What was operation market garden

Around 10, men from the 1st British Airborne Division and the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade landed at Arnhem, but their landing zones were seven miles from the bridge at Arnhem. Only one battalion ended up reaching the objective, and all of the other troops were squeezed into a pocket at Oosterbeek.

The airborne Soldiers had very few weapons to resist the German tanks, which led to many deaths and captures. Much of its advance was along a single narrow causeway, which was vulnerable to traffic jams and German counter-attacks. Operations were also hampered by a shortage of transport aircraft.

For instance, the airborne troops were flown into the Netherlands in three lifts rather than all together. The wooded landscape also restricted the range of wireless sets, so communication failures also reduced the possibility of reinforcement.

Some 6, paratroopers who landed in Arnhem were killed or were captured. This bloody struggle eventually ended in the final defeat of Nazi Germany. Arrogant, unlikeable, but ultimately successful, Field Marshal Montgomery was one of the most prominent British commanders of the Second World War. Formed in , its soldiers are trained to be resilient, disciplined, versatile, aggressive in battle and self-reliant. France's defeat in the summer of left Britain threatened with invasion.

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View this object. Monty's plan In the summer of General Bernard Law Montgomer y came up with an ambitious scheme to cross the River Rhine and advance deep into northern Germany and shorten the war. Map of the south-east Netherlands, C transport aircraft dropping parachutists and supply canisters, Arnhem, 17 September Landings On 17 September the airborne divisions landed. The shelling is hellish.

By September the Allies were in a state of euphoria. The failure of Operation Valkyrie had resulted in the German army coming under the full control of the SS. German soldiers were now going to be forced to fight on to the very end.

Cracks among the Allied high command had started to emerge by September , particularly between Generals Montgomery, Patton and Bradley. Montgomery believed he was the only man who could win the war, much to the anger of Patton and Bradley.

He planned to bypass the German Siegfried Line by marching the Allies through the Netherlands and then down into Germany, ending the war by Christmas. Patton and Bradley strongly disagreed, arguing the northern route into Germany was, in fact, the most difficult due to the numerous, wide rivers they had to cross.

Operation Garden involved the advance of a British tank and mobile infantry force across the bridges of the lower Rhine and then down into Germany. Operation Market was the landing of 40, paratroopers behind enemy lines to take control of the bridges and hold them long enough for the tanks to cross.

The plan depended on the Allies maintaining hold of the bridges. The st Airborne had to capture 5 bridges near Eindhoven on the first day of the operation. The British at Arnhem had two bridges to take, the most important of the two being the road bridge. Operation Market Garden — Allied Plan.

Part of the army would press north past Arnhem, initially to capture the Luftwaffe airfield at Deelen before going further north to Zuiderzee. An aerial view of the bridge across the Waal River at Nijmegen. Browning was the one who would take the airborne corps to war. Operation Market was the largest airborne operation in the history of warfare. Operation Garden was the campaign on the ground of the 30th Corps aimed at securing the bridges captured by the airborne forces.

The operation was highly ambitious and in the end it failed due to weather conditions and heavy German opposition, especially near Arnhem.