Featured battle : Operation Market Garden

Part of Second World War

Date : 17 September 1944 - 26 September 1944

Montgomery's audacious plan to punch a narrow hole through German lines and turn the flank of the Siegfried line. The aim was to lay a 'carpet' of Airborne forces to capture vital bridges over the Meuse, Rhine and Lower Rhine around Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, then force the 2nd Army, spearheaded by the British XXX Corps down the causeway to link up with the Airborne divisions. German resistance was, however, much stronger that expected as 2 German Panzer units were resting in the area and the supposedly 'scratch' units defending the line fought hard. Additionally the nature of the terrain made it particularly easy for the germans to cut the road, raised between low-lying boggy fields. Although the US 101st and eventually the 82nd Airborne secured their bridges the column was unable to reach the British 1st Airborne in Arnhem, who were surrounded and crushed. Their 10 day stand, however, became legendary.

Securing the Narrow |Seas. The Dover Patrol 1914-1918

Steve R. Dunn
There is quite a story about efforts in World War One to control that narrow strip of sea which separates Britain from the continent. If not the whole story this book gives a very good impression of covering most of it. From the lowest ranks with 'ordinary men doing extraordinary things' to the damaging petty jealousies and rivalries at the top of the Admiralty. It covers the failures in understanding that sea warfare was changing, failure in ships not really designed to fulfill the tasks asked of them. It illuminates the superhuman efforts and devotion to duty shown by the middle and lower ranks when they were asked to compensate for strategic inadequacies. The ships ranged from drifters taken in from the fishing fleet to monitors fitted with 15 inch guns. The tasks ranged from patrolling the anti-submarine boom, to bombarding enemy troops in Flanders, to the attacks on Zeebrugge and Ostend. Personal stories abound as in the sinking of H M S Sanda taking with it the oldest serving officer at sixty-seven and a signal boy of fifteen. In another incident on the death of a sailor he was found to have two wives, a problem for the pay-office!
The book is well written, thoroughly researched, well illustrated. While reading this book I occasional put it down because I was enjoying it so much I didn't want it end. It really is that good.
Seaforth Publishing. Pen and Sword Books Ltd., 2017