History Buffs: A Bridge Too Far

this episode is sponsored by curiosity stream hello and welcome

history

lovers, my name is Nick Hodges and today I'm finally covering my favorite WWII movie, a

bridge

too far, based on the book, a

bridge

too far, by groundbreaking historian Cornelius Ryan. the story of Operation Market Garden a military offensive by the Allied armies to effectively end the war before Christmas by sending almost 40,000 airborne troops into occupied Holland their mission is to capture several bridges to open an invasion of Germany it was the largest airdrop In the story that entered into stunning defeats with 17,000 Allied lives lost, how and why it happened is explored in vivid detail, unlike typical war films, we do not follow the actions of one group of soldiers, but the efforts of many Americans, British, Germans, Poles and Dutch. played by one of the most expensive Hollywood actors I have ever seen, most of which are based on real people who participated in this operation.

That being said, this is not a film that will appeal to the average audience of moviegoers, but it is one that

history

buffs

will love. This three-hour juggernaut goes to great lengths to be as historically accurate as possible and has some of the best battle sequences ever put on screen, all of which are brought to fruition by truly epic practical effects. proportions almost everything you see was filmed for real its achievements easily join the ranks of other classics like tora tora tora and waterloo yes, as we all know, no historical film can be perfect, even one like this has its fair share of inaccuracies and creative changes, but Even when Aiko pointed them out in this episode, you will still see that the filmmakers wanted to get this story right and compared to other current war movies, we may never see it again.

This is a bridge too far, so the film begins in late 1944 with the Germans on the run. The Allied invasion of France inflicted 725,000 losses on 600 of their tanks and much of their equipment. The situation on the Russian front. It looks even worse with Germany losing 900,000 men that same summer with Army Group Center completely destroyed. This fierce attack from two fronts led many to believe that Germany was on the brink of defeat, involving the Allies as they devastated France and Belgium, but their rapid advance soon began to slow, they were exhausted and the supply was still needed to be transported by truck to the beaches of Normandy and the south of France, now they wanted Alber to have the logistical support they expected to be resupplied.

This pause caused the Allied armies to lose the momentum they had in pursuing the Germans, so in September 1944 British Field Marshal Montgomery proposed a bold plan to Supreme Headquarters to regain the initiative, it was called Operation Market Garden. and the idea was to send Allied airborne troops into occupied Holland for the season, hold seven major bridges over Dutch rivers and canals to the lower Rhine, the first hundred Americans would take In the sector north of Eindhoven, the American 82nd would carry the sector to Nijmegen and the British 1st Airborne and Polish 1st Parabrigade would take Arnhem, the farthest corner of the market objectives, while the British 8th Tank Corps, 12th and 30th, would cut through the Germans. lines with 30 Corps advancing along the only road connecting the Netherlands with Belgium for the offensive, they were expected to cover 63 miles in two days as military operations progressed, this was certainly overly ambitious, as it turned out to be. as all the Planning and logistics were rushed together and only one week in which it was suggested that, at the beginning of the war, this plan might have been canceled from its inception, but the euphoria and their recent string of victories had resulted in an overconfidence to sweep away unchecked allied leaders with many.

Believing that Germany would collapse before the end of 1944, they were now not naive or gullible people, this was just the general thinking at the time and Monty's plan could not only potentially end the war sooner, but also incorporated the use of the First Army. Allied airborne force that had been formed as recently as August 1944, large sums of money had been invested in training and equipping these men, but cancel launch after cancel launch kept many of them on the sidelines and political pressure was mounting to use them sooner. of the end of the war, so on September 10, 1944, Eisenhower gave the green light to Market Garden.

If you've already seen a bridge too far, you've probably noticed that Monti isn't in the film and the overall blame for Market Garden seems to fall on British Journal guy Browning, as if the filmmakers were covering up for Monti, this iconic hero of British War, but there's actually a good reason why he's not there and that's because in some ways he wasn't, despite being the brains behind Market Garden, not even involved in running it at this time. His right-hand man, Francis de Gant, had to be sent home on sick leave from Allied headquarters in France. Monte inexcusably had no one to take his place that he felt he could trust.

