Operation Market Garden; what were the issues that led to its failure?

Question

Was the plan overall just too aggressive or was it a series of unfortunate events that led to its failure in your view?

A question for discussion here in this forum - I am not in school but am a continuous student of History.

Will keep this opened for the extended period of time and I will choose a B/A (just so you know this doesn't go to a vote).

Answer 1

Failure of the 82nd US Airborne Division to capture Nijmegen bridge on schedule.



They didn't get control of the bridge until late on the evening of 20 September,over 3 days after landing 89% of their forces within a half mile of their drop zones.



British XXX Corps arrived at Nijmegen on the morning of the day before (19 September) and had the bridge already been in American hands could have been at Arnhem the same day.As the British holding at the Arnhem bridge weren't finally overrun and forced to surrender until the morning of 21 September,the arrival of XXX Corps at the bridge sometime on the 19 would almost certainly have resulted in the capture of the Arnhem bridge.



So,82nd US airborne failing to take the Nijmegen bridge on schedule was the major factor in Market Garden failing.

Answer 2

Everything had to go right for it to succeed. That's always a recipe for failure, especially in war. You should always plan for things to go wrong or unexpected things to happen. The Allied leadership failed to do so.



The weather wasn't good after the first couple of days, so the Allies couldn't use their airpower to full effect. There was also a shortage of transport aircraft, so all of the troops couldn't be landed on D-Day (September 17th). The weather and the transport shortage made it harder to take initial objectives quickly and resupply those troops already on the ground.



The biggest failure was of leadership. Montgomery thought the area was lightly defended, when actually two SS panzer divisions had just moved into the area and he was told of that fact. The operation's ground commander, General Browning, was also warned about the SS divisions and didn't seem to take the danger seriously.



Because of these factors, plus the need to build several bridges (destroyed by the Germans) and a seeming lack of urgency on the part of the British XXX Corps (the ground force that was supposed to link up with the paratroopers and drive on to Arnhem), the plan fell badly behind schedule from the beginning.



There were other issues, such as the drop zone for the British 1st Airborne Division being too far from the objective (forcing a long approach march), but in the end overconfidence and bad leadership would in themselves have been enough reason for the failure.

Answer 3

If you look at the map you can see that the plan was not too aggressive – it had to include all those bridges or none, failing to capture the last bridge in the chain meant that the other actions would count for little since it was critical to the strategy that XXX Corps threaten Germany causing an all out retreat across the Rhine and away from the Ruhr to avoid encirclement.

Answer 4

The British failed to take into consideraton that there were 2 SS Panzer Divisions in and around Arnhem. Ariel reconassance clearly showed signs that they were there and the Dutch Underground warned London about SS troops in the area. But Montgomery and Browning were bound and determined to prove their narrow front theory. Montgomery also wanted to show Patton and Ike that he was every bit as good at mobile warfare as Patton was. Montgomery also never made a contingency just incase something in his plan went wrong, so when it did he was unprepared

Answer 5

The British under General Montgomery made the mistake to try to capture a strategic bridge that was too far and heavily defended by the Wehrmacht.

Answer 6

Radio communications worked only sporadically.

Allied air reconnaissance reports were ignored.