Quote Originally Posted by Tom Odom View Post
WM,

You changed the reference to Market Garden in your second post to large operations with your disclaimer about airborne operations and AIRBORNE operations. Like others here I saw the reference to Market Garden as a type of operation to mean vertical envelopment .

If you are only talking about an airborne operation involving the lift of three divisions and a brigade in daylight, then there is no comparison because Market Garden is the only one.

The reference to if the Germans won the war takes your what if the Normandy invasion failed to its logical extension. The invasion did not fail and the airborne operations were part of the reasons it succeeded. That the paras had air support was part of the plan.

As for Bastogne, again if you want to get into what if the Germans had operated differently, then things might have gone differently for the 101st. That is more supposition like postulating about a German victory at Normandy.

Dave Glantz wrote an excellent study on the Sovier Airborne Experience you might find enlightening.



Best

Tom
Tom,
The lower case/upper case distinction (airborne vs AIRBORNE) was meant to point out a difference in scope and size. As I noted, in agreement with Mark, small scale, limited objective vertical envelopments (whether using parachutes (airborne), helicopters (airmobile), or fixed wing assets(air landing) as the deliver mechanism, have a place in our bag of tricks. I submit that operations like Market Garden and Crete do not.

Back to Bastogne, you seemed to miss my main point--it was not simply a light infantry versus tanks battle. The 4th AD relief column that Patton pushed north engaged in such a infantry Vs, Tanks battle with the German 5 Parachute Div. It sliced through the Germans like a hot knife through butter.

Thanks for the reference to the Soviet Airborne Experience title.

Thanks also for the healthy debate.