WW2 Mystery: A Bridge Too Far or We Didn't Go Far Enough? P3

Part 3 of a New Thought-Provoking Series on the Battle for Arnhem in 1944 asks the question, WHERE WERE THE FOLDING BIKES when the British Army needed them to reinforce LTC John Frost's 2nd Battalion of the 1st British Airborne Division holding the north end of Arnhem bridge over the Rhine river?

German Cavalry bicycle-troops (Radfarhtruppen) silently infiltrated over 20 miles behind enemy lines to seize the Mt. St. Pere bridge from the unsuspecting French in 1914, blowing it up and then withdrawing with hundreds of prisoners (Bicycles in War, pages 69-80). Montgomery was a WW1 veteran and certainly knew that bridges could be taken by coup de main using stealthy bicycle-troops:

http://www.combatreform.org/atb.htm
http://www.geocities.org/militaryvehicles.htm

Airborne forces are essentially an air-mobile CAVALRY as explained by LTG James M. Gavin in his influential 1954 Harper's magazine article; "Cavalry and I Don't Mean Horses"

http://www.combatreform.org/cavalryandidontmeanhorses.htm

Early Airborne forces once they left their aircraft going 100-300 mph lost the MOBILITY DIFFERENTIAL of Cavalry and became walking 1-4 mph infantry--a condition folding bikes for 10-25 mph speeds can solve. The time of the greatest opportunity to surprise the enemy and an Airborne force's greatest vulnerability is right after the drop--had the British who used folding bikes en masse on D-Day used them in quantity on the flat terrain west of Arnhem they could have swarmed upon Arnhem bridge before Germans on foot could have gotten into blocking positions or switched to Frost's open route if opposed. Mobility and time is of the essence in a coup de main.

British General Montgomery tried to cross several major rivers by 3D Airborne maneuver coup de mains, yet on the most vital bridge over the Rhine no such direct action was taken to ostensibly avoid anti-aircraft flak. If you are going to do an INDIRECT VERTICAL ASSAULT you must close the distance quickly with GROUND MOBILITY.

The British are great deep thinkers about war and their innovations like the tracked tank, the landing craft for amphibious warfare, light tanks in gliders are just a few of their thinking ahead and doing TANGIBLE THINGS to get ahead. What they lacked in WW2 was the flexibility to take what they had and improvise on the spot ruthlessly for decisive effects, no doubt very war-weary. Since the British were tired and the 1st Airborne not very competent, its clear now they should have "stacked the deck" in their favor with lots of folding bikes to speed to Arnhem bridge ASAP hopefully without a fight--to conserve their fighting ranks. Simple bike transportation doesn't cost a fortune nor demand all the maintenance that "mechanization" with powered tanks invokes cold sweats in the mind of the light infantry narcissist. So why wouldn't a light infantryman want to travel at 10-25 mph instead of 1 or at best 4 mph on foot? The British at times asked this question in WW2 and used bikes, at others they didn't and disasters followed. It has something to do with the flexibility of mind--those that can decentralize and delegate control to trusted subordinates can use mobile, dispersed bike troops like Yamashita did to take Malaya/Singapore; if one's mind is weak and inflexible, a slower walking pace is chosen and the alleged safety of caution turns into bloody head-long charges into enemy strength. The bike is a tool for maneuver warfare of a Cavalry force.
One of the sad truths of war is that even the pressures of survival in combat and as a nation-state are NOT A GUARANTEE that what's best is going to over-ride prejudice and malpractice of racketeers. The British people had to demand Winston Churchill be their leader and it was he who brought back Hobart to active-duty to save the day on D-Day. With the Germans on the run after the Normandy break-out, the British generals thought they could "pull a fast one" and not even have fast-moving detachments of bicycle troops to reinforce an Airborne unit if stranded on the far side of one of the rivers. German Paratroop General Kurt Student knew right away to attack landing paratroops and had his men converge by bicycles and STUG turretless assault guns on Arnhem--and we all know how that action resulted.

Just a few hundred bikes at Arnhem's drop and landing zones would have have ended WW2 sooner by 6-8 months with us reaching Berlin before the Soviets--and would have saved MILLIONS of lives and prevented there being a "Berlin Wall" and "Iron Curtain".

TechnoTactical Errors in our force structure and equipment can have STRATEGIC CONSEQUENCES. Let's hope we can realize this before its too late and its more than a bridge at stake.

Want to know more?

Our book, "Air-Mech-Strike: Asymmetric Maneuver Warfare for the 21st Century" is ONLINE for FREE skyjacked by Google!

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• arnhem
• ww2
• war
• airborne
• tanks
• folding
• bikes
• bicycles
• montgomery
• patton
• gavin
• STUG
• assault
• guns
• gliders
• paratroopers

[dynmicpara]

A Back-Stab Too Far?

In 1944, knowing WW2 was lost, Martin Bormann and German industrialists began moving Nazi looted wealth into corporations around the world to jump-start the 4th Reich. Operation MARKET-GARDEN's Paratroopers holding bridges across the Rhine river into the German industrial heartland threatened their escape,

[dynmicpara]

so Illuminati member Peter Smith --the famous Grenadier Guards Major who refused to move his tanks past Nijmegen bridge to link-up with Frost's men at Arnhem bridge even when 82nd Airborne Para Infantry offered to clear any AT guns--deliberately sabotaged the mission for the Nazis.

[dynmicpara]

He is known today as Lord Carrington who afterwards chaired the evil Bilderbergers conspiracy group--which first met in Arnhem to mock the dead with their getaway. The brave British troops were betrayed by their officers.

[dynmicpara]

Yet another reason why Airborne units must be complete combined-arms teams with light tanks etc. to prevent political back-stabs. Fascist German/Japanese money stolen from the 62M WW2 dead still runs the world today.

w w w . d e e p b l a c k l i e s . c o . u k / p r i n c e s _ o f _ p l u n d e r . h t m

[kealyc]

Johnny Frost and his boys were brilliant, as one might expect. If they didn't have bikes, it's because Market Garden was rushed. 1st Brit Airborne Div was betrayed. Browning ignored intelligence reports about enemy armour, and Monty wanted to end the war ahead of Patton. XXX Corps linking with 2 para at Arnhem, the big media photo opportunity.

[LepantoElReal]

What is the music from 0:19 onwards?

[joyhuntsman86]

great video..very interesting..thanks!

[11nytram11]

@Badfish93 Actually I think you'll find that Douglas Haig has gone down as the worst Field Marshal ever and even though Monty is not popular doesn't enjoy a good reputation even his harshest critics said that OVERLORD would not have been a success without him and that he was a good general but overcautious and self-absorbed.

[dynmicpara]

Not using Hobart's Funnies and/or light tanks or folding bikes is a failure to COMBINE ARMS

[dynmicpara]

So what it was planned in haste? More reason to USE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE GOT since your plan will be weaker than something more thought-out. The Germans like Rommel could execute ops faster because they were stronger in general in combined-arms teams

[funkmasterjee]

Not realy true - it was planned in haste (only 7 days before it took place)

D day was planned several months in advance

2 years earlier Montgomery had defeated Rommel ( who at the time was considered - and had been proven to be - a genius tactician and stratergist)

[funkmasterjee]

Rommel was deprived of personnel, equipment and above all fuel by a combination of Hitler seeing North Africa as a sideshow and British aircraft and submarines sinking his supply ships.

Montgomery had a 2:1 numerical superiority in infantry, something like a 6:1 numerical superiority in tanks, but to his credit he did have a good plan in fooling Rommel that an outflanking attempt was coming in the south when he actualy attacked in the north