Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Operation Market Garden

Introduction

The research topic is about Operation Market Garden, proposed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, which took place September 1944 between the border between Belgium and Holland, through Holland towards the German border at the Rhine River at the town of Arnhem. The operation’s aims were to capture a series of bridges that would be used to carve a highway for the allies into the industrial haert of Germany in the west known as the Ruhr district in West Germany, thus bringing Germany’s industries aiding the war effort to an end in west Germany and cutting of the road for the last of the German forces in Holland to retreat into Germany.

The research topic researches to what extent was it due to the poor planning by the Allies,

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_arnhem.html

This Source greatly supports the argument as it provides a detailed description of the proposed plan and the planned strategic moves of the operation and clearly shows flaws in the plan. The source does not specifically blame Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery or anyone under his command which impacts it validity to the argument.

Source B “why Operation Market Garden failed” http://www.eucom.mil/media-library/blog%20post/27839/why-operation-market-garden-failed

This Source provides little to the argument as it just states the basic plan and how the operation had little effect on the war effort and cost the lives of thousands of men.

Source C extract from “Second world war 60th anniversary: Operation Market Garden Netherlands 17–25 September 1944.” https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/30056/ww2_market_garden.pdf

Source C supports the counter argument as it states that the operation failed due to the defence of Arnhem by the Germans which stopped the advance of the

This led to the deaths of Allied troops and provided little aid to the war effort. The counter argument would be that the events of the operation caused its failure.

“Defeat at Arnhem was in part due to the fact that Allied paratroopers were told to expect light resistance from no more than 2,000 recruits just learning the rudiments of soldiering,”- Source D. this quote provides evidence that those planning the operation were not using the intelligence that was received by the Allies about the German armor near Arnhem. The ignoring of the intelligence gathered by the Dutch underground and the arial reconnaissance done by the RAF proved to have a major impact on the battle at Arnhem as the Airborne troops were not equipped and did not have the supplies to deal with the German tanks that were stationed