All-In [29865]

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Military Pron - Operation Market Garden (1 of 2) - long

Aug 16, 2021, 8:31 PM

Part 1 of 2

Operation Market-Garden. Anyone with more than a passing interest in WW2 has probably at least heard about it. Its name is almost synonymous with “colossal failure” today, but that may be a bit harsh. I’ll lay out the story and then give my take on it in the conclusion. And so, by special request, here we go.

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The problem with writing anything about Operation Market-Garden is that the movie A Bridge Too Far is just so damm good. Great story, great storytelling, great soundtrack, and very accurate to boot. If you only ever get to see 3 war movies in your life, see The Longest Day, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and A Bridge Too Far. It’s that good. The music itself is so rousing it just makes you want to jump out of a GD airplane and grab a bridge with your bare hands. Don’t believe me?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP34btpjeok
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GD that just gives me chills.

So there’s always a danger in trying to improve on an absolute classic. It’s why no one has ever re-made Gone With the Wind, or Chinatown, or any of the Fast and Furious series. You can’t top perfection.

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So I’m gonna tell the basics of the story, try to add some details or background Hollywood just didn’t have the time or inclination to include, and put it in a setting that helps folks understand the scale of the operation. But first, a little background.

September 1944 was a bad time for the Germans. In the East, the Russian steamroller had just destroyed Army Group Center in Operation Bagration, to the tune of half a million German casualties and another quarter million captured. And then we break out of Normandy. Bad luck, Adolph.

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The breakout from Normandy occurred not east through Caen, which was very heavily defended, but west of all places, the area south-east of Cherbourg, in Operation Cobra. One of the people killed in Cobra was General Lesley McNair, not a household name, but the guy responsible for increasing the US Army from 500,000 men to 8 million men in WW2. So a big job. He designed EVERYTHING...combat theory, training, logistics, administration, everything it takes to turn an average Joe civilian into a soldier. A real unsung hero. He finally got the front line field command he wanted, but was killed by our own bombers who were blasting a path for the breakout.

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The desk wizard, Lesley McNair

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The Normandy beachhead is right about where Vierville is, right below Montgomery. If you follow the little blue arrows to the left, that’s us breaking out south in Operation Cobra, then swinging east to bag almost the entire German Army in France. The krauts got away through that little gap at Falaise, near Chambois, sort of like pulling their shriveled dique out of a condom, but we got all their stuff. Tanks, artillery, supplies, everything but the shirts on their backs.

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It was kind of the reverse of Dunkirk. It was a huge victory for the good guys, and we had the Huns on the run.

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The 1944 version of the Highway of Death in Iraq. Germans trying to squeeze through the Falaise Gap, and not quite making it.

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History repeating itself in Iraq, 47 years later, in 1991.

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The Allied drive east through France then hooked up with our lesser known invasion of France from the south, Operation Dragoon, and met at the Siegfried Line, the German version of the Maginot Line.

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Overlord (D-Day) in the north of France, and Dragoon a few months later, in the south

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By September, the Allies stood at a crossroads. Eisenhower, the overall commander, wanted to advance on a broad front, forcing the Germans to thin out to defend Germany. They were on the run, disorganized, and only a shell of what they had been before Falaise.

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The Siegfried Line. Impressive, but nothing compared to the French Maginot line, which was the piece de resistance of outdated military doctrine.

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Siegfried himself, the mythological German Dragonslayer. He gets killed in a bizarre love triangle with two crazy women. Germans and their soap operas, SMH.

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Others saw it differently than Ike. Why let an opportunity to hit the Germans while they were down slip by, and maybe end the war by Christmas of 1944? Just imagine the political goldmine of bringing the boys back home in time to open presents under the tree with their families? It's like a Norman Rockwell wet dream.

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In one of the stranger twists in the war, one of the most conservative leaders in the Allies came forth with one of the most audacious plans. Bernard Montgomery. Monty was the victor at El Alamein in the Egyptian desert, where he had thwarted Rommel’s attempt to get to the Nile and possibly, the Middle East oil fields. And he was known as one slow, methodical turtle. Think McClellan in khaki shorts.

