the Arnhem, Nijmegen and Grave bridges by coup de main at dawn. There were to be 6 gliders for each bridge, delivering a complete company from each of the three Airlanding Battalions of 1st Airlanding Brigade. Staff Sergeant Jim Wallwork, who flew the lead glider at Pegasus Bridge, was due to fly the lead at the Nijmegen bridge and was not looking forward to doing it all over again - I think he felt it was pushing his luck. In interviews after the war, Wallwork said he and his co-pilot planned to give themselves up at the first opportunity and sit out the war in a POW camp! When Montgomery cancelled Comet on 10 September due to the worsening intelligence picture, he replaced it with the larger operation Market Garden, adding the two American airborne divisions. This involved the 1st Allied Airborne Army and the US IX Troop Carrier Command in the planning process, and due to the need to employ their entire airlift capacity, Flak became a big concern for General Paul Williams of IX TCC and felt they could not afford to loose a single aircraft (that line was inaccurately given to an RAF character in the film). One of the changes that Williams insisted on was the removal of the three coup de main glider missions, much to Jim Wallwork's relief. Instead, General Urquhart planned for the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron to use their Jeeps to take the Arnhem bridge by coup de main, and at Grave Colonel Reuben Tucker of the 504th PIR (a very experienced unit that had just returned to the 82nd Airborne Division after being detached for the Anzio operation) insisted on a special drop zone for one company at the near end of the Grave bridge and got his way. There was no coup de main mission planned for the Nijmegen bridge. I digress slightly, but landing "on top of" two SS-Panzer-Divisions is also one of the persistent myths of Arnhem - the two divisions of the II.SS-Panzerkorps were each reduced to a regimental battlegroup in strength, and sub-units were distributed around towns and villages all over the eastern Netherlands. At Arnhem itself was only SS-Panzer-Regiment 9 with just five tanks - three Panthers and two Flakpanzer IV 'Möbelwagen', plus 100 Panther crewmen who had lost their tanks in Normandy and were acting as an 'alarm' company of infantry, and the 120-man Werkstatt (workshop) unit. The regiment was so depleted that the most senior combat officer was an SS-Obersturmführer called Adolf Harder, equivalent in rank to an Oberleutnant or 1st Lieutenant, and previously the commander of the 7.Kompanie. The removal of the glider coup de main attacks is baffling, as the tug aircraft were all RAF crewed and the air maps for Operation Comet in Dutch researcher RG Poulussen's book, Little Sense Of Urgency (2014), shows the release points for the gliders were 6 Km from the Flak at the bridges - the same release point in fact for all the gliders landing at Wolfheze with the rest of the 1st Airborne Division, so the tug aircraft did not fly near the Flak at the bridges.

@@davemac1197 phone spell check got me again. He landed near the bridge and the spot has an outline or monument like the others. He was supposed to be the allied soldier furthest into France for a time. He used to visit every year and he knew the cafe owner and his wife from that night. After the war went back to York and carried on as a tailor again in his shop near York Minster at the top of Stonegate before retirement and living by the coast.

@@davidmarsden9800 - all of them marvellous men. My grandfathers were a hospital pharmacist in Dorset - receiving the American casualties evacuated from Omaha Beach, and in the Royal Navy on destroyers - mostly Norway and the Russian convoys.

@@davemac1197 Despite their losses and need to refit and reorganize they inflicted heavy damage on the airborne troops who by the nature of their role were very lightly armed and equipped. The German Fallschirmjagers in Italy had the same problem. Your SS Panzer Regiment 9 under SS Obersturmfuhrer Adolf Harder I don't recognize. I am aware of Waffle SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Walter Harzer, Commander of the 9th SS Armoured Division Hohenstaufen. Prior to 1944 he was a staff officer of the 10th SS Armoured Division Frundsberg, under SS Brigadefuhrer Heinz Harmel and both units were at Arnhem. Harzer had an armoured reconnaissance unit consisting of 40 vehicles including flak cannons, tanks, half tracks with MG42s. This was commanded by SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Viktor Grabnor. Although they are not completely equivalent to allied ranks, as the Waffen SS units and ranks were based roughly on Roman legions and ranks. SS Brigadefuhrer is equivalent to Brigadier General. SS Obersturnbannfuhrer is equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel. SS Hauptsturmfuhrer is equivalent to Captain. The Waffen SS has a confusing amount of ranks up to Lieutenant, most look more senior than they are, and more than the allies have between Private and Lieutenant. There can be confusion with Harzer's rank because he was also in command of an SS Polizei unit as well because he was also a member of the SD, the SS Security Service set up by Reinhardt Heydrich, which covered everything from foreign intelligence, Einsatzgruppen, Gestapo and Polizei, and he had a SD rank as well of SS Oberfuhrer or Senior Colonel. The SS was a state within a state which can muddy the waters a lot as essentially he was two different men in one.

