Photo Credit: A captured British paratrooper gestures toward a German photographer after being captured in the closing hours of Operation Market-Garden. The British paras of the 1st Airborne Division fought bravely at Arnhem but were exhausted after 30th Corps failed to reach them in a timely manner.

Montgomery’s Bridge Too Far

In Operation Market-Garden, Allied leaders ignored warnings, overlooked obstacles in push to end the war in Europe quickly.

This article appears in: February 2023

By Michael D. Hull Operation Market-Garden, British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery’s imaginative and daring plan—reluctantly endorsed by his superior, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe—was complex and fraught with possible catastrophes; a hurriedly conceived blueprint flawed by over-confidence, poor logistics, and the Allied commanders’ failure to cooperate fully with the diligent and efficient Dutch resistance network. Vital intelligenc