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What Monty lacked in speed, though, he made up for in ego. Let me correct that. EGO. I mean this guy was over the top EGO. If you look up narcissist in the dictionary there’s two pictures of his face, because one is not satisfactory to convey his greatness. His own troops called him “God All Monty” behind his back. I’m sure he would have approved, though.

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Who did tank photo-ops better?

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How many people do you know who give their own God their seal of approval? Monty did. He famously remarked “The Good Lord once said, and I think correctly…”. Lol.

He even had two dogs named Hit ler and Rommel, who he took great joy in walking around by leash.

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Who did animal photo-ops better?

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Even Patton thought Monty was a bloated pompus axx, and Patton, who was no wallflower, thought pretty damm highly of himself too. It’s amazing that Monty could even find a hat big enough for his head. I guess berets have a lot of stretch in them.

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Monty with Patton. Can’t you just feel the mutual contempt behind those smiles? And those are ivory, not pearl gun handles. Only a pimp in a Louisiana hoarhouse carries pearl-handled revolvers.

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Churchill appreciated Monty’s optimism and ability to rally and inspire his troops, particularly in the darkest days of the Desert Campaign against Rommel. But not so much his insane vanity. He said that Monty was “unbeatable after defeat and unbearable after victory”. When asked who the three greatest military leaders of all time were, Monty said he though Napoleon and Alexander the Great came closest to him.

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Napoleon, pushing Monty for the Most Pompous Man Ever Award. Sure Monty had a spiffy black beret, but did he have a flowing red cape? I think not.

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Let’s let Monty, Napoleon, and Alex settle this once and for all

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So this is the man that in September, 1944, approached Eisenhower with his plan to take advantage of the German retreat and confusion. But the Allies had problems of their own. They had advanced so quickly across France they outran their own supply line.

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Wait
a minute, what war is this anyhow?

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Normandy and the surviving British Mulberry Harbor (the American one was destroyed by a storm) was far in the rear, and the port of Cherbourg, though liberated, was totally destroyed and still had to be rebuilt.

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The Mulberry Instant Harbor in a can. Just add water.

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The Red Ball Express tried to pick up the slack but it was already taking 5 gallons of gas just to deliver 1 gallon to the front line, and Patton was bioching up a storm that his advance was curtailed by fuel shortages.

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So the Allies had a decision to make in September, 1944, in front of the Siegfried line. They basically had three options.

1) They could sit, wait, and do nothing while they stocked up supplies for a Spring advance, but the Russians weren’t waiting on anyone, and that would give the Germans time to regroup.

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T-34’s on the move. One of the better all-round tanks of the war. A future poast topic.

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2) Or, they could turn north and take the port of Antwerp. This would get them a big port closer to the front, but the Germans were blocking the approaches to Antwerp and would have to be removed in order to use the port safely.

Taking the port itself was the easy part. Getting the Germans away from the channels was much, much tougher. The land was marshy, and the Germans could flood the areas making them virtually impassable. Just a GD mess. And again, it gave the Germans time to reinforce and regroup.

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This sketch shows the problem exactly. Antwerp is in the bottom right. You are just below Antwerp, Normandy and supplies are to your left, Germany and victory to your right. All that orange is German bad guys. What good is having the port if the Germans have the approaches? You gonna sail a ship past all those guns?

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Mulberry? That’s not a port. THIS is a port. Antwerp.

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3) Or, they could use the very last of their supplies to dash around the Siegfried line, just like the Germans dashed around the Maginot Line in France 4 years earlier in 1940. Then they would have a foothold to exploit later when they restocked their supplies or Antwerp was finally taken.

Additionally, the attack would serve as the northern pincer in an attempt to surround the Ruhr Valley, the industrial heartland of Germany. The southern pincer attack would come later in a different operation.

