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Operation Market Garden Battle Analysis

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Operation Market Garden Battle Analysis
Operation Market Garden: The Battle for Arnhem
CW3 Kris V. Williams
Battle Analysis: Operation Market Garden WWII Dr. Dastrup
February 22, 2016

The successful Allied victories in Normandy during World War II forced the rival Germans to retreat to the Netherlands. These events enabled the Allied Forces to attempt the largest airborne operation in history Operation Market Garden in an attempt to make a final push to permanently defeat the Germans and end World War II. Unfortunately, this plan was destined to fail from the beginning. Overzealous leadership planning, limited logistical support, bad weather, and poor intelligence all being contributing factors to the failure …show more content…
Operation Market would have three and a half airborne divisions drop into the vicinity of Grave, Nijmegen, and Arnhem to seize bridges across several canals and the Maas, Waal, and Neder Rijn rivers. They were to open a corridor more than fifty miles long leading from Eindhoven northward....In a companion piece named Operation Garden, ground troops of the Second British Army were to push from the Dutch-Belgian border to the Zuider Zee, a total distance of ninety-nine miles. The main effort of the ground attack was to be made by XXX Corps from a bridgehead across the Meuse-Ascaut canal a few miles south of Eindhoven on the Dutch-Belgian frontier. (Macdonald, …show more content…
Two of these lessons clearly stand out: Overconfident leadership, and ignoring the intelligence. There was clearly a lack of communication, coordination, and planning at all echelons. Information sharing is key to plan such a large scale airborne operation that involved numerous airborne and ground units. No matter how much of the operation was planned, if the information is being stovepipe, then the mission is doomed for failure. In Market Garden senior leadership jockeyed for position and assets; therefore sparred amongst themselves. I truly believe these leadership errors lead to ignoring the intelligence. Regardless of the Germans will or lack thereof to fight, their sheer numbers on the ground were much larger than what Montgomery wanted to truly believe. Logistical lines suffered with limited maneuverable passages; but more importantly because of all these issues, not all the bridges to Arnhem were secured in time for Garden to advance to Arnhem. Market Garden will be one of the most analyzed operations in history not only due to its failure, but also for its the overzealous leadership and the rush to end the
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