Skip to content
Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944 (Paperback)
  • Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944 (Paperback)
zoom

Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944 (Paperback)

(author)
4 Reviews Sign in to write a review
£12.99
Paperback 480 Pages
Published: 18/04/2019
Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
  • 10+ in stock

Usually dispatched within 1-2 days

Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
  • This item has been added to your basket
Waterstones Says

The pre-eminent author of Berlin returns with the final (and sometimes controversial) word on Britain’s crushing WWII defeat.

On 17 September 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the growing roar of aeroplane engines. He went out on to his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders carrying the British 1st Airborne and the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions. He gazed up in envy at this massive demonstration of paratroop power.

Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. But could it ever have worked?

The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch, who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war.

The British fascination with heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths. Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student himself called 'The Last German Victory'. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single, dramatic battle. It looks into the very heart of war.

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780670918676
Number of pages: 480
Weight: 380 g
Dimensions: 196 x 129 x 31 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

Masterly...illuminated by a host of hitherto unpublished anecdotes and quotations, together with the fruits of his own labors in Dutch archives. A meticulous, wonderfully vivid, and justly angry account of one of the great cock-ups of World War II - Max Hastings

This absorbing new account of the battle with the eye for telling detail which we have come to expect from Antony Beevor. . . this time, though, he turns his brilliance as a military historian to a subject not just of defeat, but dunderhead stupidity. - Daily Mail

Beevor tells a story that is more human and complex than what he calls "the great myth of heroic failure", a tale of vanity, hubris, occasional incompetence, human frailty and remarkable grit. . . In Beevor's hands, Arnhem becomes a study of national character. - The Times

Antony Beevor's magnificent account. . . Beevor's skill lies in his ability to recreate the tumultuous brutality of battle. . . With stark honesty, Beevor describes the terrible panoply. - The Times

The analysis he has produced of the disaster is forensic. Aficionados of military history will revel in Beevor's microscopic detail, with every skirmish given its rightful place. . . Beevor's prodigious research has nevertheless unearthed many treasures, particularly his record of the sufferings of Dutch civilians who risked their necks by nursing wounded allied soldiers. - Sunday Times

Complete mastery of both the story and the sources. The beauty is in the details. . . . This gripping book, with its tightly focused timescale and subject matter, shows him once again at his very best. - Literary Review

Another masterwork from the most feted military historian of our time. . . Does the story need to be retold? Beevor is such a good writer, with a gift for clarity and a knack for the telling personal portrait, that the answer is undoubtedly yes. - Prospect Magazine

Our greatest chronicler of the Second World War . . . The drama of manoeuvre and counter-thrust, the courage and cowardice of soldier and civilian, the follies and vanities of commanders, which are especially rich in this story, are deployed with colour and humanity. His fans will love it. - Evening Standard

As Antony Beevor showed in Stalingrad, he is a master of his craft as a military historian. . . We have here a definitive account of one of the most painful episodes of the Second World War. - The Tablet

It is, in short, a chapter of the Second World War that was crying out for the storytelling talents of Sir Antony Beevor, arguably the finest narrative historian of his generation. This is the result - and his many fans will not be disappointed . . . Beevor's particular skill is his ability to unearth new sources that articulate the experience of war felt by ordinary people: soldiers and civilians, men and women. . . Beevor has produced another superb book, tirelessly researched and beautifully written, that will long be the benchmark for this subject. - Daily Telegraph

Beevor's superlative new book . . . Arnhem sees him return to Stalingrad form. Forensic is too soft a word to describe the breadth of detail he brings. - Daily Express,

The compressed time scale and limited strategic scope of Market Garden ideally suit the author's testimony-rich approach . . . Beevor is a highly accomplished architect of what the American literary scholar Samuel Hynes calls 'battlefield gothic': the nightmarish horrors and absurdities of combat - Wall Street Journal

On holiday I read and am wholly absorbed by Antony Beevor's Arnhem. Though I am defeated by much of the military detail, the human side of the action, the troops in the gliders, their fears and all too often their fates, are beautifully told, with some of the bloodshed and killing unbearable - Diary 2018

This is destined to be a World War II military history classic . . . Beevor's superb latest offering, in keeping with his established record of excellence, is a must-read - Publishers' Weekly

Arnhem brings a wealth of new detail to a major World War II disaster . . . Beevor brings to the familiar story a vast amount of research in German, British, American, Polish, and Dutch archives. As usual, his narrative bristles with specifics, including countless observations gleaned from eyewitnesses to every stage of Market Garden. Devoted readers of military history will enjoy the wealth of details - The Christian Science Monitor

With devastating command of his subject, Antony Beevor shows how one commander's hubris destroyed an army . . . No one beats Beevor at recreating the bewildering cacophony of war - The Times, History Book of the Year

Arnhem was one of the most epic engagements of WW2 and Antony Beevor gives it his usual excellent and fascinating big battle treatment, which makes for a gripping read

You may also be interested in...

Unruly
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
The Wager
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
A History of Britain in Ten Enemies
Added to basket
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Added to basket
The Rest is History
Added to basket
Killing Thatcher
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
Nexus
Added to basket
Hardback
£28.00 £23.99
Great-Uncle Harry
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
Empireworld
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
Winkle
Added to basket
Paperback
£10.99 £8.99
Emperor of Rome
Added to basket
Paperback
£11.99 £9.49
Prisoners of Geography
Added to basket
Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad
Added to basket
The Golden Road
Added to basket
Hardback
£30.00 £24.99
Henry V
Added to basket
Hardback
£25.00 £20.99
Pax
Added to basket
Pax
Paperback
£12.99
Arnhem: Black Tuesday
Added to basket
Hardback
£25.00 £19.99
Eighteen
Added to basket
Hardback
£22.00 £17.99

“A good read”

I have read other books by Antony Beevor and enjoy his style, so I had no hesitation in purchasing this book. It is a good read, well researched which provided me with new insights into the events pertinent to the... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 64

“An informative good read”

I give this book five stars. I’m not a historian so I have taken all the information within the book on face value. I guess there are more knowledgeable readers out there who may contest, or refute some of Anthony... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 57

“ARNHEM an Antony Beevor Study”

I ordered the book both because of the author & a curiosity about the battle. The book is full of personal detail, scope & different personal narratives. Monty would probably be hurumphing in his grave... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 55

Please sign in to write a review

Your review has been submitted successfully.