Arnhem 1944: An Epic Battle Revisited: Vol. 1: Tanks and Paratroopers

Very well written and nicely researched. This may be the most detailed research work on the overall battle since A Bridge too far by Ryan. The author used Ryan’s research papers to uncover many mis-understood aspects of the battle. The Germans were a real mess and most units not very combat effective, but the Allies made some big mistakes. It Never Snows in September is probably the best book from the German perspective, this book may be the best overall strategy book with a balanced perspective of both sides. I have about 30 market garden books in my library. I enjoyed reading this the most.

Excellent book! Very comprehensive and really does show that the Germans in this area were basically "kids and old men". Mistakes were made on both sides due to various reasons (don't want to include an spoilers). It's also a Multimedia book with lots of QR codes so you can see some actual footage of the landings, some wartime footage, stories from veterans...etc.

Fantastic reserarch. Fine tribute to Cornelius Ryan's collected Market Garden research. Epic work on the Allied airborne assault and German defense.

Widen my knowledges.

A must to add to your collection if you love WWII History, especially Market Garden. Vol I primarily covers the period from start to the surrender at Arnhem Bridge. Vol II covers the period to the end of the operation and also how the failure affected further operations, which most accounts tend not to. The QR codes scattered throughout both volumes linking to videos/interviews etc online are a great addition to the books

Clear and concise but easy to follow what is after all a very comprehensive and detailed Operation. This book sheds new light and offers a fresh perspective on the complete operation. That is to say it covers not just XXX Corps but also the Corps on either flank. It doesn’t pull any punches with clear appreciations of failures but also clarity and cuts through a lot of myths. I rate this book so highly as to be a ‘must have’. I have just about everything ever written but this book is head and shoulders above many. It is outstanding, clear and detailed but reads like a novel. Buy this and enjoy! I did.

This book aims to set the Arnhem record straight by going back to the source materials of interviews and documents in the Cornelius Ryan Collection. Since reading A Bridge Too Far in 1977 before going to see Richard Attenborough's compromised anti-war propaganda movie, I have developed a deep interest in Operation Market Garden and a healthy disrespect for Hollywood revisionism. I didn't know that the book was published before it was really finished because of Ryan's terminal illness, so there is a mine of information in his research that still needs to come to light.This first volume covers the delay to Frost's 2nd Parachute Battalion caused by Helmut Buttlar's thirteen 10th SS Normandy stragglers at the Oosterbeek Laag railway station, and its ramifications on the whole operation. I'm still not clear after 42 years which unit detonated the rail bridge so not every question is resolved here.The story of Jakob Moll and his convalescent company from Grenadier Ersatz Regiment 520 witnessing the airborne landings at Mook is confusing. (Edit, July 2020 - this unit is incorrectly identified by Christer as an Ersatz unit and Cornelius Ryan's sources correctly lists Moll as from "Grenadier Regt. 520". Not the reserve army unit but a field army unit with the same number and destroyed in Russia. Anthony Tucker-Jones in his new book, The Devil's Bridge, has him serving in Fusilier-Ersatz-Bataillon 39, which makes total sense if he was wounded in Russia and returned to Germany. FEB 39 was based in Kleve and according to the Korps Feldt records available online was deployed in September 1944 on the Maas defence line between Gennep and Mook, with headquarters at Grunewald).Most intriguing is the previously untold story of three 'point' men from 1/508th PIR's recon patrol into Nijmegen that first day, who claimed they took possession of the Waal highway bridge from a handful of guards after the rest of the patrol became separated in the jubilant throngs of Nijmegen's liberated citizens. They apparently withdrew at dusk when nobody showed up to reinforce them and Grabner's 9th SS Recon unit was approaching the bridge from Arnhem. I always believed the Americans lost Market Garden at Nijmegen on the first day due to a command failure, and this evidence shows how much of a lost opportunity it really was.Christer Bergstrom also tackles the aerial recon photo story of tanks in the Arnhem area, but can only conclude there is no evidence of such a photo existing. In fact, there is a recent study by the RAF Air Historical Branch (Arnhem: The Air Reconnaissance Story) based on photos in a Dutch Government archive that were donated by the RAF after the war to help with reconstruction. One frame from an aerial (not oblique as in the movie) recon mission on 12 September by a 541 Squadron Spitfire does show tanks in the woods near Deelen. They appear to be Mark III and older Mark IV tanks, too old to be from a 1944 Panzer Division but correlates perfectly with the Herman Goring Training Regiment tanks that broke down on the way to Hechtel in Belgium. When Market Garden started on 17 September, they were at Wolfswinkel, near Zon, and were dispersed by air attack and the landings of the 101st Airborne. So Browning was right after all; they were obsolete, not fully serviceable, and not a major threat to the landing zones.I am still looking forward to volume 2 but this volume I would give four and a half stars for being 90% successful, which only goes to prove that doing Market Garden really is difficult.

An amazingly well-researched book, highlighting many unconsidered and surprising facts. A true piece of historical research, so important as we immediate post-war babies begin to fall off our perches!