Arnhem 1944

by William F. Buckingham, Hew Strachan (Editor)

Overview

On September 17, 1944, over 2,000 transport aircraft lifted off from airfields across England and set a course for Holland. They were the first wave of the largest airborne operation in history, code-named Operation Market Garden. Their task was to open a 60-mile corridor for Allied ground forces from the Belgian border to Arnhem on the Lower Rhine. Nine days later, the remnants of the British 1st Airborne Division were evacuated from a precarious foothold 7 miles west of Arnhem, having failed utterly. William Buckingham’s account, based on new research, unearths the reasons why the attack really failed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780752431871
Publisher:	Tempus Publishing, Limited
Publication date:	07/01/2004
Series:	Battles & Campaigns
Edition description:	New edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	7
1	From Parachute Raiders to an Arm of Service	12
2	The 1st Airborne Division, Patronage and One-Size-Fits-All Command Philosophy	26
3	Arrogant, Hindered by Parachute Machismo and at the Back of the Queue for Resources	37
4	Plagiarised, Bullied and Hijacked	53
5	Change at the Top, Hurry Up and Wait at the Bottom	61
6	From Comet to Market	68
7	Fatally Flawed by Misconceptions, Ignorance and Dogma	78
8	Neither Old Men on Bicycles Nor Elite SS Panzers	97
9	The First Lift in the Corridor	104
10	The Landings and Immediate German Reactions at Arnhem	121
11	Courageous But Too Slow and Too Little	133
12	The Battle in the Corridor	147
13	So Near But So Far	154
14	The Second Lift at Arnhem	170
15	Ramming a Brick Wall	177
16	The Fight for the North End of the Arnhem Road Bridge	185
17	1st Airborne at Bay	195
18	The Poles and the Island	208
19	The Last Act	214
20	The Aftermath and Reflections	227
	Bibliography	236
	Glossary	238
	Appendix	240
	Notes	240
	List of Illustrations	246
	General Index	247
	Military Index	252