Topic: Operation Market Garden - Was it a Tactical Disaster?

Acerbus · August 22nd, 2004

Well, from my understanding of the operation, it was a tactical success. Success in that it caught the Germans off-guard and the paratroopers were able to obtain a good number of their objectives despite the disparity in planning.

But from there a few of the tidbits from planning come to unravel the plan.

For starters, there was the fact that they dropped the paratroopers miles away from their objectives, having them rely on jeeps which were on gliders. However, many of the gliders got wrecked and they had to march it from there, horribly screwed up with the fatigue and timing of the attack.

Also there was the inability to drop all of the paratroopers in one swoop. There was an insufficient number of planes required to do it all at once. What surprises me more is that it, being Monty's plan, was put forward anyways considering his temperament. So the paratroopers were severely hampered in their mobility and range, which are the two obvious weakpoints of Airborne Infantry which must be compensated for in daring with planning.

The other flaw was the speed in which the armored relief came to reinforce the paratroopers. Paratroopers are light infantry and can't be expected to hold off against heavy forces for long on their own, so time is of the essence in such operations.

Aside from those planned flaws, there were the misfortunes of war. There's the Panzer division which was unaccounted for in reconnaisance, which was able to overrun the assault troops. And then there's the downed officer who had the complete Allied plans for the operation taken by the Germans. That allowed the Germans to utilize the considerable forces they had at hand to counter the operation.

So in my opinion, it was a daring strike, the sort of objective that Airborne was made for. But it tapered off from there. The planning failed to compensate enough for the weaknesses of paratroopers and that critical element really cinched it. It was only due to tenacity of paratroopers in the first place were they able to avoid complete losses.

August 22nd, 2004
Acerbus Optio	Well, from my understanding of the operation, it was a tactical success. Success in that it caught the Germans off-guard and the paratroopers were able to obtain a good number of their objectives despite the disparity in planning. But from there a few of the tidbits from planning come to unravel the plan. For starters, there was the fact that they dropped the paratroopers miles away from their objectives, having them rely on jeeps which were on gliders. However, many of the gliders got wrecked and they had to march it from there, horribly screwed up with the fatigue and timing of the attack. Also there was the inability to drop all of the paratroopers in one swoop. There was an insufficient number of planes required to do it all at once. What surprises me more is that it, being Monty's plan, was put forward anyways considering his temperament. So the paratroopers were severely hampered in their mobility and range, which are the two obvious weakpoints of Airborne Infantry which must be compensated for in daring with planning. The other flaw was the speed in which the armored relief came to reinforce the paratroopers. Paratroopers are light infantry and can't be expected to hold off against heavy forces for long on their own, so time is of the essence in such operations. Aside from those planned flaws, there were the misfortunes of war. There's the Panzer division which was unaccounted for in reconnaisance, which was able to overrun the assault troops. And then there's the downed officer who had the complete Allied plans for the operation taken by the Germans. That allowed the Germans to utilize the considerable forces they had at hand to counter the operation. So in my opinion, it was a daring strike, the sort of objective that Airborne was made for. But it tapered off from there. The planning failed to compensate enough for the weaknesses of paratroopers and that critical element really cinched it. It was only due to tenacity of paratroopers in the first place were they able to avoid complete losses. __________________ \'Sua sponte (Of their own accord).\' -75th Ranger Regiment, United States Army Cadet Sgt, USMCJROTC: University High School, 2004 Florida State Champs HOORAH! Change of plans, now doing college @ UF.