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A simple map, but it shows the situation clearly. The big green arrow pointed up is Market-Garden. The long yellow line is the SiegFried Line.

The two medium sized green arrows are the future plan to encircle the Industrial heart of Germany, the Ruhr Valley. The tiny green arrow is to cut off the German Army blocking access to Antwerp, which is just off the map to the left.

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Surprisingly, option three was slow, slow Monty’s plan. It was about as surprising as Burnside blitzing to Fredericksburg after being unable to cross a 2 foot deep stream at Antietam. History repeating itself. The turtle becomes the unexpected hare.

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Burnside’s Bridge. Seriously, the place is gorgeous. Put it on your to-see list. Mrs. Fordt’s favorite battlefield, and she only grades them by scenic beauty and picnic potential. She’s as interested in military history as I am in Poldark and his love triangle with Demelza and Elizabeth, or whatever their f’ing names are.

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Anyhow, Monty was rabid about his pet plan. He exploded in a private meeting with Eisenhower when the difficulties were pointed out in the operation. The conversation got so heated Eisenhower had to say “Monty, you can’t talk to me that way. I am your BOSS.”

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Ike and Monty

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Ike and Tina

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Ike was gonna can Monty in fact, not just over this one incident, but imagine if you had to deal with this guy every day. But American-British relations protected Monty. It’s a real bad look to fire your ally’s top commander in the middle of a war.

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Monty replies to Ike

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Monty loved his baby SO much he was even prepared to go it alone. He said he didn’t even need the Americans, and he would just launch Operation Comet, which was basically Market-Garden with only one British Division and one Polish Brigade. Essentially Market Garden at one-third strength. Yikes.

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Monty calculating Market Garden without American assistance

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There were other considerations as well. People get antsy when they have to sit for too long doing nothing, and nations like to see the people they have trained and paid for to do something other than ride the pine.

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The Canadians got bored once and were infamously slaughtered in a small scale invasion of France at a place called Dieppe. It was prior to D-Day, and was kind of a practice run on amphibious landing techniques.

They also used it to steal some German radar equipment near the coast, and it was a disaster. But, the politicians back in Ottawa got to say our Canadian boys were doing their part, and weren’t just jerking off their maple leaves doing nothing.

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Canadian prisoners at Dieppe. The ones lucky enough to still be alive.

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Similarly, 18 airborne missions of various types and sizes had been canceled after the successful drops at Sicily and D-Day. Usually because of weather, but often because the ground successes simply took away their need. People were getting bored, and when people get bored they do stupid stuff.

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Can’t you just hear it now? “Are you telling me our best trained, highest motivated, and best equipped troops aren’t even being used in the war?” Get a general in here to explain this TRAVESTY to the American public. Get him on the talk show circuit. He’s got to answer to the people for this inexcusable waste!

So the pressure was on from all sides to get bodies in front of bullets.

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But the Americans and British had not learned what the Canadians and Germans had – catastrophic defeat suggs. The Germans had a very successful airborne invasion of Crete. So successful they never used airborne troops ever again, at least not in the air.

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Last plane ride of the war. Learn to love walking. You’re grounded.

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Oh they took the island from the British, in Operation Mercury (like the guy with little wings on his feet, not the silvery stuff), then packed their chutes forever. Suffering over 30% casualties, they canceled the planned follow up air assault on Malta, and became ground troops instead.

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Keep dreaming. No more wings or you.

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It was a textbook Pyrrhic victory, a win that is so costly that it just isn’t worth it, named after King Pyrrus, who beat the Romans once and said “Another such victory and I shall be ruined.”

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Speaking of Romans, credit has to go to the Italians for being among the very first to use airborne troops in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s, along with the Russians. It’s a highlight of their contribution to WW2 technology. I don’t want to crash on the Italians because they make great food and their chicks are hot, but I will say that ever since the Roman Empire they’ve been lovers, not fighters, ‘kay?

