What went wrong with Operation Market Garden?

Operation Market Garden. I want know all about it. What went wrong? I'm not an expert on the subject, and barely know about it, only general stuff.

What I learned was that it was a high-risk operation that failed. And that it was the largest airborne operation attempted at the time (Or maybe still is the largest airborne operation).

Why did it fail? Why was it high-risk? What were the casualties? (I know I could find this on Wikipedia, but info about casualties is always controversial) Why did the Allies favour the parachute forces, instead of, say, the marines or infantry?

 

heres a view from this website tovarisch,ray..

Market Garden

 

cheers for the link, it all seems pretty well organised on that site. I suppose most of the member's views would correlate with the ones expressed there? Or am I wrong.

 

I dont know to be fair,but it runs on a theme..

 

Three basic reasons...

1/ Supply was dictated by TIME. "Market Garden" had a window of opportunity as the number one destination for scarce supplies. Gen. Montgomery had been given "the nod" by SHAEF and had to make his plan work within a certain time-period, or his supplies would be allocated elsewhere.
2/ British intelligence saw what it wanted to see in regard to German dispositions, and in estimating the recovery time that German units would need after Falaise.
3/ The offensive was essentially an airborne "carpet", laid down over a single road. The timetable depended on the ability of the airborne units to hold the ground taken. Airborne forces, whilst well trained and supported, have a limited amount of combat time before ammunition and other vital resources begin to make in-roads on the 'combat power' of the units concerned.

Market-Garden planning did not take into account these logistical difficulties, the fault of which had borne fruit from the assumption that the airborne forces would be dropping into essentially un-covered ground (ie. no opposition, or minimal opposition)

Once XXX corps started to roll forward, the axis of advance was along a single highway, and as German oppositon started to scramble the pre-set plan, the airborne forces, only meant to conduct a "hold" operation, found themselves having to conduct their operations in a manner they were not suited for, and for far longer than they should have.

Market-Garden followed the old rule of Napolean...."No plan survives first contact."

It was a rigid time-table that ran short, leaving airborne troops in a situation that their equipment and supplies could barely cope with.

Hope this helps clarify....One must understand the overall policy of the Allied Western effort, ("Broad Front"), the supply situation, the plan itself and the narrow frontage. All conspired to make MG a failure, or as Monty put it, "90% successful".

One should also remember that for the airborne forces, there were 11 straight operations that had been cancelled since the D-Day landing. They had a "go" attitude, and swept aside objections in the name of getting into action before the war ended. One of the chief problems with elite forces is that they tend to see themselves as being able to overcome most difficulties. Sometimes, their better training and motivation than regular "line" troops can work against them when planning operations.

Market-Garden was just such an operation.

 

No , i dont fully agree to whats in the article .That just describes the actual battle .


It doesnt show that Germans already knew market garden was coming by a Dutch doubleagent in London called King Kong (C.Lindemans).. its also known as the 'England Spiel' were Germans captured one after the other dropped secret agents and forced them to work for German intel.
Even though many agents tried to warn London by deliberate errors in the sent messages it wasnt picked up ...a very tragic game wich ended in the drama of Arnhem .

Another known fact is is the finding of the full allied battleplans in a crashed WACO glider the first day ..

Parachutes was the only way to reach Arnhem from English airfields ..in 1944 Holland was still fully occupied so no way it could be reached over land without first having to break German lines out of Belgium wich would have cost many thousands of lives ... besides the important bridge over the rhine river would have been blown bfore it was reached , so it needed to be captured by surprise .

Nasty thing is Montgomery blamed Polish HERO!! Gen Sosabowski as a coward afterwards wich was highly unfair as the Polish forces fought like lions and suffered dearly ..Dutch people today still highly admire their bravery !

Market Garden was a huge and unnecessary mistake ..its aftermath was even more tragic as it led also to what we call the hungerwinter too . The large cities in the west were left without any food and many civilian people died of starvation during the cold winter to follow . If you ask older Dutch people what they think the worst period of the second worldwar was I bet they'll tell you it was the hungerwinter //surviving on grass and tulip bulbs ,eating leather shoes etc !!! (cats,dogs,budgies and other pets had been snacked way earlier already..)

Futhermore there was a lack of proper communications devices and brits had great difficulty setting up radio connections to the other Para groups and to London .. I ve read somewhere there was just one long range WS19 set that survived the drop and 'was still functional , but it couldn't establish a contact to london .

 

taken from axis history ..

