ARNHEM: Nine Days of Battle

Arnhem is an iconic battle when in 1944 more than 10,000 British, Commonwealth and Polish soldiers landed by parachute or glider, well aware they were taking part in a momentous operation. They hoped their efforts would be instrumental in bringing the war to an end before the year was out. Many had doubts about the plan - the drop zones were too far from the target and some felt there had been a rather casual disregard for the capacity of the Germans to react quickly and effectively to foil the entire Market Garden enterprise. As it turned out, they were right to have doubts, but they still did their duty and more. The 10,000 soldiers fought with dedication and skill for nine days against the ever-increasing strength of the enemy that surrounded them. For this book, the incidents related were not chosen because they are particularly famous or significant, but because they give the reader a certain feel or flavour of the battle. Unit diaries refer to vehicles that were put out of action but not necessarily destroyed - half-tracks armoured cars, self-propelled guns and tanks that had been immobilised or put beyond repair during the fighting. The men whose words are in this book wrote about what they had seen and how they had seen it, compiled from memory after the battle was over, exhausted and hungry from their arduous fight for survival. The book begins with an excellent timeline, planning, structure of British 1st Airbourne Division, D-Day Sunday 17th September and D+1 to 9 until the shooting was over. The ferocious and gallant actions in Arnhem and Oosterbeek have fascinated historians ever since, and this book draws extensively on eyewitness accounts and unit diaries to provide a detailed tactical and technical analysis of the arms, equipment and practices of the day, supported by battle maps, troop diagrams and touring guides. 252 page large paperback, very well illustrated throughout and with fairly large print.