Arnhem, Battle of (Operation Market-Garden) 17-26 September 1944: Books, Audiobooks, and DVDs

'Market Garden' was one of the most audacious, and ultimately controversial, operations of the Second World War - a joint penetration, by an armoured column and a large-scale airborne drop, to punch a decisive hole in the German defences. If it had succeeeded, the war could have ended in 1944. Yet the two-pronged attack failed in its objectives. This book details how, instead of being relieved after 48 hours as expected, British paratroopers were cut off for nine days. Facing two unexpected SS Panzer divisions the Allies were eventually evacuated across the Rhine after putting up an incredible fight: of the 10,000 men involved less than 2,000 survived.

Historian John Buckley offers a radical reappraisal of Great Britain's fighting forces during World War Two, challenging the common belief that the British Army was no match for the forces of Hitler's Germany. Following Britain's military commanders and troops across the battlefields of Europe, from D-Day to VE-Day, from the Normandy beaches to Arnhem and the Rhine, and, ultimately, to the Baltic, Buckley's provocative history demonstrates that the British Army was more than a match for the vaunted Nazi war machine.

Acclaimed historian John C. McManus explores World War II's most ambitious invasion, Operation Market Garden, an immense, daring offensive to defeat Nazi Germany before the end of 1944. In eight days of ferocious combat, the Germans mauled the airborne, stymied the tanks, and prevented the Allies from crossing the Rhine.

Describes and analyzes the reasons for the failure of "Operation Market Garden" at Arnhem, when the British troops were forced to withdraw before the Rhine and Ruhr barriers could be attacked again the next year.

A first-hand account by the Major-General who lead the British assault. This is the story of one of the most bloody battles of WWII. A daring operation that should have been proven successful, had it not tried to go a bridge too far.

Martin Middlebrook describes the Battle of Arnhem from start to finish, from one end of that complicated battlefield to the other. On this fiftieth anniversary, he offers a masterly summary of what went wrong in the last major defeat in battle suffered by the British Army.

Much has been written about Operation Market Garden, but the contribution made by Colonel Boerre, adds an important element to the recorded information on the subject. For 20 years, Colonel Boeree examined the operations carried out by the 1st Airborne Division, north of the Neder Rhine. Boeree interviewed many of the soldiers, British and German, who fought in the great battle, documenting their personal opinions and experiences. Boeree proved, remarkably, that it was pure chance, not foresight, which enabled the II SS Panzer Corps to intervene in the battle so quickly.

On September 17, 1944, in broad daylight, the Allies launched the largest airborne operation ever conducted. The objective: to secure a road in Nazi-occupied Holland and a bridge across the Rhine for ground troops to advance into Germany . . . and to end the war by Christmas. For the 101st Airborne, charged with seizing key bridges, that road became known as Hells Highway, and it saw what may have been the most savagely fought single action in the divisions history.

On 17th September 1944, Lieutenant Joseph Enthammer was gazing in the direction of Oosterbeek when he detected what appeared to be snowflakes in the air - they were, of course, parachutists. This book tells the German view of Operation Market Garden.

Operation Market Garden has been recorded as a complete Allied failure in World War II, an overreach that resulted in an entire airborne division being destroyed at its apex. However, within that operation were episodes of heroism that still remain unsung. The author draws on nearly 130 interviews he personally conducted with veterans of the 504th, plus Dutch civilians and British and German soldiers, who here tell their story for the first time

Bennett puts forth a balanced, comprehensive account of the most spectacular--yet failed--Allied offensive of World War II, Operation Market Garden, which saw three divisions of paratroopers dropped behind German lines, to be joined by massive armored columns breaking through the front.

With superb battle narratives throughout, and clear analysis of success and failure at every point, the author casts a new and informed light on the long-drawn-out and costly struggle for the Rhine.

The unsuccessful British airborne drop at Arnhem in September 1944, immortalized in the film A Bridge Too Far, was one of the most dramatic incidents of World War II. No story of the Arnhem campaign is more filled with courage and devotion than that of the British support units, such as the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Some support units were to land with the parachute and glider troops and set up supply dumps at the front line, while others were to drops supplies from British and American aircraft flying over the battlefield.The unforeseen presence of a German field marshal and two SS divisions quickly turned Arnhem into a trap for the British paratroops. RASC and RAOC men on the ground did double duty maintaining supplies and fighting the encircling Germans with infantry weapons. The supply aircraft came under increasing German fire with each passing day, and there were numerous incidents of dispatchers in burning planes waiting until they were over the shrinking British perimeter before dropping supplies, sometimes moments before the aircraft crashed or exploded. This very detailed account draws on numerous eyewitnesses and also covers museums and monuments in today's Arnhem.

From one of the world's leading military historians comes a thrilling and richly detailed account of the two most critical offensives in World War II's western theater after D-Day--the Allied airborne assaults on the Rhine. In September 1944, with the Allies still celebrating their success at Normandy and eager to finish the job, thirty-five thousand U.S. and British troops parachuted into Nazi territory in the Netherlands. The controversial offensive, code named "Operation Market Garden," was conceived by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to secure the lower Rhine--Germany's last great natural barrier in the west--and passage to Berlin. Allied soldiers outnumbered Germans by two to one, but they were poorly armed against German Panzer tanks and suffered devastating casualties. After nine days of intense fighting, they were forced to retreat.

Montgomery--the architect of victory in Normandy--proposed a daring plan to circumvent the Westwall, thrust towards Berlin, and make use of the newly created 1st Allied Airborne Army. The plan was simple: use the Paratroopers to hold key bridges along a single route along which British XXX Corps would make an advance that would be "rapid and violent, and without regard to what is happening on the flanks." US 101st Airborne would land north of Eindhoven; 82nd Airborne at Nijmegen; British 1st Airborne at Arnhem--the so-called "bridge too far." Unfortunately, the plan was flawed, the execution imperfect, and the Germans far from beaten. In spite of the audacious actions of the Paratroopers who would cover themselves with glory, Operation Market Garden showed that the German ground forces would still provide the Allies with stiff opposition in the West.

A Bridge Too Far is Cornelius Ryan's masterly chronicle of the Battle of Arnhem, which marshaled the greatest armada of troop-carrying aircraft ever assembled and cost the Allies nearly twice as many casualties as D-day.

With superb battle narratives throughout, and clear analysis of success and failure at every point, the author casts a new and informed light on the long-drawn-out and costly struggle for the Rhine.