Author : Donald Robert Burgett
Publisher :
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 47,93 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN :
Author Donald R. Burgett presents the reader with a vivid account of his experiences as a Screaming Eagle fighting the Nazis.
Author : Antony Beevor
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 726 pages
File Size : 23,51 MB
Release : 2018-05-17
Category : History
ISBN : 0141941294
THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER The great airborne battle for the bridges in 1944 by Britain's Number One bestselling historian and author of the classic Stalingrad 'Our greatest chronicler of the Second World War' - Robert Fox, Evening Standard ______________ On 17 September 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the growing roar of aeroplane engines. He went out on to his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders carrying the British 1st Airborne and the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions. He gazed up in envy at this massive demonstration of paratroop power. Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. But could it ever have worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch, who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war. The British fascination with heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths. Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student himself called 'The Last German Victory'. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single, dramatic battle. It looks into the very heart of war. ______________ 'In Beevor's hands, Arnhem becomes a study of national character' - Ben Macintyre, The Times 'Superb book, tirelessly researched and beautifully written' - Saul David, Daily Telegraph 'Complete mastery of both the story and the sources' - Keith Lowe, Literary Review
Author : Robert Kershaw
Publisher : Casemate
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,51 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Arnhem, Battle of, Arnhem, Netherlands, 1944
ISBN : 9781612002644
In this long-awaited book, Robert Kershaw follows up his best-selling account of Operation Market Garden--It Never Snows in September--to focus on the experiences of Dutch civilians and British and German soldiers in one street while fighting to survive at the heart of one of the most intense battles of World War II. He tells the story from the perspective of what could be seen or heard from the Utrechtseweg, a road that runs seven kilometers from the Arnhem railway station west to Oosterbeek. This stretch of road saw virtually every major event during the fighting for Arnhem--the legendary "Bridge Too Far"--during September 1944. The story is about the disintegration of a wealthy Dutch suburb caught unexpectedly in the war it had escaped for so long. The book charts the steady destruction of an exclusive rural community, where wealthy Dutch holiday-makers had relaxed before the war. The destruction of this pretty village is charted through the eyes of British, Polish and German soldiers fighting amid its confused and horrified inhabitants. It portrays a collage of human experiences, sights, sounds, visceral fears and emotion as ordinary people seek to cope when their street is so suddenly and unexpectedly overwhelmed in a savage battle using the most deadly weapons of the day. Kershaw's new research reveals the extent to which most people in this battle, whether soldiers or civilians, saw only what was immediately happening to them, with no idea of the larger picture. Many original Dutch, German and English accounts have been unearthed through interviews, diary accounts and letters, as well as post-combat reports charting the same incidents from both sides. The story is told as a docudrama following the fortunes of participants within a gripping narrative format. Holland had not witnessed conflict since the Napoleonic wars. What happens when your street, where you have lived for generations, is suddenly overwhelmed by conflict? A Street in Arnhem--with its alternating revelations of horror and courage--tells that story and provides some of the answers.
Author : David Bennett
Publisher : Casemate
Page : 427 pages
File Size : 37,24 MB
Release : 2008-07-08
Category : History
ISBN : 1935149970
“Reveals much of what history has tended to gloss over . . . should be a must read for all who have an interest in this operation” (Airborne Quarterly). After Normandy, the most spectacular Allied offensive of World War II was Operation Market Garden, which planned to join three divisions of paratroopers dropped behind German lines with massive armored columns breaking through the front. The object was to seize a crossing over the Rhine to outflank the heartland of the Third Reich and force a quick end to the war. The operation utterly failed, of course, as the 1st British Airborne was practically wiped out, the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions became tied down in vicious combat for months, and the vaunted armored columns were foiled at every turn by improvisational German defenses. Some have called the battle “Hitler’s last victory.” In this work, many years in the making, David Bennett puts forward a balanced and comprehensive account of the British, American, Polish, Canadian, and German actions, as well as the strategic background of the operation, in a way not yet done. He shows, for example, that rather than a bridgehead over the Rhine, Montgomery’s ultimate aim was to flank the Ruhr industrial area from the north. The book also deals as never before with the key role of all three Corps of British Second Army, not just Brian Horrocks’ central XXX Corps. For the first time, we learn the dramatic untold story of how a single company of Canadian engineers achieved the evacuation of 1st Airborne’s survivors back across the Rhine when all other efforts had failed. Also revealed is the scandal of how Polish Gen. Sosabowski was treated by the British military authorities, and how the operation would have failed at the outset but for the brilliant soldiery of the two American airborne divisions. Respectfully nodding to A Bridge Too Far and other excellent works on Market Garden, the author has interviewed survivors, walked the ground, and performed prodigious archival research to increase our understanding of the battle, from the actions of the lowliest soldier to the highest commander, Allied and German.
Author : William F. Buckingham
Publisher : Amberley Publishing Limited
Page : 891 pages
File Size : 40,88 MB
Release : 2019-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1445637162
Explore this gripping day-by-day combat narrative of the infamous battle for a bridgehead over the Rhine.
