Today sees the anniversary of the launch of Operation Market Garden, made famous by Dickie Attenborough and a huge list of celebrities in what Davey coined "A Bridge Too Far... An Hour Too Long". Dodgy accents (Gene Hackman, I'm looking in your direction) aside, it's a faithful account of the single biggest military blunder of World War II. Had the mission gone as planned, it would have opened up the route into Germany and the war would have been over by Christmas, but the Allies were blighted by a shortage of gliders and drop-planes, fog, flooded roads, misplaced supply drops and poor communications (the wrong crystals were packed for the radios, rendering them useless).
I was in Arnhem for a show this week so that added to my regular history obsession. If anyone's offended by the photo.. well... tough. It's the only one I could find with the genuine bridge in it that was a decent size, and the cover art for the film has MGM Classic stamped over it so deal with it.
As you were...
