Comments by "ODDBALL SOK" (@oddballsok) on "Who's to Blame for the Failure of Operation Market Garden? BattleStorm 8/8" video.

  1. The 508th was not able to overcome the garrison and flak teams on the bridge, AND move over many (??) 6pdrs in Lent, dig trenches and make a sound "cordon" , meanwhile fending off SS infantry and halftracks..in the space of couple of hours on the 17th sept. Let alone stave off the further reinforcements on the 18th. You MIGHT want to fantasise over what if ALL the 82nd troops that were at Groesbeek heights had moved to >Nijmegen and ABANDONED the LZs for the drops of 18th (moved to 19th) september: Well, maybe yes, gavin would have the Nijmegen bridge....for ONE day. The ragtag piecemeal troops form the reichswald WOULD have overrun the LZ , hence the next drops would be shot at /obliterated, totally LOST. But Gavin would be holding the Nijmegen center and south ramp. Fine. The XXXcrps arrives neatly from the SW. The NORTH ramp however he would NOT be able to hold, or control. Too much SS poured in Elst and maybe as close as Lent from the Pannerden ferry (Just a ridiculous 7 km = 5 mile distance!! straight EAST) with armoured cars, stugs, 88s and finally Tigers. Any concentration of Sherman tanks over the bridge would be knocked out (from distance 88s , 75 At, Artillery barrages, Panzerfausten in Lent, and finally a tiger tank) when sighted. Sighted on the bridge, sighted going out of Lent on the dykes...all-the-time. XXX would or could clear out Lent, Elst, the island and Driel, but that would take MANY DAYS. And even so, a couple of Shermans arriving at the south ramp of Arnhem ramp would NOT be able to support Frosts men. And frosts men would not be able to support the shermans if trying to run OVER the Arnhem bridge (already full with rubble). The perimeter around the Arnhem north ramp was already so small, it had no effective meaning for the original plan. The Arnhem center was full of SS, tanks, heavy tanks, artillery screen, Tigers; there is NO way that XXXcrps could DO anything. In fact, if the XXXcrps were so supernatural, they would have done so on the 21st, 22nd or 23d..after all, XXXcrps is brimming with tanks, and what did the germans have in Arnhem to stop them ??
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  2. Readthis,makes sense: http://arnhemjim.blogspot.nl/p/operation-market-garden.html What is absolutely amazing is the fact that when Field Marshal Montgomery reviewed his copy of 1st Airborne Corps operation order, even he objected! He immediately sent his Acting Chief of Staff, Brigadier David Belchem, to LtGen Brereton's headquarters in order to seek a modification of the lift plan allowing the 1st Airborne Division to be delivered in two lifts at most. In this case Brereton exceeded Montgomery in absolute recalcitrance, citing his own previous edict of no changes once decisions had been made...
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  3. panzers, armoured cars halftracks, pioneers and SS were already in place on "the island" on sept 18th via Pannerden and Arnhem bridge itself (Graebner went to NIjmegen!). IF a 82nd platoon had made it to the bridge on 17th..it would have been long displaced on the 18th.
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  4. *****  meaning "if Nimegen bridge was SECURELY taken AND HELD by paras AND XXXcrps tanks and vehicles on the 17th". If you have only 40 men with rifles on /around Nijmegen bridge then that is NO GOOD to stave off increasing SS men and armoured cars.
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  5. Prague was a bit further away and thru mountains, than Berlin..when starting from Antwerp (port)...and Prague was taken by Patton s men.
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  6. here is an interesting insight on a Market Garden boardgame..it is surprisingly accurate: a "what if" situation, your what if situation, ..still goes wrong... https://youtu.be/wStJ3QpvjV4?t=38m47s
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