Cornelius Ryan's work is about the implementation of a plan that was conceived during the last days of World War Two to bring the boys home for Christmas on the Allied side, and to hold the invaders at bay from the German side. It is about the people who thought up the plan, the people who put it together, those who followed it out, and the civilians who endured it.

This work has been highly acclaimed in its field as being one of the best war genre works ever produced. Cornelius Ryan's novel is heralded as being one of the most in depth works on a specific battle during World War Two.

Since the Allied invasion of Normandy, the Germans had been slowly retreating. As the Anglo-American coalition gained more and more territory, the Axis powers began to flee as fast as they could out of the occupied territories. This was true in most places, but it was most prevalent in Holland. During this time the Axis command was in turmoil and the panic of the army continued until Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt was re-instated as head of the Wermacht in the west. Only then did this panic begin to stop. It was during this retreat that the Allies felt that they could make one final push to the Ruhr and cause the collapse of the German war machine. This, of course, would give everybody what they wanted-their boys home for Christmas.

Ryan's book focuses on the plan laid before Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces Dwight D. Eisenhower. This plan, known as "Operation Market Garden" was developed by Field Marshall Montgomery of the British Army to bring a swift end to the war, and give him the glory of defeating the Germans. The plan revolved around three bridges that would allow the allies to springboard over the Rhine and into Germany. There were two parts to the plan: One was to have the largest airborne assault take place some 70 miles behind the enemy lines. The other was to have an armored column follow on the ground and smash the German lines and proceed to take the bridges once the paratroopers had secured them. It was a good plan that had many factors that depended on one another for it to be a success. The allies believed that German resistance would be nothing more then old men, and new young recruits. But to their surprise, the Germans were resting their finest troops right in the midst of the attack areas.

Fighting was fierce on both sides and although the Anglo-American coalition did capture most of the points needed to get over the Rhine and into Germany, too many things did not go as planned and the allies were forced to abandon the plan and retreat under heavy pressure from the Germans. After the battle the allied commanders, despite the terrible losses that they suffered, considered the operation a 90% success. From this point on, it looked like the war would be another year longer, and the boys would not be home for Christmas.

Cornelius Ryan spent many hours speaking to people who were involved in the battle, the commanders, the people who came up with the plan and, the civilians who had to watch their small town get turned into a cement grave for thousands of men, women and, children. There is little, if any, fault in his data collection or his sources. It is all there, including pictures, before and after "Operation Market Garden" took place in this part of Holland.

Cornelius Ryan's portrayal of this operation from beginning to end is one of the best-written accounts of what happened not only to the Anglo-American forces, but the Germans as well. Ryan gives first person accounts of the action, from both soldiers and citizens. To back up these points he shows pictures in the book about these people who were involved and the places where the events of the book took place. This gives the author a greatly endowed sense of reliability. Without going too heavily into factual information Ryan gives just enough, and it comes just at the right places to keep the book historically sound, yet easy to read for the lay person. All the digging and all the effort he used in collecting the information really came together to give the book a rich sense of life. The scenes and battles were written in a style that makes them easy to visualize what was taking place and how these people must have felt being thrown into this situation. Besides testimony and pictures, Ryan also included sketches of the battle plans for both the Anglo-American forces and the Germans. This was very handy in helping to understand the military jargon that is used to describe what the plans of attack/defense were. It also allowed the reader to understand why, from a technical standpoint, getting all of the objectives accomplished in the allotted time frame proved to be a daunting task for the Allies.

It would have been nice to have some information on the consequences of this battle were for both the allies and the axis. Without this information though, this story has stood the test of time. Every aspect of the battle has been studied in-depth and multiple primary sources used to back up every piece of evidence entered as fact. There is not much at all that I would change if given the chance. Ryan's work has both the written and visual examples to make this re-creation of one of the Allies worst losses into a very readable story. I suggest that anyone interested in World War Two battles picks this book up, along with people who are just interested in a good epic struggle.

Dane "AndreDaGiant" Lengerman

The Book Reviews:
"A Bridge To Far" - Cornelius Ryan
"The Battle is the Pay-off" - Ralph Ingersol
"Hitler's SS" - Richard Grunberger
"Inside the 3rd Reich" - Albert Speer
" Invasion" - Kenneth Macksey
"The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" - William Shirer
"The Rommel Papers" - Erwin Rommel and B.H. Liddell-Hart
"Steel Inferno" - Michael Reynolds
"Warfare and the Third Reich" - Christopher Chant

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