Sir Monty had to declare his main headquarters to replace him and as a result, he lost touch with what was happening in his absence, small details such as the RAF refusing to drop the British Paris over the island's bridges or anywhere close to them, the reason was because there was a German airfield nearby with anti-aircraft guns and El Aria is more concerned with protecting its planes than guaranteeing the success of the mission. It is understandable that the butter put the Paris in a difficult situation where exactly they were going to land. My problem is that I don't just need drop zones, I need drop zones that can hold. and I defend, I understand, sir, but we really believe that we have found the right place, well, hell, that's right, it's not actually in this photograph, it should be, yes, this put the drop zone less than eight miles from the Arnhem bridges, which have not received Criticism over the years indicates that the ideal is to drop the paratroopers as close to their target as possible.

However, I don't think it would have made any difference if they had been dropped right above Arnhem, which far behind the German lines was unrealistically ambitious and there were just too many variables for things to go wrong, if one group failed completely, that's another thing, this whole plan depended on the fact that the allies expected little to no resistance from the Germans; the general consensus of opinion is that our The opposition will be consistent I will have beaten two u-thor l men in Vice, which was simply not true. The Dutch resistance told General Browning that he reported that two SS Panzer divisions were resting and reconditioning in Arnhem, but he refused to accept. even when they showed him pictures of tanks hidden in the woods and that's because neither Browning nor anyone else wanted to be the one to rock the boat, they didn't want to tell Montgomery or Eisenhower that they had this big plant together in a week. had serious flaws 16 consecutive launches have been canceled in recent months for one reason or another, but this time the part is on and no one is going to cancel it on this short side stubbornness would cost the Allies dearly lightly armed paratroopers are simply There is no match against tanks, as Colonel John Frost's leftist battalion discovered in Arnhem during the battle against such strong resistance.

The only hope they had was to hold out long enough for 30 Corps to come to their rescue and they were expected to take two. days to reach them if they could carry out that operation Market Garden could be successful unfortunately the British paratroopers learned that it was easier said than done the allies have underestimated how difficult the journey would be for 30 reasons to reach Arnhem as a country that is Holland. a very flat and humid place that made it treacherous terrain for tanks and heavy vehicles. 30 course movements were restricted along the only road to Arnhem and tanks that ran off the road became stuck in the mud, which naturally created a massive traffic jam that stretched for miles, often the road only being wide enough to let a tank through and the Germans took every opportunity to prevent that from happening from both sides of the road they were hidden and waited for the first tanks to pass them once they did the Germans opened.

They fired with everything they had again and again 30 the course was stopped by these ambushes parked bumper to bumper they couldn't advance until the disabled tanks were pushed off the road by an armored bulldozer the fighting was so fierce throughout this route that became known as the highway from hell for a trip that was supposed to cover 63 miles in two days, they only reached seven miles in the first total, it was delays like this and underestimating their enemy that cost the allies this important battle, but even when The smoke cleared and the dead were counted. Montgomery still refused to accept responsibility.

He doubled down and claimed the battle was 90% successful, saying anything other than what he was being told, which isn't surprising given that Operation Market Garden even started well, as you know. I've always thought we were trying to go too far. This infamous quote that became the title of the book and this same film was said by Browning to Montee on September 10, 1944, the day Monty issued the directive for Operation Market Garden. Browning supposedly asked Monty how long the operation would take. armor in reaching us. Montgomery responded two days. Browning said we can hold out for four, but sir, I think we may be going too far referring of course to Arnhem, it's great. quote, but it is most likely not true, although Cornelius Ryan, the author of the book, stated that it so happened that there is no recording of Browning's meeting or of his conversation with Montgomery that day or any other over the decades later.