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That’s Amore

src="https://theprouditalian.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Untitled-design-2020-03-21T155756.422.jpg">
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For instance, the Italians decided to invade France right after the Germans had beaten the French in 1940. The attack went so badly that only France’s formal surrender to Germany saved Italy from defeat.

Then they lost their navy to a bunch of British biplanes in the Mediterranean version of Pearl Harbor at Taranto, and then lost 300,000 of their best troops to 30,000 British troops in the Libyan desert.

That’s the whole reason Rommel was sent to the desert – to save the Italians under Mussolini from second rate British garrison troops destroying them completely.

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Speaking of pompous axxes...Il Duce!

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But as a feather in their cap, they were able to gas and air bomb their way to victory over a bunch of spear wielding Ethiopians in 1936, after Ethiopia beaten them in a war in 1895. So that’s a trophy in their case.

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Ethiopians in togas with their Italian prisoners. Lol.

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Churchill said it was only fair that the Axis had Italy on their side in WW2, because the Allies had to take them in WW1. But seriously, Spaghetti Carbonara is awesome and their contributions to pron and the ero tic arts are unparalleled. Plus a big thumbs up for Spaghetti Westerns and fast cars.

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Molto Buono!

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A sidewalk in Pompeii. Can’t find your way to the hoarhouse, Mr. Drunken Sailor? Just follow the “arrows” in the sidewalk. They’ll point you to your destination!

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But back to Market Garden. Ike was in no way sold on Monty’s plan. He told him “What you're proposing is this – if I give you all the supplies you want, you could go straight to Berlin – right straight to Berlin? (500 miles) Monty, you're nuts.”

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“You can't do it. What the he77[?] ... If you try a long column like that in a single thrust you'd have to throw off division after division just to protect your flanks from attack.”

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The dreaded flank attack

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But, against his better judgment and under considerable pressure, Ike approved the modified Comet plan. He gave Monty supply priority, and even set up a special branch of the Red Ball Express called Red Lion just to supply the operation, although it wasn’t without its own problems.

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Instead of just the Brits and Poles though, two American Airborne divisions would assist them in the assault. Market-Garden, in its final form, was Ok’d on September 10, and was to be executed on September 17, just one week later.

Opening a supply line at the port of Antwerp would wait, while 35,000 men (that's half of Memorial Stadium) were to be dropped 60 miles behind enemy lines, with minimal preparation, minimal supplies, and no practice runs.

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The Pacific invasion of Guadalcanal was called “Operation Shoestring”, because it was slapped together pell-mell with only the scarcest of troops and supplies. By that logic, Market-Garden should have been called Operation Fuzzy Slippers, because there wasn’t so much as a shoestring involved and all the intelligence leading up to it was fuzzy as an AM radio in an electrical storm. Remember that.

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Now, I’m not saying this but I have HEARD, that to rid themselves of political enemies or troublemakers, the Greeks and Romans, and others, would deliberately send opponents to war to get rid of them. Not that Monty would ever be in any physical danger from the safety of his HQ far behind the front, but a political anchor of failure around your neck could have a quieting effect on an overly loud mouth I imagine.

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How many times after Market-Garden do you think Monty shouted Ike down demanding his pet project be given full theater priority for the Allies? I’m not suggesting that Ike would ever endanger lives over a petty issue. But risking it is sort of a win-win politically. If it succeeds, well, that’s great, everyone gains and maybe it shortens the war. If it fails, well, who’s crazy idea was that? Maybe they should just S T F U from here on out.

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So Market-Garden was a go. In Market, the airborne part of the plan, 3 Airborne Divisions (1st British, 82nd American, and 101st American) and the Polish Airborne Brigade (about 1/3 of a division), would seize 3 major bridges and a handful more smaller streams and canals, simultaneously, with the eye on the prize of the Arnhem Bridge over the Rhine, and the breakout road to Germany.

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How hard can it be to drop on some bridges and drive down a road?

