a bridge to far

There was an old fella lived next door to my mum in her sheltered housing complex. I remembered him when I was a small boy owning a sweet shop across the street from us, where if I was lucky, mum would give me a couple of coppers to go to. The old fella had a soft trilby hat, a bristling moustache, staring eyes, a long brown overall and always had a black leather glove on one of his hands with his arm hunched up as if on a sling. Anyway, at the sheltered housing complex, the old fella would always watch for me coming to visit mum. The reason being, he had a huge old grandfather clock which had to be wound up with this massive key. By this time, of course, I had worked out he only had one arm so I asked him one day how he had lost it. He told me it was at Arnhem, he was in the lead party of the Lovat scouts who were the first to reach the bridge. He had been decorated for his heroics.

It was a heroic act by the paras, both British and American(101 Airborne).

Montgomery was so desperate to beat Patton to be the first into Germany, he came up with this idea, in 2 weeks.

But in his haste he ignored intelligence reports saying Panzers were resting in the area.

Paras are the highest quality troops but even they  struggled against Panzers with only light anti tank weapons.

The men who took part were heroes. The plan itself was flawed.

The Drop Zone was too far from Arnhem Bridge as well.