MG Urquhart and the Battle of Arnhem The Battle of Arnhem was a battle of World War II (WWII) fought in and around the Dutch town of Arnhem as part of Operation Market Garden. Operation Market Garden was an Allied plan to secure bridges in the Netherlands enabling the crossing of ground forces into Germany. The operation was planned to be executed in a two-phase approach that entailed an airborne assault and land operations. The airborne forces mission was to secure the bridges over major waterways enabling the British XXX Corps to cross the Rhine River and move into Germany. Decisive to the success of Operation Market Garden was the British 1st Airborne Division’s ability to seize the bridge at Arnhem. MG Roy Urquhart was selected to …show more content…
This leads into the second principle of mission command, create a shared understanding. ADP 6-0 states that “Shared understanding and purpose form the basis for unity of effort and trust.” The lack of shared understanding that was shown throughout the operation further strained the trust between MG Urquhart and his subordinate commanders. MG Urquhart’s lack of understanding of the operational environment placed self-imposed constraints upon his forces which could have been mitigated through an ability to visualize the terrains effects on friendly forces. The mobility corridors and avenues of approach utilized from the drop zone to the objective weren’t the only challenges that the British forces would face. The dense vegetation combined with the urban environment surrounding the objective did not provide favorable conditions for their communications equipment. The lack of communications forced MG Urquhart’s subordinate commanders to act without his guidance for a majority of the operation. The disconnect between units created a mutual lack of situational awareness among the leaders at each echelon. The resulting effect was that MG Urquhart quickly became disconnected from his subordinate leaders preventing him from effectively providing mission command across the battle