Historians agree that Browning was not personally informed by Monty. in Operation Market Garden at any time and that is strange because high level military affairs and army group level headquarters are always recorded somewhere, reinforcing this possibility is the fact that the 21st Army Group Monty's armies had no liaison staff with the new first allied airborne army that browning was corps commander now there is a possible possibility that montgomery himself said the bridge was too far away, i quote a staff officer and that other people They had it at some point. The reason for this is that Monty knew that the deployment and logistical preparations were sloppy, but he didn't care, he was a man in a hurry, more focused on personal matters and he was improvising taking the Germans as broken and, by extension, Eisenhower as well. by giving him the marked vert, they were always quick to punish mistakes like that and Julie did, regardless of whether the quote came from there, it is now synonymous with an act of ambition that exceeds his capacity, as Monty did when he went too far in a bridge, so now that you have a rough idea of ​​what a colossal mistake that was Operation Market Garden, we can move on to what really interests you, what exactly the filmmakers do right, as I said before, now the historical film is Perfect, even a classic like Bridge Too Far has more than its fair share of inaccuracies, so what am I going to do?

In this chapter I want to point out some of them, that doesn't mean they are all necessarily bad changes, it's just that some events and even people changed slightly to condense a really complex story, for example, let's look at fiction. character Major Fuller clumsily showing general reconnaissance photos of German tanks around Arnhem splendid view of the Dutch countryside can't see any tanks, it's much clearer in the next picture is actually intended for me Major Brian Oh Kurt or was it renamed to avoid confusion where General Roy Eckert has no relation as an intelligence officer, Major Fuller poses as a shy and nervous individual who appears terrified when confronted by General Browning.

I shouldn't worry about them, let's say you see they are tanks, I doubt they are. Actually, you are completely useful. Brian and Kurt had a lot of confidence in themselves and their responsibilities. In fact, the reason we know about him is because he made such a fuss. I bet there were a lot of people who were too scared to talk to Browning. or Monty on why Operation Market Garden was such a horrible plan and in a way they are represented through the character of Major Fuller. Another thing that is not true is when we see that the medical officerThe case sent him home on sick leave under Browning's orders.

He didn't do anything wrong, of course, not just for a little while, the only thing that happened to Brian Urca was that he requested a transfer out of the airborne forces after the defeat. He became depressed after learning of the high number of casualties and failing to stop Market Garden. of what happened, let's look at another example according to the movie, one of the main reasons why the first British airborne was defeated was because their radios didn't work and that's true, but it's not exactly the tree-rich geography that The Netherlands interfered with communications. As you would have in Sicily, Normandy and the south of France, the standard 22 radio did not have a range of six to eight miles and some of the radios had incorrect crystals and spent batteries installed, so you may be wondering If the 22nd radio was so bad, then why did they bring it in?

Because there was nothing better. Portable radio technology back then was still primitive, so it was to be expected that the radios would be inadequate. In fact, he could tell that these backpack radios were as reliable as a child's. and walkie-talkies I honestly think people have this misconception about World War II radios because the garbage that comes out of Hollywood like honestly there's a scene in the movie where Eagles dares Richard Burton uses a backpack radio to call London from the Bavarian Alps. sword calling Danny Boy sword calling Danny Boy yes, I'm talking nonsense about that anyway, the radio broadcast set 22 works before because the paratroopers had always dropped just a few miles from the Allied ground forces, but on this occasion the Market Garden's launch was dozens of miles behind enemy lines, so the problem with the radios was not so much faulty equipment but their general incompetence.

It worked most of the time, but the information had to be transmitted to Moore Park headquarters in London and then to Browning, causing frustrating delays. That's basically the real reason there are communication problems, but I'm sure director Richard Attenborough didn't do that. I don't think it was necessary to give this more complicated explanation. Another inaccuracy that I think you'll love is this one. It's that part of the movie where Antony Hopkins' character left. Ellen's Colonel Frost runs across the street in the face of enemy gunfire. Imagine if I told you he would have been more accurate if his character had crossed the street.

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Hey, don't look at me, this is what the real John Frost said to Antony Hopkins when he was filming that scene. process something up there I had to make a scene I was right I had to run across the street and one shot I was running pretty fast like I thought I would know it's on the cover and he said to me he said you know you're running too fast I said would you? I'm running too fast this yes he said um you wouldn't understand your men in the face of danger obviously you can't prove that because no audience is going to believe it, it sounds like something that someone would invent to look good, but it wasn't like that with John Frost because there is another moment in the movie where screenwriter William Goldman wanted to give him a cool line to say and John Frost stood his ground because he never actually said it, is the scene where a German soldier crosses the bridge with a white flag and asks them to the British to surrender.

