This operation has always held a certain fascination for me. The idea of shoving a major offensive up a single two-lane road always seemed more like a Patton move, rather than one Montgomery would have come up with. I've always felt that Monty was a good general, but that he was one who wasn't prone to taking unnecessary risks. The approval of the operation by Eisenhower seems to me to be even more out of character. If there was anyone more careful, if not conservative, than Monty in his decisions, it was Ike. Personally, I've always felt that Market/Garden was a result of euphoria and over-confidence that sprang from the Normandy breakout. There was the hope and expectation that the war would be over by Christmas. Monty and Ike even had a bet to that effect. The Germans were on the run and they weren't going to stop until they were behind the Rhine, or so thought the Allied high command. If it had succeeded, Ike and Monty would have gone down in history as being among the great winning gamblers in military history, but it didn't, and and they aren't.
It was not a single thrust. It was a two pronged attack, with the other thrust Northwards to the East. I took part in it.