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Meanwhile, Garden, the ground element, would be a column of armor blasting its way through confused and disoriented Germans, who would already be fleeing for their lives even before the battle began. Garden would bring bridging equipment with them for the smaller water obstacles, and at the halfway mark, roughly 30 miles in, hook up with and protect the airborne troops for the next 30 miles. At least, that was the plan.

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Roads in the city, pretty nice

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Roads not in the city, not so nice

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This ground task went to (Thirty) X-X-X Corp (no, I didn’t make that up), and the 2 lane highway they would advance up was Highway 69 (no, I didn’t make that up either). Like I’ve said before, you just can’t make this stuff up. It’s like custom made historical detail for Lunge enthusiasts.

But what a great promo for a stag film… A Triple X hard Corp film for the ages! The 69 action you’ve only dreamed of. Open chute penetration that will take your breath away.

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Yeah! C’mon!

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To put the operation into a familiar terms, I’ve taken one of the fantastic scenes in the movie and converted it to Upstate scale, so you’ll know what we are looking at here, and just how ambitious the operation was. My version is called “A Bridge To Spartanburg”, and it starts in Clemson. Let’s let General Horrocks, commander of X-X-X Corp, explain it to us.

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The movie Joe Vandeleur and Brian Horrocks

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The real Brian Horrocks

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The real Joe Vandeleur

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Lt. General Horrocks

Gentlemen, this is a story that you shall tell your grandchildren, and mightily bored they'll be.
(room laughs) The plan is called "Operation Market-Garden". "Market" is the airborne element, and "Garden", the ground forces. That's us.

Now, this is our position at Clemson, here. Tomorrow, three airborne divisions will begin landing across the Upstate. 35,000 men taking off from 24 airfields in troop-carrying planes or towed in gliders. The American 101st, here, will land north of Easley, and capture the bridges over the Saluda and the Reedy River in Greenville.

The American 82nd will land here, at Greer and Lyman, and take the South, Middle, and North Tyger River Bridges.

And our own 1st Airborne boys, and the Polish Airborne Brigade, will land here, at Spartanburg, 64 miles behind enemy lines.

Now, their job is to take and hold all the bridges in these three areas. Our job is to punch a hole through the German front line, here, and then drive like he77 up SC 123 and SC 29, linking up with each airborne division on the way. Speed is the vital factor.

The plan is to reach Easley in two to three hours, and Spartanburg in two to three days. That, gentlemen, is the prize - the bridge over Lawson’s Ford Creek, the last bridge between us and North Carolina. Kickoff will be at 2:35 tomorrow afternoon.
The Irish Guards, the crack troops of X-X-X Corp, under the command of Colonel Vandeleur, will take the lead.

Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur

(whispering) Christ, not us again.

Lt. General Horrocks

What do you say to that, J.O.E?

Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur

Uh, delighted, sir. Truly delighted.
(room laughs)

Lt. General Horrocks

Now, I've selected you to lead us not only because of your extraordinary fighting ability, but also because in the unlikely event that the Germans ever get you, they will assume from your attire that they've captured a wretched peasant, and immediately send you on your way.
(room laughs)

Now, maintaining the speed of our advance will no doubt be tough going, as it's a two lane highway. But no matter what, we must reach those 1st Airborne boys in Spartanburg in 48 hours. Now, gentlemen, I'm not saying that this will be the easiest party that we've ever attended, but I still wouldn't miss it for the world.

I'd like to think of this as one of those American western films. The paratroops, lacking substantial equipment, always short of food - these are the besieged homesteaders, the Germans, well naturally, they're the bad guys, and X-X-X Corps, we my friends, are the cavalry, on the way to the rescue.

(the room bursts into applause)

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The movie scene for the visually inclined:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ4dgmst7Wo
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I know, I know, I loved it too. Just a great, great movie.

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Who’s ready to GO!? I know I am. That was inspiring as he77. But there’s just a few problems. Let’s move to another briefing room, where Maj. Gen Roy Urquhart of 1st Airborne and Gen. Sosabowski are being briefed on the landing zone dilemma at the farthest and MOST critical bridge. The bridge that will make or break the whole operation.

