Military books on Arnhem and Operation Market Garden by Osprey books and Wordsworth books by leading military authors Stephen Badsey, Peter Harclerode and Cornelius Ryan, available from the military bookshop.

Arnhem 1944, Operation Market Garden by Stephen Badsey

'Market Garden' was one of the most audacious, and ultimately controversial, operations of the Second World War- a joint penetration, by an armoured column and a large-scale airborne drop, to secure key waterways and railheads and punch a decisive hole in the German defences. If it had succeeded, it could have ended the war in 1944. Just why it failed is described and illustrated in detail in this authoritative and absorbing narrative by Sandhurst historian Stephen Badsey.

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To see over 300 military art prints including art prints of Operation Market Garden 

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Arnhem A Tragedy of Errors by Peter Harclerode

Operation 'Market Garden' remains one of the most spectacular and controversial battles of the Second World War. It was a bold plan, aimed at shortening the course of the war dramatically. Key bridges in Holland seized in advance by a daring airborne coup de main would be the means to a surprise thrust into the German industrial heartland

The facts of the subsequent operations are well known: the gallant British and American airborne forces held the bridges against unexpectedly fierce German resistance, but the vital ground forces thrust failed to meet its deadlines and never made it to Arnhem, the last objective and key to the operation. 10,000 elite airborne troops parachuted into 'The Cauldron', as the German's called the 1st division battle area; barely 2,000 returned to Allied lines with the official closing of the offensive 10 days later. 

On the fiftieth anniversary of the operation, Peter Harclerode has pieced together an important new view of what was a considerable failure. Existing accounts direct most of the blame at XXX Corps, and two divisions in particular, for failing to push the new ground advance forward. This new work sets out to provide an objective and realistic appraisal of why things went wrong - and who in truth should have borne the responsibility. Why, for example, were demands for proper signals equipment for the airborne troops ignored, with predictable consequences? Why was intelligence pointing towards the fatal presence of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions ignored before the operation. And why, with Allied air forces in a position to dominate the skies above the battlefield, was air support so lacking and ineffectual? While some of the questions needed for a definitive judgement can never be answered, this book represents an important step towards redressing the balance of criticism and allowing a new view of the bloody battles for Arnhem and Oosterbeek.

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A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan

On 17th September 1944, the people of southern England gaped as the mightiest airborne force in history thundered overhead en route for Arnhem.

Arnhem was 64 miles behind the German lines in Holland and Field Marshal Montgomery's plan was to seize the Rhine bridges at Arnhem and Nijmegen to allow an Allied thrust into the industrial heart of Nazi Germany. The Allied armies south of the Rhine were due to reinforce the airborne troops once the bridges had been captured. When Lt General 'Boy' Browning, the Deputy Commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, asked Montgomery how long it would take for the reinforcements to reach the bridges, he was told that it would be two days. 'Sir', replied Browning. 'I think we may be going a bridge too far'.

Cornelius Ryan's account of the tragic miscalculations at Arnhem and the valour of the troops on either side is a classic. Over 17,000 British, Polish and American troops became casualties - more than on D-Day - but Arnhem remains a beacon of heroism in the annals of military endeavour.

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Book serial number W48. Price £4.99. Fully illustrated paperback with 492 pages.