Arnhem: Ten Days in the Cauldron
About this audiobook
“It was a bridge too far, and perhaps the whole plan was doomed to failure from the start, but we had to try, didn’t we?”
September 17, 1944: 30,000 airborne soldiers prepare to drop sixty-four miles behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Holland; tens of thousands of ground troops race down Hell’s Highway in tanks and armored cars, trucks, and half-tracks to link up with them. The goal: to secure eight bridges across the Rhine and end the war by Christmas. Ten days later, over 15,000 of these soldiers have died, and 6,000 have been taken prisoner.
Operation Market Garden was the daring plan to stage a coup de main in occupied territory, gain control of those bridges, and obtain a direct route into Hitler’s Germany. But the operation failed, and the allied forces suffered a brutal military defeat. In the seventy-five years since, tactics have been analyzed and blame has been placed, but the heart of Arnhem’s story lies in the selflessness and bravery of those troops that fought, the courage and resilience of the civilians caught up in confrontation, and the pure determination to fight for their lives and their freedom. This is the story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.
In Ballantyne’s Arnhem, we go into battle with not only the famous commanders in the thick of the action but also with all those whose fates were determined by their decisions. Based on first-hand interviews, military records, and diaries, we witness the confusion and mayhem of war—from the horrific and devastating to the surreal and mundane. But most of all, we witness the self-sacrifice and valor of the men who gave their lives to liberate strangers in a foreign country.
About the author
Although he has written several naval history books, including on the Second World War and the Cold War, Iain Ballantyne has during the course of his career as a journalist, editor, and author also covered the activities of land forces. Those assignments took him to Kuwait, Oman, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Hong Kong, sometimes during times of conflict.Iain has also visited WW2 battlefields in company with those who fought there as young men, while also spending hours in conversation with Arnhem veterans. As a teenager Iain embarked on an expedition to follow the course of the Rhine, including a pilgrimage to Oosterbeek and Arnhem. He retraced the route of the British Airborne soldiers in 1944 as they tried to take the famous ‘bridge too far.’
Ralph Lister is an experienced actor and voice artist who trained at LAMDA. He spent fifteen years in mainstage theatre in London, Madrid, Hong Kong, and Edinburgh before moving to America, where he focuses on film, television, and audiobook narration.