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The movie Roy Urquhart

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The real Roy Urquhart
Cot Damm Roy, you got enough medals there?

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The movie Sosabowski

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The real Sosabowski, who went on to co-found the band Sparks after the war

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Planner: Naturally sir we’ll try to meet all your requirements, put please, keep in mind one factor that is crippling all our planning. We simply don’t have enough planes to drop everyone at once, so you must go in waves. We are desperately short of aircraft.

Urquhart: I am aware of that

Planner: I’m surprised no one mentioned it to Monty when he dreamed this up.

Urquhart: I need drop zones as close as possible to the bridge (points to central Arnhem on a wall sized map of the surrounding area). Clearly, this area is of no use to me at all. I can’t have my chaps dropping down chimneys. (points to south of Arnhem) Now this area looks inviting here.

Planner: Sorry sir, all our reports indicate that this terrain is too soft for glider landings. You see, the nose digs in on touch down, the whole thing goes axx over tidds, and it’s a total write off.

Urquhart: Alright. (points to north of Arnhem) How about here then?

Planner: Afraid not sir, that whole area is covered in FLAK (anti-aircraft guns) from this Jerry airfield up here.

Urquhart: Well presumably you are letting us land somewhere.

Planner: Ooh. Yes. Well, hopefully sir. But you see, We can’t afford to lose a single plane. We just don’t have enough.

Urquhart: Well I need drop zones that now only can I take, but that I can defend. I won’t have the rest of my division till the second drop, and the Polish Brigade won’t arrive till the third drop.

Planner: I understand sir. But we really think we’ve found the right place for you, it’s flat, firm, and easily defended.

Urquhart: Well where the he77 is it?

Planner: Eh, well, it’s not actually on this map. (Walks across room) But if it were, it would be right about here. (points to a spot off the map on the blank wall, northwest of Spartanburg (Arnhem)) At a place called Boiling Springs.

Urquhart: That’s 10 miles from the bridge!

Planner: Closer to 8, sir. (Sosabowski walks up to the map and looks at the planner up and down)

Planner: Yes, sir?

Sosabowski: Just making sure who’s side you are on.

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Again, from the movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RqJGoFljIA

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Ouch. Ok, so that’s bad. But how bad could it be, really? There’s a fix for everything. So you are landing 8 miles from the bridge you have to take by surprise. We’ll just drop a few jeeps with you so some of your guys can rush ahead while the bulk of you walk. And when the rest of your division lands, whenever that is, they can come over to help you. Problem solved!

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Just put the damm thing in the glider and let’s go!

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Meanwhile, the Americans had their drop zones picked out as well. The 101st would be first on Road 69, with one regiment taking the 100 foot wide canal bridge at Greenville (Son), one taking the 100 foot wide canal bridge at Wade Hampton (Veghel), and one taking the river bridge in between. Easy!

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The 82nd would be in the middle, between the 101st and the 1st, with a slightly tougher task. The only high ground for miles around was in a town called Duncan (Groesbeek), outside of Lyman (Nijmegen). If the Germans got the high ground, the bridge in Lyman (Nijmegen) could easily be destroyed by long range artillery fire even if the 101st captured it intact. So that hill had to be taken and held also.

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So one regiment planned to take the 800 foot long river bridge at Greer (Grave), one the 850 foot bridge at Lyman (Nijmegen), and one held the heights at Duncan (Groesbeek).

In case there were any problems, tons and tons of pre manufactured modular bridging was brought along also, with 2,300 vehicles to carry it all and 9,000 engineers to construct it. They were known as Bailey Bridges, after their inventor.

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Got any of that Bailey crap?

You mean that remarkable piece of British engineering that’s the envy of the civilized world?

Yeah, that Bailey crap.

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Uh-oh. Look at the time. We’ve got to go. We’re falling behind schedule already! We’ll work out the details on the way.

Ok, Let’s mount up and roll out! Part 2 of 2 to follow.

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