So Near and Yet So Far

A military history of the British Army's 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem in the Netherlands during World War II. This is the second volume in a meticulously researched four-part series that provides a comprehensive insight into the aerial exploits at Operation 'Market Garden' in September 1944. In an interesting method of presenting the information, the author's arrangement of British, American, Dutch and German personal narrative interspersed with factual material offers a more personalised view of the war through the eyes of the hard-pressed Allied airborne troops who were actually there in the thick of the action. They take you steadily through the bitter house-to-house fighting in Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem and the fanatical attempts to keep open the narrow road to permit XXX Corps to reach and relieve Colonel John Frost's men, outnumbered and out-gunned at Arnhem Bridge. They reveal the frustration and bitter disappointment in the battles of the drop zones, the bloody fight for the bridges across the Rhine and the almost suicidal second and third lifts to re-supply the troops holding on precariously, fighting desperately, tenaciously and bravely to prevent their positions being overrun in the face of overwhelming enemy superiority. Stories of individual heroism act to humanize this period of wartime history which is often reduced to mere facts. Timelines detail the day-to-day events happening in all areas of the battle both on the ground and in the air and also add weight to the story in hand, whilst carefully selected archive images work to supplement the text perfectly.