Immortalised in the film A Bridge Too Far, the Battle of Arnhem was the conclusion of Operation Market Garden - a bold plan formulated by Field Marshal Montgomery to bypass the Siegfried Line and enter Germany.
Ultimately unsuccessful, the battle is still widely considered a feat of great courage and endurance by the British 1st Airborne Division. Pen & Sword Books have a wide range of titles covering this famous battle of 1944.
Richard Mead has written an absorbing and personal autobiography of General 'BOY', Sir Frederick Browning. the most controversial British Commander of the Second World War. Probable better known as the Commander of the 1st Airborne Corps and the ill-fated 'Arnhem drop' in September 1944. As a former member, veteran, of the Parachute Regiment, I found this gritty biography of General Browning and the politics and debate, entailed in reaching decisions, which evolved into policy and operations, interesting! Richard Mead, in a well researched book, describes how, as young Grenadier Guards lieutenant, he had his baptism of fire in the trenches, in France during World War One. The nightmare of the mud and slaughter and the rotting bodies in No Mans Land remained with him during his military career. Although lacking independent means, and living on officers pay, he was well connected and popular with fellow officers. In 1932 married a beautiful young author Daphne de Maurier, who shunned living.. Read more
Richard Gough - Military Author and historian
Richard Mead has written an absorbing and personal autobiography of General 'BOY', Sir Frederick Browning. the most controversial British Commander of the Second World War. Probable better known as the Commander of the 1st Airborne Corps and the ill-fated 'Arnhem drop' in September 1944. As a former member, veteran, of the Parachute Regiment, I found this gritty biography of General Browning and the politics and debate, entailed in reaching decisions, which evolved into policy and operations, interesting! Richard Mead, in a well researched book, describes how, as young Grenadier Guards lieutenant, he had his baptism of fire in the trenches, in France during World War One. The nightmare of the mud and slaughter and the rotting bodies in No Mans Land remained with him during his military career. Although lacking independent means, and living on officers pay, he was well connected and popular with fellow officers. In 1932 married a beautiful young author Daphne de Maurier, who shunned living.. Read more
Richard Gough - Military Author and historian
A part of the superb Operation Market Garden series, this episode charts the gradual formation of the Oosterbeek Perimeter by the 1st Airborne Division, from Tuesday 19th to Friday 22nd September. It starts by summarising the withdrawal, thoroughly described in previous chapters, of the threadbare elements of the 1st and 4th Parachute Brigades, and looks in detail at the key engagements of the first few days at Oosterbeek, particularly around the critical Westerbouwing Heights and Lonsdale Force areas. In the process it draws attention to the command and control problems, not just the well-documented ones of the British, but the lesser known German difficulties as well. Moving further afield, the courageous efforts of the RAF to drop supplies are included, as is the landing of the Polish Brigade at Driel and the attempts of XXX Corps to reach them as they advanced beyond the Nijmegen bridgehead against increasingly stubborn resistance. As with all Battlefield History TV documentaries,.. Read more
Pegasus Archive - Mark Hickaman
A part of the superb Operation Market Garden series, this episode charts the gradual formation of the Oosterbeek Perimeter by the 1st Airborne Division, from Tuesday 19th to Friday 22nd September. It starts by summarising the withdrawal, thoroughly described in previous chapters, of the threadbare elements of the 1st and 4th Parachute Brigades, and looks in detail at the key engagements of the first few days at Oosterbeek, particularly around the critical Westerbouwing Heights and Lonsdale Force areas. In the process it draws attention to the command and control problems, not just the well-documented ones of the British, but the lesser known German difficulties as well. Moving further afield, the courageous efforts of the RAF to drop supplies are included, as is the landing of the Polish Brigade at Driel and the attempts of XXX Corps to reach them as they advanced beyond the Nijmegen bridgehead against increasingly stubborn resistance. As with all Battlefield History TV documentaries,.. Read more
Pegasus Archive - Mark Hickaman
Aircraft was invented in the early 1900’s and there was much pioneering work conducted in World War 1. During the inter-war period the design and development work continued and airborne troops, originally in the format of paratroopers, were conceived. By the time World War 2 started a few nations had experimented with airborne troops particularly the Russians and Germans. When the Germans invaded Norway and Belgium they used airborne troops and were the 'first off the mark'. Subsequently many more nations developed this branch of their armed forces. The author is an avid photograph collector and this volume is packed full of them. He traces the development of air transport and how military strategists considered the option of inserting light infantry at key points behind enemy lines via air landing and air drop. Although the Germans were the first to use airborne troops offensively their ultimately victorious operation in Crete was exceedingly costly in terms of men and equipment. After.. Read more
Military Archive Research – Dr Stuart C Blank
Aircraft was invented in the early 1900’s and there was much pioneering work conducted in World War 1. During the inter-war period the design and development work continued and airborne troops, originally in the format of paratroopers, were conceived. By the time World War 2 started a few nations had experimented with airborne troops particularly the Russians and Germans. When the Germans invaded Norway and Belgium they used airborne troops and were the 'first off the mark'. Subsequently many more nations developed this branch of their armed forces. The author is an avid photograph collector and this volume is packed full of them. He traces the development of air transport and how military strategists considered the option of inserting light infantry at key points behind enemy lines via air landing and air drop. Although the Germans were the first to use airborne troops offensively their ultimately victorious operation in Crete was exceedingly costly in terms of men and equipment. After.. Read more
Military Archive Research – Dr Stuart C Blank
This film covers the desperate fighting by the Guards Armoured and 43rd Wessex Division between Nijmegen and the Rhine as they struggled to reach the Poles at Driel and the banks of the Rhine opposite the Oosterbeek Perimeter, where the increasingly beleaguered airborne troops were grimly hanging on. Experts in this often overlooked part of the battle link these events to those being played out north of the Rhine and bring a new clarity to what is often a one sided view of events.