@@davemac1197 They were a different breed back then. When you watch the news these days about the different politics and attitudes it begs the question what happens if the Russians or anyone else turns up to plant their flag here?😭

The biggest problem with A Bridge Too Far was that it established myths that are either completely untrue, or at best, misleading. 1. There was one main supply route for XXX Corps, which was the Guards Armoured Division's customary 'Club Route' that ran from the Normandy breakout all the way into Germany to eventually terminate at Bremen (so it was nothing new or special to Market Garden), but there were numerous 'Heart Route' diversions that used the many redundent alternative crossings targeted by the operation. There were about 24 bridge targets in the airborne operation and a minimum of 10 were needed to get XXX Corps to Arnhem. Some of the 'Heart Route' alternatives were used, notably the Heumen lock bridge on the Maas-Waal canal was used because the Honinghutje highway bridge on the main road 'Club Route' crossing was damaged when the rail bridge next to it was demolished by the Germans, and it was deemed to be suitable only for light vehicles and not able to support the 30 ton Sherman tanks. The flanking VIII and XII Corps were also using their own 'Spade' and 'Diamond' main supply routes, but you rarely ever hear about them in most books. It's a myth that the tanks were restricted to staying on the main highway because the ground was too soft on either side, but that was not the case in most places. During the breakout, the tanks maneuvred off the highway to attack German forces on the flanks, but in the film they stayed on the road to exaggerate the myth on screen. 2. The nickname "Hell's Highway" was coined by the 101st Airborne, because their stretch of the 'Club Route' was the longest and the 506th PIR in particular was marched and counter-marched up and down the highway several times to fight fires along its course. See Saving Private Ryan for a mastwr class on how to gripe in the US Army. I think Michael Caine's line about the first bit being the wide end was an attempt at humour, but the reality was that different sections of the chosen route were main highways and lesser roads at different points. 3. The two divisions of II.SS-Panzerkorps were NOT ignored at all. They were part of the deteriorating intelligence picture in the Netherlands that prompted Montgomery to cancel Operation Comet on 10 September, involving just the 1st Airborne Division and Polish Brigade to take the bridges at Arnhem, Nijmegen and Grave, and replace it with Operation Market Garden, upgraded by adding the two American Airborne Divisions. Both SS divisions were known to be reduced to regimental battlegroups with few if any tanks by the fighting in Normandy, because it was British units in Normandy that had reduced them to that condition. Most of the German forces sent against Market Garden were replacement and training units of the Reserve Army mobilised by the 'Valkyrie' Plan (see the 2008 Tom Cruise film 'Valkyrie' which explains how this works) in the first week of September 1944 to plug the gap in the German lines that had opened up in Belgium/Netherlands and to man the Westwall defence line in Germany. The impact of II.SS-Panzerkorps on the battle was greater than anticipated, but also exaggerated because all the minor units involved are too numerous to mention in most histories. To put things in perspective, Model had only 84 operational tanks in his entire Heersgruppe B front facing Montgomery's 21st Army Group with 2,400 and the US 1st Army at Aachen. While 1st Airborne Division and the Polish Brigade, now concentrated at Arnhem in the new Market Garden plan, took 83 anti-tank guns with them, and if you include the American divisions at Nijmegen and Eindhoven, that's more anti-tank guns than the Germans could possibly send tanks. 4. Despite being dropped about 11 Km from Arnhem bridge, 3 Km further than the 508th PIR were dropped from the Nijmegen bridge, and dropped 30 minutes later, and had to overcome resistance along the way (even Frost's battalion route had MGs, mortars and armoured cars), the 1st Parachute Brigade secured the Arnhem bridge and denied its use to the enemy for 80 hours, while the 508th landing sooner and closer and with zero opposition failed to seize their main objective. Why? It was a command failure at the top of the regiment, which had first manifested on their first combat operation in Normandy and not dealt with before Market Garden. Distance from the objective was not an issue that couldn't be overcome if you move quickly enough, clearly, for the highly experienced Colonel Frost. Gavin knew that and made his instructions to the 508th very clear, but they were not followed. I recommend 82nd Airborne historian Phil Nordyke's combat history of the 508th - Put Us Down In Hell (2012) for the details of the regiment's performance in Market Garden and earlier Normandy. 5. I lost count of "a lot of moving parts" in this video alone, and it's something I hear all the time about Market Garden, but the plan was broken down into small parts to be carried out by every sub-unit in the three Airborne Divisions and the ground forces involved. The mission assigned to the 508th PIR was not any more difficult than many others, but perhaps it was better suited to the more experienced and aggressive 505th. Responsibility for the 82nd Airborne's divisional plan was James Gavin's, and it was perhaps honourable that he took much of the blame for the failure at Nijmegen on his own shoulders to avoid throwing a subordinate officer under the bus, but in doing so he has muddied the waters for historians trying to work out the 'why' of everything. Cornelius Ryan interviewed Gavin, but none of this came out in his book, and obviously was never going to be in a Hollywood film.

