Best book on Operation Market Garden

Hi! What is the best book on operation Market Garden?

Thanks for your help!

 

I think it is hard to find A BOOK on Market Garden that is comprehensive. There were distinctive ABN units, each with different actions and results, in addition to the British Guards. The size would be immense. Authors tend to focus on units including myself.

What is your level of interest? Beginning? Tactics? Personal stories? Overall picture? Certain division or regiment?

 

I've heard that A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan is a pretty good read regarding Operation Market Garden

 

http://www.ww2marketgarden.com/index.html

While you wait for a good book I just did a quick internet search for market garden and lots of sites came up. If the link works this looks to cover a few areas.

Brian

sorry link not working Brian

 

Correct link: http://www.ww2marketgarden.com/index.html

For what it is worth...The edit feature does not appear to work when it comes to correcting a bad link.

 

I echo smiley regarding "A Bridge Too Far", but then I'm a long time fan of Cornrlius Ryan.
Just finished reading the chapter in IIhawk's book "Glider Infantryman" that gives a very good individual description of some of the action in Holland. I also need to learn more of Market Garden.

 

HW, most of my suggestion would have a distinct, 101 flavor to it as my unit of study is the 327 GIR and not because of BoB.

I wholeheartedly would suggest A Bridge Too Far. The movie as well. In the movie, the scene of the officer saying "Hail Mary Full of Grace" was based on Maggie Magelis of the 82nd Airborne. Here is his book. One rarely goes wrong on personal accounts.

http://www.amazon.com/All-Way-Berlin-Paratrooper-Europe/dp/0891418369

Rendezvous With Destiny will have a detailed approach to the 101, not only MG. It is a hard read unless you really take notes and break it down by day and unit.

George Koskimaki's "Hell's Highway" is very 101 paratrooper oriented with personal details. It's pretty good, but hard to follow again w/o notes. I actually have Georges notes from the 327 soldiers. The 327 was not well represented as they didn't respond.

Good luck. I do suggest you don't just stop at the mission, but look at operations through mid October. The fighting at Island including British artillery is very interesting.

But there is so much it can be overwhelming.

The fighting in Holland is so often overlooked. Yes it failed, but the actions were epic.

Btw, Thx Buten42!

 

It Never Snows in September by Robert Kershaw tells the story from the German point of view.

 

A Bridge Too Far is excellent. I'm a big Ryan fan and it is my favourite book -- the depth, multitude (and importance) of people interviewed and writing style make it a magnificent work. Off topic, but its one of the few books that has had an excellent film adaptation.

I'd recommend starting with A Bridge Too Far, and then branching out into the more detailed books (unit-level) and memoirs. There's many well-written memoirs by infantrymen, paratroopers and the like, but to get the most out of them it is best to have knowledge of the "big picture" before you start reading.

 

Excellent point. The original post doesn't really divulge what they know.

 

'A Bridge Too Far' is an obvious, and justly famous, starting point. Among the ( many ) others, I'd particularly recommend Geoffrey Powell's 'The Devil's Birthday - The Bridges To Arnhem 1944'.

It's one of the few books to cover both British and US actions and provides an excellent overview from the point-of-view of a professional soldier - he was awarded the MC at Arnhem.

 

I'll second what George Patton said; if you're just starting to learn about MG, start with A Bridge Too Far for the overall picture.

Ridgeway's Paratroopers by Clay Blair is a good history of the American airborne in WWII and naturally has a good section on MG.

 

I'll just add A Bridge Too Far just to reiterate the point . One of my first books on the war, Ryan was an excellent author and, IMO, was a groundbreaking narrative non-fiction author. He weaves a story brilliantly.