CLASH ON THE DEVIL’S BRIDGE

Operation Market Garden has become infamous as the great Allied failure of World War II. Immortalised in the 1977 film A and the Cornelius Ryan book upon which it is based, whose very title has become symbolic of the perceived optimism of the operation, it is firmly lodged in the public consciousness as an unprecedented disaster. The brainchild of Field Marshal Montgomery, the intention was to create a 64-mile salient into northern Germany. Once achieved the Allies would be able to strike directly into the Rhine, the German industrial heartland, and bring an end to the war. Unfortunately, despite both Montgomery and Winston Churchill claiming the operation was successful, it failed to achieve its core objective. To this day the operation remains controversial, with many questioning the logic and planning. Beset by bad weather, the Allies failed to cross the Rhine and some 15 17,000 Allied troops died in the operation. However, Market Garden is almost universally thought of as an Allied failure instead of a German victory, with many focussing on the effect of bad weather and poor planning as opposed to German tactics. Military historian from Osprey Publishing seeks to redress this issue and focuses on the assault from a German perspective.