Now, in real life, this conversation was with a captured British sergeant on parole who was sent by the Germans to Samant to surrender on his behalf. but that's basically how it happened, we don't have the proper facilities to take them all prisoner, sorry I gave that law to Hopkins now, in fact he didn't say it, someone else said it and General Frost said, you got me saying that line and if I say that line everyone will know that I'm trying to make myself more than I was and I said would you mind being there when it was said? and he was silent for a long time and then he said no, that would be Okay, so we gave the line to someone else, what I can't confirm is that John Frost said this when he was asked to surrender.

Telling him to go to hell next is not exactly an inaccuracy but an alteration of a certain character, the German. Field Marshal Water Modal, who is presented as an exaggerated Prussian stereotype, has proven to be unimaginative and a bit cowardly. There's a scene in the film where we have lunch at the Tafelberg Hotel, which happened to be near a British launch zone. it does not unravel and thank you, it is often found here, butts are considered tuned, he saves the Soviet snitch for us, I am here in the v8 file, so it uses a common ANOVA that confused cinnamon or insurv a natural feeling , Benoit, although the scene is clearly reproduced.

He laughs, it's true that Motile thought the British worker got him and all the bridges, but honestly it wasn't for some unfounded reason that the British were falling in plain sight after all and given his rank in the army German, it's understandable why. I would think I was a target when he left Motul. He kept in touch with headquarters with his communication vehicles. It's like in the movie where he loses contact and the stage commander struggles to communicate with him. Layton generally needs a larger school. Also made to look incompetent in another scene inspired by real events is when a German soldier stumbles upon the glider full of dead paratroopers for some reason we see British paratroopers even though they were actually Americans don't ask me why and the German finds plans details all about Operation Market Garden, but when the plants are brought before the modal Field Marshal, he just discards them Kanzi Ludwig, they were nice, yes, but Oh Steven's plan is a plan so far, okay, this is completely fiction, here in real life, these plants were not only taken very seriously, but ended up in front of none other than Colonel General Coach Student, one of the world's great pioneers and leading experts in airborne warfare.

He literally wrote the book about it. In fact, the British and American airborne forces were closely inspired by the students' own fallschirmjäger. So he knew the real thing when he saw the students he immediately took advantage of the Allies' strategy and deployed the soldiers accordingly. The student paratroopers are most famous for taking over the island of Crete and he got to see how effective they were in this fantastic documentary series called Second World Apocalypse. War and covers all the most important moments of that war in high quality color. You can find this documentary in thousands as if it were in a curiosity broadcast.

It's a subscription streaming service that has nothing but documentaries that include history and you can watch them all for just $2.99 ​​a month, but the best part is that fans of history

buffs

can get their first 30 days free to begin. All you have to do is finalize the promo code. inaccuracies it is also important to recognize when they get it right despite what I said in the previous chapter, director Richard Attenborough tried to bridge too far from the greatest possible historical accuracy but, ironically, when it was released in 1977 it was rejected by critics Americans. with a certain feeling that the film was too unrealistic and made reference to scenes that they did not believe were true, such as the one in which Sergeant Eddie Doan, James Khan's character, finds his captain wounded but on the verge of death. death and seek medical help.

He drives like crazy through enemy lines. and arrives at a field hospital, but instead of receiving treatment, the doctor assumes the officer is dead and tells the sergeant to drop him on a pile of bodies outside, well, if you don't look at him right now, he'll die dead right now. I think tonight's test thank you very much sir, when some critics saw the scene they dismissed it as pure Hollywood fiction, but it's mostly true, apart from the part where the Germans shoot him in the woods, the guy's real name It was Sergeant Charles Doohan and he forced a doctor at gunpoint to save the life of Captain Legrand Johnson.

Now, this is just one example, but it doesn't take much to see all that Dodson Brett did to try to be accurate or at least authentic. It's pretty obvious why. I wanted to photograph a bridge too far in the Netherlands are some of the real places where the battles took place one thing is for sure it certainly wasn't because it was cheap a big problem during production was when the newspapers announced that a bridge too far was va to be the most expensive movie ever made, which was around the time the locals started raising the prices of everything a movie might need when we go and try to buy a bag of cement or something, it's a hundred dollars the most. that this event Well, leave it, if you have 25 million dollars, you know, I mean, it was literally that, so sometimes we had to go to Germany to buy things.