The Polish General was called Sosabowski and both General Urquhart and Sean Connery are Scottish.

I think that was a pet chicken, not a rabbit. And Mad Jack Churchill was even more colorful. He stormed the Normandy beachead with a long bow and broadsword.

@@thomast8539 That's what I get for repeating historical facts from ancient memory. Thanks for the corrections.

@@bfdidc6604 Well, don't thank me too fast. Apparently Mad Jack did not land in Normandy. I say good on both of us for trying to help maintain history.

Is the damage on the foundations only because as far as I know these are the only bits left after WW2. The actual bridge was destroyed in 1944. There is a nearby train bridge that still has bullet holes in it though.

@@floydster23 Yeah, either end the original steps up to the deck and everything are still there. The span over the river was destroyed

It's like the film Bridge over the river Kwai but that film was total bull nothing like the character or suffering under the Japanese.

Dirk Bogarde served in the RAF as a photo interpreter selecting bombing targets on General Dempsey's British 2nd Army staff, including during Market Garden, and knew most of the main personalities, including Browning, who he played. He was unhappy with the way Browning's role was written, as was Browning's widow, who was very upset about it, but I think he opted to play Browning as somewhat conflicted in order to mitigate the worst aspects of the script, rather than refuse the part and have someone else play Browning as the director wished.

On D-Day, the actor Richard Todd had been in the group to attack and hold Pegasus Bridge. In the film 'The Longest Day', he played Major Howard, his C.O. on 6th June, and another actor played Todd...

@@paulstroud2647 - almost correct - Todd was a paratrooper in the 7th Parachute Battalion that reinforced Howard's Company of Ox & Bucks Light Infantry glider troops that took Pegasus bridge, and Todd did play their CO, Major Howard, in the film.

@@davemac1197 Thanks, the old memory is going a bit and I couldn't quite find the answer using Google.

And now fools try to sell books & dvd's saying it was all faked and set up by the allies. 🙄

Montgomery should have cleared the Scheldt estuary instead, which would have eased Allied supply problems.

you know you are talking about only 2 provinces of the netherlands and not the whole country right?

It's not the main reason Market Garden got the go ahead, it's only a reinforcement of the choice of Arnhem in the Netherlands over Wesel in Germany as the Rhine crossing target. Montgomery cancelled his original plan to use only the British Airborne Division and attached Polish Brigade in Operation Comet on 10 September, because of the worsening intelligence picture in the Netherlands, so he proposed Market Garden upgraded with the two American Airborne divisions added to the plan. He stayed with Arnhem as the target instead of switching to Wesel because the V-2 threat was reported to him the day before, and the launch sites were identified as being on the Dutch coast. An advance to the Zuider Zee would cut their supply lines as well as all German forces in the western Netherlands. The V-1 threat had already been dealt with, at least temporarily, as the fixed launch sites in northern France had already been overrun by September 1944. The V-2s were launched from mobile sites, but if the Dutch coast was cut off then the rockets would be out of range of London. Both Comet, and its replacement Market Garden, were approved by Eisenhower because they fitted in with his broad front policy of all armies advancing to the Rhine and making multiple crossings. The disagreement was over the future operations into Germany, where Montgomery proposed a single thrust by his own 21st Army Group and US 1st Army attached, and this was shut down by Eisenhower at their 10 September meeting at Brussels airport. The idea that the Scheldt estuary should have been cleared first to open up the port of Antwerp before a Rhine crossing is armchair strategy and would have had no impact on making Market Garden a success or failure. I don't know why people in KZfaq comments think they know better than professional soldiers! The port capacity of Antwerp was needed for Eisenhower's broad front advance into Germany. It was not needed for Market Garden to cross the Rhine. It was the correct decision to go for the Rhine crossing while the Germans were still off balance after their defeat in Normandy, and while it was happening the Canadian 1st Army was re-deploying around Antwerp in preparation for operations to clear the Scheldt, which were originally due to take place when Market Garden was completed.

@@commandbrawler9348 I am 60, I am a former member of HM Armed Forces and also lived in Holland, no I know nothing of the History of WW2.. What do you think?

@@sammie9999 well, its the netherlands. not holland, stop using that please. only if you are talking about those 2 provinces

That's the conventional narrative established by the book and this film adaptation. More recent research has shown that the plan was not followed at Nijmegen on the first afternoon, due to a command failure in one regiment, and that compromised the entire operation. Gavin obfuscated this after the war to avoid throwing a subordinate officer under the bus, but since they've all passed away now the historians are starting to get get their second wind.

It was impossible because Brereton refused to release the Aircraft necessary.

Lmao. Yeah I saw some of the posts you could get and was like there's no coast there. But river tenders and ice breakers seemed like they'd be fun