Arnhem

By R.E. Urquhart

Book Overview

Major-General Urquhart commanded the 1st British Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden, the greatest airborne assault of World War II, the struggle to capture Arnhem and win control of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0330232738
• ISBN13: 9780330232739
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Pan
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

General Urquhart's voice is nicely heard from

A long time ago I picked up the book A Bridge Too Far because I'd developed a love of history and found the saga to be great. After many years I decided to go back to Arnhem and learn a little more about it; this time from the man who lead the 1st Airborne Division (British). Arnhem is General Urquhart's telling of his experience as the 1st Airborne Division's commander in Operation Market-Garden. His telling of Market-Garden is from that of the 1st Airborne Division and only focuses on the battle in and around Arnhem (A Bridge Too Far's focus is the entire Market-Garden operation). Because of this, General Urquhart gives us insight into his division's conduct around Arnhem and why he selected certain courses of action. His telling is that of a warrior remembering the battle and the men who fought with him. There's some nice photographs (several were new to me) with nice situational maps showing the disposition of his division and other troops in and around Arnhem. Rating wise this one makes my 4 star level; barely though. While General Urquhart is telling us the story of his division I just couldn't find any great love or passion in his telling. He's direct and a little third person'ish about his telling. Because his level was that of a divisional commander we don't get to read about his actions in combat so much as his actions as a commander (other than when he was separated from his division). While he's done a good job, Mr. Ryan did it better in A Bridge Too Far (sorry, advantage to the professional, especially since Mr. Ryan did a great job weaving the entire story together). I was hoping for some additional tidbits but they're a little on the lighter side (seems Mr. Ryan did a good job scooping things and presenting them nicely for his work). The maps are nicely done, adding greatly to General Urquhart's story (this was an excellent addition and helps you understand the tactical situation better than General Urquhart's or Mr. Ryan's words could possibly convey).

An account of Arnhem

Major-General Urquhart was the commander of the 1st Airborne Division which was assigned the task of taking the town of Arnhem during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. This his riveting first-hand account of that desperate battle, which saw the better part of his division wiped out, having unexpectedly landed amidst two Waffen SS divisions. It is a story of heroic men who valiantly fought on under near hopeless circumstances, as well as a testament to the unfortunate ineptitude of the operational planners. Trying to win the war quickly by a quick thrust into Germany in itself is questionable, but what really gets me is the fact that effort was not more concerted and co-ordinated. Case in point, the lack of air support. If this was to be the big push to end the war, one would expect that air support of the operation would have been deemed a high priority. But as Urquhart points out, it rarely materialized, and this appears to have been instrumental in Market Garden's failure. This book was very enlightening, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the war, in particular the European Theatre. On an incidental note: Urquhart mentions on several occasions one of the few Canadians present at the battle: a unique character by the name of Leo Heaps. Heaps subsequently published two books about his exploits at Arnhem: "Escape from Arnhem" and "The Grey Goose of Arnhem". Having read the latter, I would recommend it as well.