Wow, you think the Dutch wanted to support a Hollywood movie based on their own story, but instead the local businessman? It sounds so greedy it's almost cartoonish we're shutting down production yeah well we only have a thousand dollars left anyway there's $8,000 that leaves the city tax as expensive as this movie got to be it was worth it in the end what's more comes to mind. is the fantastic airdrop sequence coupled with the Battle of Britain. This is the most epic real-life aerial cinematography ever filmed. We really get a sense of what it must have been like to be a civilian on September 17, 1944 to look up at the sky and see it filled with 4,636 aircraft ranging from transport planes, gliders towed by bombers and escorted by fighters, just an indication of How big the Samata was on the first day was that it took two hours of a steady, continuous stream of Allied aircraft.

I'm flying over me with materials and due to the scale and complexity of the drop sequence, they couldn't afford to do as many new shots, so to capture as much footage as possible they used 19 cameras in total, including the cameramen. inside the planes that you would be jumping the parachutists also you can't be more real that that was a huge operation you couldn't store it all you know what the wind would do you didn't know where that parachute would go to the left or to the right it wasn't like that, you had to have a cameraman who for all intents and purposes had the experience and the Lords of Documentary Film Cameramen, you had to have a guy who was prepared to put a camera on his shoulder and capture whatever he could capture as it was happening.

If we were doing it now, he would take three men down and technically, even though you know he did it all for you, that was real, there was no fake shot, it wasn't a fake shot in the movie and also, what's really cool is that This scene was filmed in Holland and in the same sky where the real airdrop took place. I mean, I'm sure I could have saved money if I had filmed us in England or somewhere else, but one district insisted on using the real locations every time. The reason could be because they can offer the actors the same challenges that the real soldiers went through, such as the infamous river wall crossing, wanting to be as accurate as possible in a brand that not only wanted to film on the same river, but They used the same boats as the 82nd Airborne, but when they arrived he saw how flimsy they were and was a little worried about the safety of his actors, which is understandable given that they were made of little more than plywood and canvas.

What do you expect the destroyers to come out with? Together, luckily, everything went well with the actors' safety, which is great for the movie because the way they try to run these shitty boats is exactly what the skydivers experienced once a strong current in deep water caught them. walls worked against him. They lost momentum as some ships spun madly in circles. The reason for this was due to the lack of available oars. Each boat was supposed to have at least eight oars, but many only came made of wood, which is absolutely disgraceful, making it the only option they had. was to use the butts of their rifles, there was no time to give my soldiers any training with these boats, just a desperate race to overcome this great expanse of water, the river wall here runs eight to ten miles an hour and is 1,200 feet wide at the shore.

The other bank has 1,900 feet of flat land dominated by a high levee. The road defended by the Germans was an incredibly daunting task and the 82nd Airborne Division had to get there under heavy artillery fire and it was worse than seen in the film as they were subjected to enfilade fire from the bridges from roads and railways, as well as from the opposite bank of the river, some men became so desperate to avoid the shellsentrants who rode against each other spinning in circles, their ships were easy prey for the Germans desperate to maintain unit cohesion, the major cook began by praying out loud, the purpose of this was mainly to keep his men in rhythm while they wrote , he will be María, it would be a line full of grace, it would be the second line and the inclusion of this historical detail increased the tension, one of the most suspenseful. scenes I've ever seen in a movie, it's so well done, I can't praise the scene enough, it's an accurate representation of the incredibly brave American assault, the only minor criticism I have is an altercation they left out of the movie because it makes The British They look bad and rightly so, basically the reason the 82nd Airborne needs him to cross this river is so they can capture the Nijmegen road and railway bridges and allow the 30th Corps to pass through their path to rescue British paratroopers trapped in Arnhem.

