Comments by "Alan Pennie" (@alanpennie8013) on "Gavin wasn't to blame? 'New' evidence on Operation Market Garden's failure?" video.

I agree with that. I think Browning is more at fault for ignoring extremely good intelligence about panzer divisions at Arnhem than Gavin is for believing bad intelligence about tanks in The Reichswald. But blaming a failure on a subordinate isn't exactly impressive leadership.
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I think you have outlined them pretty well. Given the intelligence Browning and Gavin had a counter attack from the east looked pretty likely. And so they guarded against it before securing the bridge. In hindsight obviously the wrong decision, but this was much less clear at the time.
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Yes. It's sad to learn that Gavin was less than frank.
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Yes. He accepted the blame like a gentleman. And he really was to blame because he could have issued Gavin firm orders to secure the bridge immediately. Though it's possible that Gavin, who seems to have felt disdain for his commander, would have ignored them.
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@ZESAUCEBOSS Just so. Gavin is to blame for trying to shift responsibility but he was really given an impossible task: both to capture the bridge and set up a defence perimeter against panzers.
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@billslocum9819 True. But it would not be very useful if the 82 secured the bridge(s) only to be overrun by panzers immediately afterwards.
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@charlietipton8502 This is a good post. I don't think Gavin is to be blamed for his decisions at the time, only for his later weaseling that the bridge might have been captured if Lindquist had acted more decisively.
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You can certainly blame him for the way he shifted blame to Lindquist, apparently enlisting others to do some smearing on his behalf.
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@charlietipton8502 What is shabby is the shifting of blame to Lindquist. Fortunately it doesn't seem to have damaged his career.
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@kwanchan6745 Could be. It does look like a deception operation.
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@rfe8nn2 Absolutely right. The blame can be shared between Browning, Gavin, and SHAEF.
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Apparently The RAF simply refused to land airborne forces anywhere near Arnhem, so Browning isn't to blame for that absurdity.
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He accepted the blame for instructing Gavin to attend first to the threat of a counter attack from the east. He behaved like a gentleman. This may have been because any attempt to blame Gavin would have backfired. He was unpopular with the US airborne commanders long before Market Garden. He certainly behaved very differently to Sosabowski.
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We may wonder whether, if Browning had issued positive orders to prioritise the bridge, whether Gavin would have obeyed them.
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What a creep this Graham seems to have been.
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It was the same story at Arnhem itself, with the paras being landed miles away from the bridge there. The operation was both badly designed and badly executed.
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@johnburns4017 This looks like the guy was complicit in Gavin's shabby attempt to blame Lindquist for the failure.
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Browning was to blame as well. He should have insisted that Gavin concentrate on the bridge, but he too was probably worried by The SHAEF report.
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@dongilleo9743 Good point. There was no reason for Browning not to stay in England, but of course he wanted a piece of the action.
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@TheImperatorKnight Nijmegen was the base from which Allied operations began in 1945, so there is that to be said for Market Garden.
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Later promoted to general, despite Gavin's best efforts to sabotage him.
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I don't think aerial reconnaissance could conclusively prove that there were no panzers in The Reichswald, only that they hadn't spotted any in a very large forest.
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I don't think there's much doubt that he did. But 1. It appears that the order was in accordance with Gavin's own assessment . 2. It's quite possible that had he given a positive order to concentrate on the bridge(s) and ignore everything else Gavin would have ignored it because he was the man on the ground and because he despised Browning.
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