page_title: Operation Market Garden
section_title: Strategy
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Market Garden / Background / Strategy
caption_attribution_description: English: Bernard Law Montgomery
context_page_description: Operation Market Garden was a failed World War II military operation fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. It was the brainchild of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery and strongly supported by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. The airborne part of the operation was undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps of the British Second Army. The objective was to create a 64 mi salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by seizing a series of nine bridges by Airborne forces with land forces swiftly following over the bridges. The operation succeeded in liberating the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, creating a 60 mi salient into German-held territory limiting V-2 rocket launching sites. It failed, however, to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, with the advance being halted at the river.
  Market Garden consisted of two sub-operations:
  Market – an airborne assault to seize key bridges, and;
  Garden – a ground attack moving over the seized bridges creating the salient.
context_section_description: Following the Allied breakout from Normandy, and the closure of the Falaise Pocket, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied armies on the Western Front, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, favored pursuit of the seemingly shattered German armies northwards and eastwards across the Seine, and ultimately to the Rhine on a broad front. While agreeing that Montgomery's drive towards the Ruhr should have priority, he still thought it was important to "get Patton moving again". To that end, in the first week of September 1944, Eisenhower authorized the U.S. First Army to cross the Rhine near Cologne, Bonn, and Koblenz while the U.S. Third Army crossed near Mannheim, Mainz, and Karlsruhe. Eisenhower relied on speed, which in turn depended on logistics, which he conceded were "stretched to the limit". This strategy was contested by his subordinates, particularly Montgomery, who argued that with the supply situation deteriorating, he would not be able to reach the Ruhr, but "a relocation of our present resources of every description would be adequate to get one thrust to Berlin". Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) did provide Montgomery with additional resources, principally additional locomotives and rolling stock, and priority for air supply.
  Montgomery initially suggested Operation Comet, a limited airborne coup de main operation that was to be launched on 2 September 1944. Comet envisioned using the British 1st Airborne Division, along with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, to secure several bridges over the Rhine River to aid the Allied advance into the North German Plain. The Divisional Headquarters for the British 1st Airborne Division, with the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were to land at Nijmegen, the British 1st Parachute Brigade was to land at Arnhem, and the British 4th Parachute Brigade was to land at Grave, Netherlands. However several days of poor weather and Montgomery's concerns over increasing levels of German resistance caused him to postpone the operation and then cancel it on 10 September.
  Comet was replaced by a more ambitious plan to bypass the Siegfried Line by hooking around its northern end, allowing the Allies to cross the Rhine with large forces and trap the German Fifteenth Army by advancing from Arnhem to the shores of the IJsselmeer: Operation Market Garden. On 10 September Dempsey, the British Second Army commander, told Montgomery that he had doubts about this plan and that he instead favored an advance north-eastwards between the Reichswald forest and the Ruhr to Wesel. Montgomery replied that he had just received a signal from London that something needed to be done to neutralize the V-2 launch sites around The Hague (which were bombarding London) and that the plan must therefore proceed.
  Angered by Eisenhower's reluctance, Montgomery flew to Brussels that afternoon to meet him. Montgomery demanded that Eisenhower's Chief of Staff leave the meeting while insisting that his own should remain. He then tore a file of Eisenhower's messages to shreds in front of him, argued for a concentrated northern thrust, and demanding priority in supplies. So fierce and unrestrained was Montgomery's language that Eisenhower reached out, patted Montgomery's knee, and said, "Steady, Monty!  You can't talk to me like that.  I'm your boss."
  Eisenhower stated his belief that advance on a broad front would soon provoke German forces to collapse. He told Montgomery why a "single thrust" toward Berlin was not going to be accepted.
  What you're proposing is this – if I give you all the supplies you want, you could go straight to Berlin – right straight (500 miles) to Berlin? Monty, you're nuts. You can't do it. What the hell[?] ... If you try a long column like that in a single thrust you'd have to throw off division after division to protect your flanks from attack.
  Nevertheless, Eisenhower consented to Operation Market Garden, giving it "limited priority" in terms of supplies – and only as part of an advance on a broad front. Eisenhower promised th
caption: Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery
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