Friends of the National Archives
This film covers the desperate fighting by the Guards Armoured and 43rd Wessex Division between Nijmegen and the Rhine as they struggled to reach the Poles at Driel and the banks of the Rhine opposite the Oosterbeek Perimeter, where the increasingly beleaguered airborne troops were grimly hanging on. Experts in this often overlooked part of the battle link these events to those being played out north of the Rhine and bring a new clarity to what is often a one sided view of events.
Friends of the National Archives
As time moves on, we lose more of those veterans from WW2 and their individual memories become lost to us. That is especially so as many found it difficult to talk about their experiences once the war had finished. This could have happened with Des Evans I suspect, but the friendship he struck up with Mike Gallagher enabled this book to be presented now, even after his death. The author gives us the context of the story at the beginning, explaining how he first met Des by chance during a trip to the Arnhem battlefields for the 40th anniversary in 1984. The core of the book is in the words of Des himself, as he wrote down his own experience of that trip back to Arnhem in 1984, of visiting places he had been in action back in 1944 and even identifying himself and two other paras in a well known photograph from the battle. The story continues with his treatment and journey into captivity in Germany. Then his experiences in prison camps, as they were moved, and on to his eventual bids for.. Read more
Military Modelling Online
As time moves on, we lose more of those veterans from WW2 and their individual memories become lost to us. That is especially so as many found it difficult to talk about their experiences once the war had finished. This could have happened with Des Evans I suspect, but the friendship he struck up with Mike Gallagher enabled this book to be presented now, even after his death. The author gives us the context of the story at the beginning, explaining how he first met Des by chance during a trip to the Arnhem battlefields for the 40th anniversary in 1984. The core of the book is in the words of Des himself, as he wrote down his own experience of that trip back to Arnhem in 1984, of visiting places he had been in action back in 1944 and even identifying himself and two other paras in a well known photograph from the battle. The story continues with his treatment and journey into captivity in Germany. Then his experiences in prison camps, as they were moved, and on to his eventual bids for.. Read more
Military Modelling Online
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Nothing is Impossible
Battle is the severest test a man can be called upon to undergo; it can bring out the best in a man – and the worst... The author of this book, Victor Miller, joined the Queen's Royal Regiment, at Guildford, upon the outbreak of the Second World War. He volunteered for the elite Glider Pilot Regiment upon its formation and passed, with above average… Read more...
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Captured at Arnhem
Tom Hicks' story begins when he joins the LMS straight from school and follows his early life on the railways in the 1930s, through enlistment, training as a paratrooper, wartime service, imprisonment and his return to the LMS as an engine driver. Tom volunteered for war service in 1939 and was initially placed in the military railway of the Royal… Read more...
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Captured Memories 1930 - 1945
In this sequel to his successful first volume Peter Liddle brings his years of Oral History experience to the Thirties and the Second World War. He was the founder/Director of a new archive in 1999 specifically dedicated to the rescue of evidence of the Second World War which now documents the lives of more than nine thousand people in that war. Many… Read more...
Following on from BHTV's earlier film in the Market Garden series on the story of Hell's Highway, the series reaches the battle to seize the great Bridges over two of Europe's largest water ways; the Maas and the Waal at Nijmegen. Here the 82nd US airborne were, as elsewhere, denied coup de main attacks to seize the bridges by the air commanders. While… Read more...
The Battle of Arnhem, fought in the early autumn of 1944, remains without a doubt the most hotly debated battle of the North West European Campaign, both then and now. From its inception in the sixteen canceled airborne operations during August, we will chart the problems, many of which were ignored by men desperate to get into battle, the compromises… Read more...
Montgomery's brainchild, Operation Market Garden, was designed to end the war by Christmas 1944 and clear away Hitler's V weapons from the North Sea Coast. Following the collapse of the German Army in Normandy and its flight back across northern France, it seemed that a bold move to seize the three major and numerous other waterways across Holland… Read more...
