oh flip, i'd meant to remember this as well; yes it is Operation Market Garden. imagine forgetting that.
nicely praesied, Loc. One small point, the paratroops didn't just face an SS Panzer Div, they landed right on top of it! wadda mistaka to make.
an extra twist to the tragedy, misconcieved though the entire plane was from the start, was the refusal of good ol' Monty and his Staff accept reconaissance and resistance reports of major German forces in the Arnhem/Mijmegen area. Churchill had bent roosevelt's arm to make Eisenhower grant Monty a chance to pull off a specacular surprise victory, rather than giving the authority and resources to patto who'd already driven the Germans back to the Franco-German border (far better general) The Germans thought the same! they were convinced that Ike would put his weight behind Ol' Blood 'n' Guts in the central area of the front, so the elite SS Panzer divisions were sent to Holland for recuperation, it being a relatively quiet sector of the front. Monty's ego and the political and administrative momentum now in the plan resulted in it going ahead despite there being very major reasons to stop it.
one of the consequences of the debacle was that Holland was left alone largely by the Allies, and the Germans stayed in occupation until the end of the war, with all the ramifications that meant for the Dutch people.
sorry Dutchies we really let you down on that one
Edited by - Tawakalna on 9/14/2004 2:38:41 PM