The effort would require the Americans to attack the bridge on one side and the British xxx tank or attack it on the other, however the German 82nd Airborne knew that such a crossing was close to suicide and wanted some guarantees first, they did. a question to the 30th tank corps commander British General Horrocks general if I do if they take the bridge what assurance do we have from you that your tanks went to Arnhem and that was when you made the statement that my troops would line up on the strength held there for him? and nothing will stop when this promise was made, the Americans were fully committed to taking that bridge and the cost of doing so was high: the 240 sent to that first wave who were not killed or injured only 99 remained, the bridge was taken on 30 The only slight deviation from the film was that the British tanks crossed that bridge 45 minutes before the main cooks Paris reached the northern end, who wants the other side 30 Corps stopped a few miles later in the village of Lent, much to the fury of the American paratroopers, and we see Major Cooke confront Grenadier Guards tank officer Captain Carrington, those are British troops in Arnhem, they are seriously wounded, you're not going to stop now, no, I'm sorry, we have our Orders that we bust our asses getting here half my men are killed and you will just stop and drink tea, we can't go with tanks in that line, Jerry will eliminate us as easy targets, our infantry is still fighting in Nijmegen and I understand.

We'll move on here, even though this confrontation really happened, he wasn't as polite as it looks in the movie nor was he a major cracker who held the guy down, but this man, Captain Boris, I can't exactly repeat word for word what I said. He said, but I pointed my gun at his head and said: If you don't get this blank tank moving, I will blow your head off. But with that he got into the tank, closed the hatch and couldn't turn it. The sad truth is that even if the British kept their promise to the Americans, they would still have been able to rescue their fellow paratroopers in Arnhem around this time.

Colonel Frost was forced to surrender his position on the Lower Rhine Bridge to the Germans and any hope of Market Garden's success ceased to exist. Lastly, I also want to applaud a bridge too much for going the extra mile in his honest depiction of the Germans during the course. of the battle, especially the Waffen-ss, despite their well-deserved dark place in history, there were times when some behaved with the same code of honor and chivalry that they would have founded in the 18th century, towards the end of the battle, the nine hospitals and wounded posts that were still standing.

British hands were full of wounded, their medical staff worked 24 hours a day trying to save lives under intense artillery fire and full of desperation. Graham Warrick appealed to the humanity of the Germans and called for a truce, forgive me, but there is a battle and we are in the process of winning it. Cease fire for an hour to simply evacuate our wounded, then you can kill us Germans as much as you want. At first they were reluctant, but then General Beatrice appeared and agreed to a ceasefire and, as seen in the film, gave the British three hours to evacuate 1,200 wounded to German hospitals, even going so far as to say that he was sorry for the war between their two nations and gave dr.

Warwick, a bottle of brandy to take to the general emergency room, Kurt, which sounds very civilized, once the three hours were up, the game began again. I would just like to add that it doesn't matter how disgusted we are with the atrocities the Waffen-ss have committed. It would be wrong for us to deny that these events occurred, most movies today would avoid the topic for obvious reasons, which is why I so love a bridge that had the courage and wisdom to respect that history is not all black and white. over there. There are ugly gray stains between its pages that we should all look at critically and to deny that is a disservice to the people who were actually there now.

As much as I love a bridge too far, there is one moment that makes my eyes roll. and he has done it through screenwriter William Goldman. Now I'm not suggesting it's terrible. In fact, I applaud the man for an extraordinary job in adapting the original book and being largely faithful to the story. He definitely has my respect in that regard, even if just a little. Full of himself, one of the things Goldman was especially proud of with The Bridge Too Far was the fact that he had set out to write an anti-war film, a fact he makes abundantly clear in his interviews: it was an opportunity to saying that war Sucks, which most movies don't do or is a terrible thing.

People die. Lives are destroyed. People are maimed. I just think glorifying war is a terrible thing. It's me personally. Obviously, none of us will disagree with this opinion. like he says war definitely sucks, the only thing I don't understand is that you're suggesting that most movies don't say that well, what do you mean what kind of movies do you like war movies? Because I can't think of any that are pro-war, even the most zealous, over-the-top flag-waving war movies don't glorify the acts of war themselves. I mean, seriously, have you ever seen a Vietnam movie that made you think this war is fantastic?

