70 years ago today American and British troops invaded Holland. Operation Market-Garden, conceived by British General Bernard Montgomery, called for Airborne troops to land near and capture key bridges, and hold them until ground forces of the British XXX Corps could cross them and advance into the Ruhr valley, the heart of German industrial production. Although most of the bridges were captured and XXX Corps ended up within sight of the last bridge at Arnhem, they were stopped by an unexpected SS Panzer Division, which happened to be at Arnhem on R&R. Poor intelligence, bad timing, traffic jams, lousy weather, ineffective communications, lack of air cover, and I dare say a degree of Allied (British) arrogance doomed the plan form the very beginning. So much for ending the war by Christmas.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 22:54:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015