Comments by "TheVilla Aston" (@thevillaaston7811) on "AFTER ARNHEM 1944 | Q&A 9" video.

  1. 'Monty should have cleared the estuary BEFORE Market Garden' That was Eisenhower's decision.
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  2.  @davemac1197  Agree with all of this. Also, the need to curtail V2 attacks on Britain, alone justified the mounting of MARKET GARDEN.
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  3. On the 8th September 1944, the first German V2 rockets landed in London, launched from the Western part of the Netherlands, in the area around The Hague. An urgent signal was sent from London to Montgomery about know what could be done about those attacks. The rockets could not be intercepted once they were in flight, and given they were launched from mobile launchers, usually in built up area, thus the chances of hitting their launch equipment were almost zero. Therefore, the only thing that could be attempted was to stop delivery of rockets to the western part of the Netherlands. When Montgomery met Dempsey on the 10th September, they discussed whether MARKET GARDEN should end at Nijmegen or Arnhem. Montgomery showed Dempsey the signal from London which settled the matter. Where is the craving for glory in that? Prior to that, Montgomery had pointed out to Eisenhower that allied logistics only allowed for two of the four allied armies to advance against Germany and that the advance should be by British 2nd Army and the US 1st Army – towards the Ruhr. Failing that decision, Montgomery would agree to British 2nd Army and the Canadian 1st Army being halted, and the resources put to Bradley’s subordinates, Hodges (US 1st Army), and US 3rd Army (Patton), provided that a decision on a single thrust was taken over the available resources being spread out over all four armies – leaving the allies being not strong enough to advance properly anywhere – which is what happened. Where is the craving for glory in that? Where is there shred of reliable evidence (contemporary documents, utterances by Montgomery), that 'Monty's main objective was to get HIS troops over the Rhine before Patton'?
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  4.  @GregWampler-xm8hv  Its a definite no. By the time of MARKET GARDEN, Eisenhower was both Supreme Commander, and Allied Land Forces Commander. Montgomery did not even have jurisdiction over the airborne divisions in that undertaking until they made contact with XXX Corps during the MARKET GARDEN operation. The idea British are jealous of Americans is absurd. Britain was the only one of the five major belligerents (Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia) that went to war on behalf of another country, all the others attacked other countries or were an attack. The USA is excluded from this group of nations as its homeland was never under threat and therefore it does not deserve to a place at this group. Britain was the only major country to fight from the beginning to the end of the war. The only country to fight Germany and Italy on its own - for an entire year. The only country to fight in every part of the war: North West Europe, Italy, North Africa, Central Africa, the Balkans, Asia and the Pacific. On its own Britain out-produced Germany. All this from a country that is the size of the US State of Oregon and for four years was 20 miles from the enemy. As far a who did what in the Second World War is concerned, WE RULE. 'the Americans at this stage provided the overwhelming majority of men and machines.' The statistics at that time were... British 21st Army Group: Men 829,640. Vehicles 202,789. US 12th Army Group: Men1,222,659. Vehicles 235,682.
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  5. It was 18,000. Far more people were liberated by MARKET GARDEN than died in the Winter of 1944-45 under German occupation. The ex SS man Prince Bernhard was rightly shown the door by both British and US intelligence services. Only his Royal connections kept him out of prison in the 1970s, in the wake the Lockheed scandal.
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  6. How so?
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  7. 'Had all the airborne forces stopped for tea ' What about the ones that stopped for coffee?.. Cornelius Ryan Collection of World War II Papers Series A Bridge Too Far Box number 115 Folder number 37 ‘The two left the Group near Eindhoven and motored forward toward the Zon Bridge. They reached it about 5 in the evening and saw “the Germans had done a good job on it”. Found a rowboat a few yards downstream and rowed to the north bank. “We walked down the road a bit and came across some Americans sitting drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and you would never have thought there was a war on, they were so completely relaxed. We said hello and they shuffled their feet and gave us a few half-hearted salutes.' N.B. ‘The two’ were Joe and Giles Vandeleur
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  8. A good point.
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  9. TIK You have neglected to take note that by the 10th September, Montgomery had receved an urgent question from London, enquiring as to what could be done about the launching of V2 rockets at London from the the West of the Netherlands, the first lauchings having taken place on the 8th September. CHESTER WILMOT THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPE WM. COLLINS, SONS AND CO LTD. 1954 P543 ‘On the morning of the September 10th Dempsey arrived at Montgomery’s Tactical H.Q. prepared to advocate this course. Montgomery greeted him with the news that a signal had just come from the War Office, suggesting that the V.2s, which landed on London on the 8th. were launched from bases in Western Holland near The Hague. The War Office enquired whether in the near future there was any chance of these bases being captured or at least cut off from their sources of supply in Germany. This settled the issue’ THE GUNS AT LAST LIGHT THE WAR IN WESTERN EUROPE, 1944-1945 Rick Atkinson LITTLE BROWN 2013. This paperback edition published in 2013. P245/246 ‘The initial volley had been fired from Holland, and the SS general overseeing PENGUIN had placed his headquarters outside Nijmegen, ‘a Dutch town only ten miles south of Arnhem on the Rhine, a prime objective of Operation MARKET GARDEN. The message from London advising Montgomery of the first rocket attacks also pleaded, “Wil you please report most urgently by what date you consider you can rope off the coastal area contained by Antwerp-Utrecht-Rotterdam?” While General Dempsey and others favored a more easterly advance toward the Rhine at Wesel, this new German onslaught further persuaded Montgomery to drive deep into Holland. “It must be towards Arnhem.” He said. It was all but impossible to intercept V2 rockets once they were airborne, and there were no fixed launching sites that could be destroyed. Market Garden offered the chance to stem the flow of rockets into the Western part of the Netherlands. British troops in the Netherlands (my own father among them), could see V wepons being launched, and quite understandably, they wanted something done about this matter. This should be taken into account when assessing the purpose of MARKET GARDEN, and why Arnhem was included in the plan for that operation.
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  10. 'should have been sacked in Normandy he costed way to many lives!!!!!!!' What too many lives?
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