Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "Mistakes at Arnhem Bridge | Battle Storm 3/8 | Operation Market Garden" video.

  1. +TIK concentration camps (the British invented them during the Boar War) First there is a difference between a concentration camp and a death camp. The Germans called death camps concentration camps to hide their true function. The British adopted the concentration camp from the Americans who used it in the Spanish-American war, who in turn copied it off the Spanish.
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  2. +TIK "_Ryan's book is fantastic._" The film created outrage in the UK. This promoted deep research into the operation and many vastly superior books were publish by authors from a number of countries. Ryan's book is in part fiction. It ranks amongst the other works of fiction passing themselves off as fact by the US authors, Ambrose and Marshall.
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  3. +TIK Yes, the 508th of the 82nd were all assembled by 3 pm. They sat around in fields for two hours drinking coffee, then went to the bridge only find the Germans had poured over the bridge to seize it and setup in the town. This meant the 82nd then had to fight them in Nijmegen instead of keeping them away from the north of the bridge. akgeronimo501, is arguing because he is from the USA. He refuses to accept basic facts that the prime cause of failure of Market Garden was the 82nd.
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  4. +akgeronimo501 The 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion. They support the US 82nd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/376th_Parachute_Field_Artillery_Battalion
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  5. +akgeronimo501 "How quickly can you assemble a, lets say a brigade of men"? The 82nd dropped at approx 1.30 pm to hardly any resistance and were assembled by 3.00 pm. If they marched on the bridge they would have found 12 guards. They could then have secured the bridge which would have prevented the 10th SS panzer infantry from moving south over the bridge and setting up in Nijmegen. This German unit had no heavy armour and all the vehicles they had could be dealt with by the 82nd's anti-tank guns. XXX Corps arrived in Nijmegen ahead of schedule on the morning of the 19 Sept and instead of speeding across the bridge and onto Arnhem to meet up with the British paras, they were very disappointed to see the bridge still in Germans hands. But instead of only 12 men guarding the bridge, there was a regiment full of them on the bridge and in and around Nijmegen. Then XXX Corps had to take the bridge themselves and flush them out of Nijmegen. XXX Corps did that in a day and half.
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  6. +TIK You have now experienced ODDBALL SOK and akgeronimo501. On other threads akgeronimo501 has had it all explained to him by many people like you are doing, to no avail. Well now you know. Have fun.
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  7. +akgeronimo501 SS man Harmel who was in charge of the island between Arnhem & Nijmegen bridges. "what is seldom understood, that the Arnhem battle was lost in Nijmegen. If the allies had taken the [Nijmegen] bridge on the first day, it would have been all over for us. Even if we had lost it on the second day we would have had difficulty stopping them. By the time the English tanks had arrived, the matter was already decided".
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  8. akgeronimo501 Ah well. This is the Internet.
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  9. akgeronimo501 OK, the Yanks won all the war all by themselves and never did anything wrong. Is that better for you?
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  10. I hope TIK deals with you.
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  11. ODDBALL SOK The references were given.
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  12. ODDBALL SOK You have been given many references. Many of them. Now stop irritating people and grow up. It the same stuck record of confusion from you How old are you?
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  13. +ODDBALL SOK (I was at the "celebrations" in Arnhem and Nijmegen last week..on the matter I only got to talk to elder guides and museum historians and they all have the same answer that the project failed on many accounts, and most of it in the planning...but one could not blame a single unit or person for it..). They never looked hard enough. There one prime reason and that points to the 82nd.
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  14. akgeronimo501 None of this is newly discovered. tut, tut.
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  15. akgeronimo501 Another one who needs therapy.
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  16. +TIK I think it's fair to say that it makes more sense to believe that if they'd taken the bridge the operation would have had a better chance of succeeding than if they hadn't taken it. When looking at what the 82nd were against, it would difficult to assess they would have lost the bridge before XXX Corps came along. They even had their own artillery, the 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion. They even took a 17pdr anti-tank gun, that would have blown holes though Tigers if they turned up. But they never because they would have faced no heavy armour because none was there.
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  17. +ODDBALL SOK As I understand it, the Post Office at Nijmegen held no controls for blowing the bridge. TIK may confirm.
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