Arnhem: Greatest Allied Failure?

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2020

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After winning back France and Belgium, the Allied forces met unexpected resistance in the Netherlands in September 1944. Following nine days of fighting, they withdrew. In this podcast, Dan spoke to Antony Beevor about what was possibly one of the greatest Allied failures of the Second World War, and the intelligence failures and vanities which caused it. Antony is one of the best selling military historians of all time, and author of ‘Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges 1944’.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, hello, and welcome to the history hit World Wars podcast, a podcast dedicated to that turbulent period between 1914 and 1945.
0:10.0	In this podcast, first recorded for Dan Snow's history here, Dan talks with one of the biggest selling military historians of all time.
0:17.0	Anthony Beaver, his ladies book, Arnhem, The Battle for the Bridges,
0:21.0	1994, explores what is arguably one of the greatest Allied failures of the Second
0:25.4	World War.
0:26.7	As Anton explains, by utilizing overlooked new sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, he can tell us a story about
0:35.7	British intelligence failures, the vanity of certain military leaders, and how these
0:41.0	combined to make this infamous mission doomed from the very start.
0:45.8	This podcast will leave you reeling at just how bewildering war can be. So. So let's talk about Arden. I know what everyone in this room wants to hear, but we're not going to go straight to that bit. We're not going to say,
1:10.8	wasn't a mistake, was it a bridge too far? We're going to talk about it chronologically. We're going to say wasn't a mistake was it a bridge too far we're going to talk
1:12.8	about it chronologically we're going to find out why it happened in fact first of all though I
1:16.9	want to find out why you decide to write the book.
1:19.4	Well I have to admit I was slightly irritated by some of the earlier versions which in many cases sort of pled the idea that if only this or if only that had gone right then it would all been a huge success.
1:34.0	Because actually it became increasingly clear
1:36.3	as you go through the archives that actually it never stood a chance.
1:40.1	Oh, interesting.
1:40.9	And did you find out when you were doing your larger Second World War book?
1:45.1	What was there a key moment when you thought actually this is just the traditional telling of this story is not right?
1:49.4	Well, it was partly also, you know, Rick who's a great friend very good American
1:53.4	brilliant American historian because we talked about it quite a lot and I
1:58.6	started it started to sort of form as an instinct there.
2:03.1	But it was very much during the archives
	...

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