70 Years Ago This Week Operation Market Garden

Started by mongers, September 20, 2014, 07:32:01 AM

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mongers

Seventy years ago this week Operation Market Garden took place.

This anniversary seems to have gotten lost amongst the coverage of the Scottish independence referendum.

I haven't found any interesting anniversary pieces on news websites, but in tribute to the failed heroic efforts of those involved, I shall watch 'A Bridge Too Far' sometime this week*.  :bowler:




*The operations started 70 years ago, this Wednesday gone and 'ended' on the 25th (this Thursday)
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Warspite

QuoteI said we'd like to take your surrender, but we haven't the proper facilities.
:bowler:
" SIR – I must commend you on some of your recent obituaries. I was delighted to read of the deaths of Foday Sankoh (August 9th), and Uday and Qusay Hussein (July 26th). Do you take requests? "

OVO JE SRBIJA
BUDALO, OVO JE POSTA

Syt

I grew up watching A Bridge Too Far time and time again. My dad would watch the movie at least once a month on VHS.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Maladict

Watching it on tv, can't be there in person unfortunately.  :(
Most of the airborne stuff had to be cancelled because of dense fog this morning.

Maladict

I was there 20 years ago when I lived in Nijmegen.
It was the first time there was a large scale remembrance, the veterans were driven along the route in their old vehicles.
Nijmegen was the first major city, and they evidently were not expecting the tens of thousands of people lining the road applauding them.
There wasn't a dry eye to be seen.  :bowler:

mongers

Quote from: Maladict on September 20, 2014, 09:17:11 AM
I was there 20 years ago when I lived in Nijmegen.
It was the first time there was a large scale remembrance, the veterans were driven along the route in their old vehicles.
Nijmegen was the first major city, and they evidently were not expecting the tens of thousands of people lining the road applauding them.
There wasn't a dry eye to be seen.  :bowler:

Must have been very moving, nice first hand story.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

The Brain

Quote from: Syt on September 20, 2014, 08:28:39 AM
I grew up watching A Bridge Too Far time and time again. My dad would watch the movie at least once a month on VHS.

Didn't trigger his PTSD?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

He was born in '39.

He was a big war buff fanboi. He liked war movies (esp. WW2), read war novels, e.g. early Konsalik or books by veterans, like one from a former Stuka pilot that was constantly in our bathroom (the book, not the pilot), plus Der Landser  (monthly pulp adventure stuff).

I don't recall that he watched documentaries or read non-fiction books much.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Warspite

Quote from: Maladict on September 20, 2014, 09:17:11 AM
I was there 20 years ago when I lived in Nijmegen.
It was the first time there was a large scale remembrance, the veterans were driven along the route in their old vehicles.
Nijmegen was the first major city, and they evidently were not expecting the tens of thousands of people lining the road applauding them.
There wasn't a dry eye to be seen.  :bowler:

Did the veterans: immediately halt just past Nijmegen?
" SIR – I must commend you on some of your recent obituaries. I was delighted to read of the deaths of Foday Sankoh (August 9th), and Uday and Qusay Hussein (July 26th). Do you take requests? "

OVO JE SRBIJA
BUDALO, OVO JE POSTA

The Brain

Quote from: Syt on September 20, 2014, 02:07:34 PM
He was born in '39.

He was a big war buff fanboi. He liked war movies (esp. WW2), read war novels, e.g. early Konsalik or books by veterans, like one from a former Stuka pilot that was constantly in our bathroom (the book, not the pilot), plus Der Landser  (monthly pulp adventure stuff).

I don't recall that he watched documentaries or read non-fiction books much.

'39? Respect!
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

He died in '97, so it was not such a great run. :D
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

The Brain

Oh, he wasn't in the fighting? Sorry I misunderstood. :Embarrass:
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Martim Silva

Quote from: mongers on September 20, 2014, 07:32:01 AM
Seventy years ago this week Operation Market Garden took place.

This anniversary seems to have gotten lost amongst the coverage of the Scottish independence referendum.

I sometimes don't get the priorities for battle anniversaries on Languish  :hmm:

Early this month it was the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Marne, THE most decisive battle of WWI, with many armies and millions of participants, and yet seemed to have been totally forgotten here.

Yet, on the 70th anniversary of an operation that just involved some divisions, you have a thread. Honestly.

Quote from: mongers
I haven't found any interesting anniversary pieces on news websites, but in tribute to the failed heroic efforts of those involved, I shall watch 'A Bridge Too Far' sometime this week*.  :bowler:

If it's Market Garden you're interested, forget 'A Bridge Too Far' and see instead 'Theirs Is the Glory' (aka Men of Arnhem).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3e6S8rg9_c

This movie about the battle at Arnhem was made less than year and a half after the battle, and the most important part is that all participants (military and civilian) are actually playing themselves.

Yes, they are all doing and saying what they themselves did in the battle. No actors, just the real soldiers and civilians of the conflict.

You will also find that, since this movie stars the ACTUAL people involved in it, which made a point of it being as accurate as possible to what they did and undewent, that the scenes are... less spectacular than those of the Hollywood drivel that was made decades later.

Razgovory

I didn't know the Marne was the most decisive battle of WWI.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

The Brain

Quote from: Razgovory on September 20, 2014, 04:08:58 PM
I didn't know the Marne was the most decisive battle of WWI.

It made it possible for the soldiers to get home before the leaves fell.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.