Dramatic Photos

The real "Bridge too far .. "

The ruins of the Dutch town of Nijmegen, with the road bridge the taking of which was vital to the Allies in Operation Market Garden. My view is that the "Market Garden" plan was not inherently hopeless - just very risky, and dependent on a series of favourable outcomes that depended on an increasing level of good fortune as the advance of ground forces proceeded. As things turned out, the early stages of Market Garden went well, with US paratroopers capturing the "early" bridges in reasonable time. However, the advance of the British armour along the one available road (through a semi-polder which would not support tanks) was repeatedly delayed by focused German resistance. On their approach to Nijmegen, the British began to encounter serious local resistance from ad hoc defenses organized, in the main, by local Heer and Waffen-SS units, which caused further delays. The British did have one stroke of luck - Field Marshal Model (the senior commander on the spot) refused to allow the Nijmegen bridge to be blown as, in his view, it would be required for a counter-attack (the Germans seem to have been distinctly confused as to the purpose of the Market Garden thrust). As a result, British tanks were actually on the bridge before Brigadfuhrer Heinz Harmel ordered the bridge to be blown - only to find that, for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained, the very large demolition charge constructed under the bridge failed to go off. The British had finally secured the Nijmegen bridge - but too late to reinforce the British and Polish forces further north, or (obviously) to capture one of the Arnhem bridges, the critical objective of the whole operation. A Bridge Too Far ? Maybe. I still think that, with luck, this operation could have worked, with major implications for the later history of the war in the West. Given that this was a remarkable departure for the overall commander, Montgomery, from his usual policy of caution and conservatism, Montgomery is, perhaps, due less criticism and greater credit than his normally allowed for an operation that might well have succeeded ... Best regards, JR.