It was a plan to end the Second World War by capturing the bridges leading to the lower Rhine and beyond. But it ended quickly, in disaster, especially for the Dutch civilians who risked everything to help and suffered cruel reprisals from the Germans through to the end of the war. When I was younger I was close to a Dutchman who lived as a teenager in Arnhem at the time of the battle. He told of the initial excitement and hope when the parachuters arrived, followed by near starvation until liberation in May 1945. So it was wonderful to read this book about a subject that I’d heard so much about. And Beevor is in his usual good form, using many new sources, with a gripping history that reveals that the plan imposed by Field Marshal Montgomery and General “Boy” Browning was doomed from the start. He views Montgomery as an egotistical, insufferable bore, and lays the principal blame for the disaster on him. Cornelius Ryan wrote a superb history – A Bridge Too Far (also made into a movie in 1977), and Rick Atkinson has also written well on Arnhem. Unlike them Beevor writes from a military background and his analysis of the disaster is forensic. This will appeal to his many fans.
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