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A
Magnificent Disaster
by David Bennett
"No
body of men could have fought more courageously and tenaciously than the
officers and men of the 1st Parachute Brigade at Arnhem Bridge."
Maj.Gen
John D. Frost CB., DSO., MC
"The
British 1st Airborne Division (that) landed in Arnhem was an elite unit. It's
performance, especially at the road bridge was, in the last analysis,
acknowledged as really heroic."
Waffen-SS-Standartenfuher Walther Harzer
Those
are the words of two senior military men from opposing sides who were there.
David Bennett was neither there or a military man, but in this first attempt at
authorship, he goes to great length to rubbish those who were.
'A
Magnificent Disaster' refers to operation Market Garden, which was an attempt
by the Allies to secure a crossings of the Rhine and then head for the Ruhr,
thereby shortening the second world war. It did not work - it almost did, but
in war, almost doesn't cut it. Bennett's work explains in the greatest of
detail why it was ill advised to attempt it, and why it went wrong. It will be
to our eternal regret that Mr. Bennett was not there to give the general's the
benefit of his sage advice.
It
failed: that is a fact. But there were a number of very experienced people who
thought it was worth a try; Churchill and Eisenhower among them. Even Carl von
Clausewitz said "If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his
aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all
obstacles." But then von Clausewitz did not have
the benefit of Mr. Bennett's advice either.
In 260 pages
we are reminded of every little thing that went wrong. The opinions of
disgruntled officers like Gen Hackett, and Gen Sosabowski are given excessive
weight. Hackett has always been unhappy that he was not given more prominence
in the multiplicity of books that have been written about Mkt-Gdn. Gen.Sosabowski always had his oar in
the water, and negative to everything. He left the army in disgrace and was a
failure in everything he did in civilian life. It is small wonder that his
opinion enjoyed little respect among allied generals.
Notwithstanding
the above, this book fails because Bennett could not hide his animosity for the
British. I don't know if they kept him in after school when he was educated in
England, but he really hates the Brits. Every good thing they did was bad, and
every bad thing was worse. Fortunately everyone else was great. They did not
"...retreat in disorder.' (p112), or shoot their friends (p113), and their
hastiness of retreat wasn't "...perilous and unprofessional." (113).
If that was not bad enough, "...the fact remains that the German's
outfought the British." (p193), and "...the British Army was
incapable of carrying out the Arnhem operation". (p194). If all that is
true, I wonder why Obergruppenführer und General der
Waffen-SS Wilhelm
Bittrich said, "In all my years as a soldier, I
have never seen men fight so hard." And he knew a thing or two about fighting as he fought in
both WWI and WWII. Dare I say perhaps a little more than Mr. 'Labor Leader'
Bennett?
On a
technical note it is difficult to follow the action without maps. I do not know
what the publisher was thinking to release a book about a military operation
without maps.
If you are
an Anglophobe, and enjoy reading about how dreadful the British Army was in WWII,
then you will enjoy this volume. If, on the other hand you really want to learn
about a battalion that fought with the utmost
gallantry, in inconceivably difficult conditions, and denied the use of a vital
Bridge to the enemy for 80 hours, then find another author.
643 words
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