Operation Market Garden: Then & Now (Vol 1 ATB-F051)

Before the events of September 1944 fade into history, After the Battle presents the story of the airborne landings in Holland through hundreds of ‘then and now’ comparison photographs. Editor Karel Margry has studied the battle and explored the battlefield for more than 20 years and has collected virtually every photograph taken during those fateful ten days. Many are published here for the first time giving an unrivalled pictorial account of a bold initiative which the Allied Land Commander, Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery, believed would shorten the war. The failure to capture and hold the last bridge of the nine to be taken spelled disaster for the lst Airborne Division from which over 8,000 men failed to return. VOLUME 1 covers the mounting of the operation and the crucial first two days of the battle. The story opens with the planning and preparation of the double undertaking – of ‘Market’ by the newly created First Allied Airborne Army in the UK and ‘Garden’ by the British Second Army on the Belgian-Dutch border. The scene then switches to describe the German military situation in the Netherlands on the eve of battle. The massive initial airborne landings of September 17, 1944, are then recounted with equal attention to each of the three airborne divisions involved. The break-out battle by the Guards Armoured Division, spearhead of the ground army, is likewise illustrated with an unprecedented wealth of photographs. The second day of the operation, September 18, sees the Guards reaching the 101st Airborne at Eindhoven, making their first contact with the airborne army.