What led to the failures of Operation Market place and..?

Question

what were the key objectives of the Allies?

Answer 1

First of all the name of the operation was Market GARDEN (not place).The allied objectives were to:capture all bridges across Rhine river,cutting off the retreat of German army from France.The plan was to drop paratroopers to secure the bridges,while british 30. corps sweep all in path and reinforce the airborne units.The main cause of the failure is that allies have extremely underestimated the German capabilities of late 1944.So,their intelligence convinced them how Germans in the area were consisted of only volkssturm divisions,how their numbers were small,their equipment poor and fighting morale low.The truth was much different...Actually,2 SS panzer divisions (9. and 10.) were there because they were retreating from France and refitting for the battles.So,when in early September the allies made their push,they were facing German elite units.At the beginning the Germans were stunned by the gigantic scale of the assault,but when they realized what was happening,they soon threw their best kampfgruppen into combat.Then we come to the second main cause of the failure:The Germans near the Arnhem bridge had very strong AA defense,so the British paratroopers of 1. airborne division had to be dropped far away from the bridge,which meant they lost the element of surprise.Nevertheless,many allied planes and gliders were shot down and in the one of the gliders,Germans found a dead British officer who had the documents with complete plans of assault.Now the Germans knew every British move,so the attempt to send reinforcements and supplies to the airborne units ended in disaster.That is the 3. cause of the failure.The fighting was tense and savage,and soon the British paratroopers managed to secure one end of the Arnhem bridge,but doing so got completely cut off from the rest of the army.The Germans squeezed the pocket and finally managed to defeat the British on 26. of September.The battle started on 17.Around 12000 British were killed/wounded or captured.The 30. corps couldn't get in time to the paratroopers because they were constantly ambushed by fanatic SS grenadiers.This German victory actually led to the rising of morale among them and making them dare to enter into dangerous counterattack of December 1944. called the Battle of the Bulge.It is very interesting how crumbling German army managed to achieve such a victory and actually regain the iniciative.

Answer 2

Operation Market Garden was an attempt by the Allies to cross the Rhine before winter made armoured movement difficult.
The idea was to capture the bridge at Arnhem which would allow the Allies to liberate Holland and enter northern Germany before Christmas.
The battle was to be fought in two parts . The armoured advance by road (Market) and the airborne invasion by paratroops (Garden).
Unfortunately the road was easily defended by the Germans as it was quite narrow and bordered by woods . This slowed down the advance.
The airborne drop was successful at Nijmegan but the one at Arnhem although initially ok was soon under attack by a Panzer division which was refitting nearby. Its presence had not been detected by the Allies.
The Allies had lost most of their light field guns during the
drop and were heavily outgunned.
After a battle lasting two days they were defeated, taking heavy casualties and many were taken prisoner. A few managed to escape by swimming the river.
If the armoured advance had been quicker it would probably have been successful

Answer 3

The wanted to capture several bridges so they could make a quick breakout and also capture a port to improve their supply logistics.
The problem with the attack was, there was only one road going there- often raised over fields that were flooded or muddy, and could not be by-passed. That meant that any Germans resisting could easily hold up the column set to releave the paratroopers who captured the bridges.
They just could not get to the last bridge- "A bridge too far".

Answer 4

Do you mean Operation Market Garden?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden