A Bridge Too Far.

Yep,thats the one,the " Sh*t" scene is based on Clnl Sinks acount,not ole Major Winters.

 

Re: anti-British bias in ABTF. As I have pointed out on a previous thread 'Darling' Dickie Attenborough has a lot of previous for Brit-Bashing, both as director and actor. In fact one of the subtexts of his film career seems to be that the British are bumbling/arrogant idiots. I cite 'Dunkirk', 'The Great Escape', 'Oh, What a Lovely War', 'A Bridge Too Far', 'Gandhi' and even 'Young Winston' as evidence. As I jokingly suggested elsewhere he ought to have his knighthood taken away for treachery!
On a serious note I like some parts of ABTF, but I find the castigation of Montgomery in particular pretty cowardly as he is not even portrayed on-screen.

 

Its funny how people view these things.In my mind Dunkirk,A Bridge Too Far and even the ahem,ever so historicaly acurate Great Escape show things exactly oppositly. Whats wrong with bumbling through? Were not uber efficiant war mongering teutons

 

i think mark and others are right;i mean even tedder and conningham tried to get monty sacked in july 44,right.4th wilts.

 

Interestlingly Browning in the as portraid by Dirk Bogade seemed to be the scapegoat for Market Garden....was he as bad as is made out to believe for doom mongering.....???


Also how were the pow's ie injured treated after the fighting had finished taking into account the so notoriety of the SS Divisions

 

which actor,after getting nijmegan by river crossing,then asks the guardsmen;those are your boys up in arnhem.i cant remember his name.4th wilts.

 

Robert Redford: Playing Major Julian Cook but echoing the supposed confrontation between Moffit T. Burriss and Lord Peter Carrington. There is a lively Historical debate about whether this incident ever took place. ABTF is very unfair to the British about Nijmegen, downplaying their role in capturing Nijmegen Bridge (bigger than Arnhem Bridge) in the dark as the Germans were trying to blow it up. I know that Guards Armoured veterans (including the late Brian Johnston MC) were very upset by this. However neither the British capture of Nijmegen Bridge nor the heroic American assault crossing of the Waal should really have been necessary. Recent studies of the battle have identified the 82nd Airborne's failure to make capture of the bridge, rather than the heights above Nijmegen, a priority in the first place as one of the key reasons for Maket Garden's failure. As with other aspects of the battle it's all easy in hindsight...
Daphne Du Maurier, Browning's widow, was incensed by his unsympathetic portrayal in ABTF and supposedly tried to take legal action against the producers. However, you can't libel a dead man.

 

That would be Robert Redford, Lee. He played the character whose men stormed the Rhine at Nijmegen and took the bridge.

 

Gotthard-The British took Nijmegen Bridge.

 

i wonder why they did not use an american movie director,instead of dickey attenborough.yours,4th wilts.

 

i have never quite understood this point,concerning the 82nd a/b too imho.yours,4th wilts.

 

To be fair boys, The capture of the nijmagen bridge was a true joint effort,British armour with american infantry clearing the aproaches.
Yes ,the SS had a nasty rep,but,from veterns Ive met they did indead step away from the stereotype as regards british wounded( the british however wernt always the same with german wounded or captured,no names no pack drill),but,one thing that gets missed out in the film is the fact that by the time of op Berlin a good number of the german forces against the british were not w SS.

 

Gotthard-The British took Nijmegen Bridge.
I believe the Americans were also involved. In the film they clear the approaches to the bridge. Thats what I was referring to, the film.

 

Trouble is,they clear the aproaches on the wrong side of the river in the film(and I dont just mean because the film had to do it the otherway round....gawd,I should get out more )the armour was across before the Americans reached the northern aproaches.

 

In the film it show the German finding the plans for the battle on a British para ,when in fact it was found on US troops

Just for clarification, it wasn't plans for the entire operation that was found. It was the plans for the 101st AB's actions.
Source-It Never Snows in September. Robert Kershaw, pg 71 & 115.

I guess I need to reread this book, I read it years ago.

 

What particularly annoyed Guards Armoured veterans at the time was the shot of Robert Redford waving the British armour across having blasted various Germans out of the girders. This is complete fantasy as Cook's men were nowhere near the north end of the bridge when Sergeant Robinson's tanks charged across with RE officer Tony Jones following behind dismantling the explosive charges. Why the heck didn't they dramatize that?
American William Goldman wrote the script. In his book on scriptwriting he tries to justify his choice of incidents to depict, but it remains a fact that NONE of the British VC actions are shown in the film. There is an interesting article on the making of the film in an early edition of the superb 'After The Battle' magazine.

 

I do agree lads that the film definitely took liberties and that the Americans didnt originally take the bridge. My original post was an answer to Lee's question about the name of the actor, and I referred to his role in the film. If it seemed that I was trying to state that the Americans took the bridge first I apologise. My post was merely referring to the film. Just wanted to clear that up. And yes, its annoying that the film took too many "liberties". Maybe one day they'll do a proper film and base it on Kershaw's book "It never snows in September". Now there's the making of a film!

 

I agree that Kershaw's book is one of the most important ever written about Arnhem. I used some of the eye-witness acounts from it on my 2003 School tour, authentically read by a half-German pupil who was a keen veteran of several of our trips!

 

trouble is even these experts get things wrong,mr nusbacher once said,the only way to stop a panzer attack,is defence in depth.he should look at medenine;3 divs stopped dead.yours 4th wilts.

 

do we have any detailed maps of the 82nd a/d drop zones,that gen gavin ordered for op.market.yours,4th wilts.p.s and the others too.