Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden
The date was September 17th 1944, America and allied forces decided to conduct a two stage operation called “Market Garden”. At the time this was to be the largest airborne attack with up to 34, 000 men to complete the attack. Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery was newly promoted on September first and believed that one big push was the way to end the war. He constructed a plan to have Soldiers from Lieutenant General Lewis Brereton's First Allied Airborne Army to drop in and take over key bridges in the Netherlands. While these troops held the bridges, Lieutenant General Brian Horrock's XXX Corps would advance up Highway 69 (Hells Highway) to relieve Brereton's men. If successful, Allied forces would be over the Rhine in a position to attack the Ruhr, while avoiding the Westwall by working around its northern end. The Airborne element, which was considered to be the Market portion, was the 101st Airborne unit, 82nd Airborne unit, British 1st Airborne unit and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. Their goal was to secure the bridges across the rivers in Holland so that the Allied army could advance rapidly northwards and turn right into the lowlands of Germany, hereby skirting around the Siegfried line, the German defense line. If all carried out as planned it should have ended the war by Christmas 1944. The airborne portion was divided over two days, with 60% arriving on the first day and the rest, including most of the heavy equipment, landing the second. The ground element, Garden, was to drive forward on Highway 69 and relieve all the airborne units within four days. In case any of the bridges along the route were blown by the Germans, XXX Corps was accompanied by engineering units and bridging equipment.
Lesson learned
Operation Market Garden teaches us several different types of learned especially being in the military. It teaches us that Commanders and Senior Leaders must come together as joint forces to
The date was September 17th 1944, America and allied forces decided to conduct a two stage operation called “Market Garden”. At the time this was to be the largest airborne attack with up to 34, 000 men to complete the attack. Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery was newly promoted on September first and believed that one big push was the way to end the war. He constructed a plan to have Soldiers from Lieutenant General Lewis Brereton's First Allied Airborne Army to drop in and take over key bridges in the Netherlands. While these troops held the bridges, Lieutenant General Brian Horrock's XXX Corps would advance up Highway 69 (Hells Highway) to relieve Brereton's men. If successful, Allied forces would be over the Rhine in a position to attack the Ruhr, while avoiding the Westwall by working around its northern end. The Airborne element, which was considered to be the Market portion, was the 101st Airborne unit, 82nd Airborne unit, British 1st Airborne unit and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. Their goal was to secure the bridges across the rivers in Holland so that the Allied army could advance rapidly northwards and turn right into the lowlands of Germany, hereby skirting around the Siegfried line, the German defense line. If all carried out as planned it should have ended the war by Christmas 1944. The airborne portion was divided over two days, with 60% arriving on the first day and the rest, including most of the heavy equipment, landing the second. The ground element, Garden, was to drive forward on Highway 69 and relieve all the airborne units within four days. In case any of the bridges along the route were blown by the Germans, XXX Corps was accompanied by engineering units and bridging equipment.
Lesson learned
Operation Market Garden teaches us several different types of learned especially being in the military. It teaches us that Commanders and Senior Leaders must come together as joint forces to