King Kong was the codename for the Dutch traitor Chris Lindemans.
C. Lindemans had succesfully infiltrated the Dutch resistance movement for the Abwehr.
He was first a legitimate resistance member but in early 1944 he started to work for the Abwehr.
In his previous honest resistance work he smuggled another Dutch resistance member to Spain, that resistance member he smuggled to Spain was a member of the staff of the Dutch prince Bernhard, this member of staff told his superiors that C.Lindemans could be trusted.
Through this contact C.Lindemans (King Kong) on 15 September 1944 got to know details about operation "Market-Garden" and he gave this information to his Abwehr contacts in Driebergen, who then contacted the German army command in Holland.
It has to be said that they didn't trust this information that came from King Kong and didn't pass it on to general Model.
The letter with the information of King Kong was kept on the HQ in Oosterbeek (just the place were the airborn operation took place).

I believe Chris Lindemans was caught after the war and executed.

a book covers this called "betrayal at arnhem" by anne laurens..

 

The Germans did trust Lindemans ..Agent after agent was dropped straight into German hands so they very well knew KingKong was trustworthy.. Remember Prince Bernhard was an ex SSman too .. Many people think Bernhard was the real source ..as he was the one to have acces to everything .. Offcoure the info was sent to Model ..why do you think there was a whole panzer group waiting for them ?? No coincidence ..treason ! Lindemans was to be shot by an execution squad like many collaboraters but killed himself before it came to that . .
Berhard is considered a war hero .. well .. the truth about him will propably never come outin the open ...but just remember he loved trips to Argentina after the war ..for the SKIing is sooo nice in Bariloche ..

 

you could be correct heinrich..

MI5 files reveal how 'King Kong' betrayed Allies - This Britain, UK - The Independent

 

I know its like that Ray .
Dutch TV made a very extensive documentary about the England spiel in the nineties too , but ive been told some things first hand by an old radio amateur friend who was a (good) undercover agent in the war in the Amsterdam/Haarlem area . He actually knew many of the people who were caught by Lindemans treason and told me he tried to relay radio messages from arnhem to england during market garden and couldn't do it either because of bad radioconditions at the time .
My friend has passed away many years ago now , but I still own his hallicrafters receiver .

 

thats cool heinrich,obviously the conflicting location given must have had a bearing on the way things turned out,do you think....

 

dont know if this has any value,but you can see,ray..

Military Maps of Second World War from Osprey Publishing books

 

Its the quality of the radio sets that was the main reason why the different para groups could not communicate well on the ground and got dispersed all fighting separately the first two days .the germans were able to quickly drive a blocking force between them to make it worse ..took too long to regroup and then it was too late already.. That due to the weatherconditions most heavy arms didnt arrive was bad already but having no direct communications must have been a nightmare..

problem with radio connections is that youre dependable on good atmospheric conditions to be able to send long distances with only little transmitting power .
Holland lies very low ,below sea level actually , I guess the only way they could have established good connections is by a 40 or 80 meter longwire antenna hung up horizontally above water or very wet ground so the set had a good radio ground/counterpoise and the signal would have bounced off the wet surface at an angle .. it would make a hop instead of sending straight to the horizon as i think theyve tried to do .

Had several types of WS sets and found most transmitters to be utter rubbish ..they receive okay but were accident proneand only transmitted to the corner of the street and thats it ..display purpouses only

 

as in a bridge too far,so for want of good reception/radio's,all was lost so to speak...

 

some now and then pics.. Battledetective Now and Then

 

Operation Market Garden Logistics - World War II Forums
Chester Wilmot in his 1952 book The Struggle for Europe stated that just before Op Market Garden 1400 British 3-ton trucks were off the road due to faulty ...
ww2f.com/battle.../13496-operation-market-garden-logistics.html -

 

sorry . misunderstood article and removed post //please remove?

 

Amazing guys, the Germans....the remnants of 9th SS Pz Division were in place West of Arnhem by September 8th, handing over their vehicles to 10th SS Pz on September 10th.

By that token , they must have known about Market Garden before the Allies did, and certainly before 'King Kong' delivered his warning.

 

the englandspiel had been going on over a few years already then..its not just a single event and not just KingKong but an open leak that has been open a long time ...so propably yes ..

 

The radio network setup was planned to work in a way envisaged that as Volga states didnt survive the first shot. The setup would have worked fine with battalion to brigade and further up the line if and only if the objectives were met by the footmen on the ground in the way envisaged by the intial plan. Thus the so called radio failure was one of planning rather than equipment. The equipment was to be used in relation to the objectives taken on day one two three etc. It was not envisaged the blokes would not be able to get to their planned objective to bring the net on line as it should be and would work as planned for the few days envisaged before xxx corps arrived. The radios may not have helped much in the ensuing disaster but that was never thought to be an option in the planning of the radio net anyway. So once bullets flew and first contact went wrong the intitial radio net plan went to pot. Not so much kit as plan as with rest of Arnhem.

And as Martin succintly points out....The Germans...what of the Germans.