The battle of Normandy ended as the Allied armies crossed the Seine at
the end of August 1944, a month after Operation Cobra had broken the
stalemate. The Allies harried the retreating Germans, who left their
tanks and heavy weapons south of the Seine, and by mid-September the
Allies were coming up against the defenses of Germany itself, the
impressive Westwall.
As far as the Allies were concerned, the Germans were beaten. The scent
of immediate victory was in the air, the only question was where to
apply the coup de grace. Logistics demanded that this should be a single
thrust rather than Eisenhower's broad front approach. 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.
And then, in 1977, A Bridge Too Far came out. With levels of realism
that wouldn't be approached for twenty years, the movie produced a view
of the battle that subverted reality and permeated public perception.
Just as George C. Scott produced the definitive Patton, so A Bridge Too
Far provided an unnuanced view of the battles that historians have
battled to correct ever since.
As with its companion volumes on D-Day, the Bocage, and the Ardennes
battlefields, this book provides a balanced, up-to-date view of the
operation making full use of modern research. With over 500
illustrations including many maps, aerial and then-and-now photography,
it will provide the reader with an easy-to-read, up-to-date examination
of each part of the operation, benefitting from on-the-ground research
by Tom Timmermans, who lives in Eindhoven.