Author : Frank Steer
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 50,77 MB
Release : 2000-10-21
Category : History
ISBN : 1473811937
On the ground the airborne logisticians at the battle of Arnhem fought to the bitter end, indistinguishable from their paratroop comrades. In the air, their deeds and sacrifice were shining examples of duty done under the most desperate circumstances. Witness the account of Flight Lieutenant H J King, navigator of Dakota KG 374 of 271 squadron RAF, Down Ampney:These men were not volunteers like aircrew. They received no flyingpay, yet were, without doubt, superb in their fulfilment of duty even though KG 374 was burning for the whole period over the dropping zone. Arnhem—The Fight To Sustain tells the stirring story of the men and the methods employed in sustaining 1st Airborne Division. It is the first account of forming corps of today's Royal Logistic Corps in action together.Following extensive research the story draws heavily on contemporary documents and eyewitness accounts and is lavishly illustrated.
Author : Geoffrey Powell
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 22,96 MB
Release : 2009-04-03
Category : History
ISBN : 1844681440
A WWII veteran combines firsthand immediacy with perceptive analysis in this vividly detailed history of the Battle of Arnhem. The Allied effort the liberate the Netherlands faced a brutal setback at the Battle of Arnham, where the men of the 1st British Airborne Division showed unsurpassed valor in the face of overwhelming opposition. The dramatic defeat, immortalized in the famous film A Bridge Too Far, is recounted here by Major Geoffrey Powell, who commanded C Company of the 156th Battalion, and who valorously led the entire battalion through—and out of—the onslaught. In The Devil’s Birthday, Powell draws on his own experience of the fighting while offring a deeply researched assessment of the operation and its execution. Casualties during the battle were appalling. The brave and enduring Dutch people suffered catastrophically while German morale was strengthened at a time of otherwise ebbing fortunes. But the hard lessons of Arnham will not be forgotten.
Author : Iain Ballantyne
Publisher : Canelo + ORM
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 19,22 MB
Release : 2023-02-13
Category : History
ISBN : 1804363685
The account of the fateful bridge too far... ‘It was a bridge too far and perhaps the whole plan was doomed to failure from the start, but we had to try, didn’t we?’ 17 September 1944: 30,000 airborne soldiers prepare to drop 64 miles behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Holland; tens of thousands of ground troops race down Hell’s Highway in tanks and armoured cars, trucks and half-tracks to link up with them. The goal – to secure eight bridges across the Rhine and end the war by Christmas. Ten days later, over 15,000 of these soldiers have died, 6,000 have been taken prisoner. Operation Market Garden was the daring plan to stage a coup de main in occupied territory, gain control of those bridges, and obtain a direct route into Hitler’s Germany. But the operation failed and the allied forces suffered a brutal military defeat. In the 75 years since, tactics have been analysed and blame has been placed, but the heart of Arnhem’s story lies in the selflessness and bravery of those troops that fought, the courage and resilience of the civilians caught up in confrontation, and the pure determination to fight for their lives and their freedom. This is the story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. In Ballantyne’s Arnhem, we go into battle with not only the famous commanders in the thick of the action, but also with all those whose fates were determined by their decisions. Based on first-hand interviews, military records, and diaries, we witness the confusion and mayhem of war – from the horrific and devastating to the surreal and mundane. But most of all, we witness the self-sacrifice and valour of the men who gave their lives to liberate strangers in a foreign country. Praise for Arnhem: Ten Days in the Cauldron ‘Reminiscent of Stephen Ambrose at his best... some remarkable stories, which Ballantyne neatly dovetails into a rolling epic’ Dr Harry Bennett, University of Plymouth ‘Breath-taking... I thoroughly enjoyed reading this account of Arnhem, adding, if you like, a trench-level perspective to those other accounts written from more senior, and sometimes more detached, points of view. Thoroughly recommended’ British Journal for Military History
Author : Donald R. Burgett
Publisher : Thorndike Press
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 43,49 MB
Release : 2000
Category : History
ISBN : 9780783889948
The Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division had just finished the battle for "the bridge too far", and, as Christmas 1944 approached, they were settling in for some hard-earned R&R. Then Hitler ordered a massive Nazi counterattack through the Ardennes Forest. The Screaming Eagles were rushed to Bastogne, a small Belgian crossroads where seven roads met and where the lightly armed and under-supplied division became the "cork in the bottle" of the Nazi onslaught. Burgett's stirring memoir (he was 19) recounts how epic courage bought the time needed for Patton's Third Army to redeploy.
Author : John Nichol
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 421 pages
File Size : 34,58 MB
Release : 2011-09-21
Category : History
ISBN : 0670918881
In September 1944, a mighty shock force of battle hardened Allied troops dropped from the skies into enemy-occupied Holland in what was hoped would be the decisive final battle of World War II.Landing miles behind the German lines, their daring mission was to secure bridges across the Rhine so that ground forces could make a rapid dash into Nazi Germany. If all went well, the war could be over by Christmas. But what many trusted would be a simple operation turned into a brutal losing battle. Of 12,000 British airborne soldiers, 1,500 died and 6,000 were taken prisoner. The vital bridge at Arnhem they had come to capture stayed resolutely in German hands. But though this was a bitter military defeat for the Allies, beneath the humiliation was another story - of heroism and self-sacrifice, gallantry and survival, guts and determination unbroken in the face of impossible odds. In the two-thirds of a century that have passed since then, historians have endlessly analysed what went wrong and squabbled over who was to blame. Lost in the process was that other Arnhem story - the triumph of the human spirit, as seen through the dramatic first-hand accounts of those who were there, in the cauldron, fighting for their lives, fighting for their comrades, fighting for their honour, a battle they won hands down.