I think so, and yes, William Goldman would have us believe that anti-war movies are a weird thing. This wouldn't necessarily bother me if I were a little more subtle in saying that war sucks. There is one scene that really stands out to me. At the end of the movie is when all the major Allied generals are on top of the church fire and are acknowledging their defeat and their interpretations of how it happened, then Gene Hackman's character, General Sosabowski, says this stupid line no matter what. which was one man says to another I know what we do today show the war game everyone dies I can't express how much that line bothers me it's a pure copper by William Goldman and I'll tell you why generals can't afford to think like that because if they did they would never win, they wouldn't have the stomach to deal with death, they wouldn't be able to confidently lead their soldiers into battle or even earn trust and respect.

A perfect example of why this is so. It would be this idiot Sir William Elphinston. He oversaw what are recorded as the most unnecessary catastrophic defeats in British imperial history. They withdrew from Kabul in 1842. This was a long time ago, when Britain was trying to conquer Afghanistan. Elphinston was a man who couldn't. He did not endure confrontations of any kind and went so far as to betray his own side when he was placed in command of a garrison in Afghanistan, the last thing he was looking for was a fight with elephants in his compound miles away from the capital city of Kabul, while this was more defensible, it isolated him and his troops from the local population who naturally viewed these foreign invaders with hostility and suspicion within the huge complex that seemed to be nothing to worry about.

The British lived a luxurious lifestyle with their wives and children they had a race track they played cricket and danced at grand balls their attitude was so relaxed they might as well be Garrison in England anyway this piece would soon end when the British government stopped Pay subsidies to local tribes angry with these tribes began to attack Sauron Carbyl's convoy in the Khyber Pass. Elphinston did not stop these attacks or take any action against an uprising in Kabul. What he wanted was a gift of his 4,500 soldiers and 12,000 civilians to another British garrison in Jalalabad, but do that. or take them through hostile tribal country, so Evans approached Afghan leaders to negotiate safe passage for him.

The Afghans agreed to meet for tea, but when the British envoy, Sir William McNaughton, arrived, they killed him and his group and dragged their bodies through the streets. of Kabul and what Elphinston does about it. Nothing. He simply sent another guy to ask for the same deal, this time with an army escort. In any case, the Afghan leaders agreed to grant him safe passage on the condition that the British surrender most of their weapons and cannons. Incredibly, Elphinston agreed to this on January 6, 1842. He withdrew from Kabul. There were 70,000 men, women and children. When the British column reached the narrow mountain pass of Kabul, they were ambushed by the Afghans using the same weapons.

Elphinston spared them in the carnage that followed. the British army was practically annihilated, this is what happens when generals refuse to play the game of war anyway. I'm sorry for going off on a tangent, but I just wanted to illustrate the complete absurdity of that line and what it implies that General Sosabowski was In the fight against the war, far from it, he was deeply affected by the Warsaw Uprising that was raging in at that time and pleaded for his Peres Brigade to be sent to Warsaw to fight alongside his Polish comrades. He was simply against Montgomery's plan for Operation Market Garden, a fact he did.

It is clear that when he told Browning that it was suicide, he now actually demanded his orders be written to Major General, er cut, and not to General Browning, but he still had the courage to say that it is an excellent example of a man willing to be true to himself and his level of professionalism when careers are at stake most people submit to the powers that be he didn't and he wasn't doing that because he thought everyone loses in war it seems like on Goldman's mission to make an anti-war film He didn't understand what kind of man Sasa Boskie was by making him say this line, everyone dies because when generals think like that they often do, but to be fair, this is the only problem I have with the bridge too far away, but the rest William Goldman. surprises him along with Richard Attenborough as well as the cast and crew who made this film with the same passion for history that we all share on this channel if you've been salivating for another big budget war movie with nothing in it They're nothing more than practical effects and attention to detail so well researched it's almost like a documentary.

So my fellow history buffs are looking for nothing more than a bridge too far. That sums it up. My name is Nick Hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remembering. If you like the show please help the channel grow if you want to support history buffs you can now do so on patreon and as always let me know in the comments section what you thought was a bridge too far and of course , what a historical film should. In the meantime, check out the historic bus's Twitter and Facebook pages for new updates and we'll see you next time.