Are we talking accidental mistakes or the deliberate 'mistakes' movie producers include to enhance the appeal of their movies to their viewing audience. An example for the later being all the anti British stuff in 'A Bridge to Far'.
....
What anti British stuff? There was plenty of criticism of British command and planning mistakes but afterall Monty pushed this plan over the well justified objections of many, including many on his own staff and in the end Ike is said to have just relented to keep the peace.
Most of the planning was done by British generals and is generally conceded to have been a royal co**up. There were numerous seeming planning blunders including:
the necessity of all the major bridges being taken
intact i;
given that, the failure to place more emphasis of drops to secure
all of these, as was done for Veghel and Grave;
the absence of workable contigencies for destroyed bridges;
the poor terrain for the mission of XXX Corps;
the refusal to consider intelligence showing greater than expect German armor support, which Monty himself was said to have dismissed, without foundation, as simply broken down tanks;
the decision to have IX Troop Carrier Command's transport aircraft both to tow gliders and drop paratroopers at the same time, a nearly impossible task;
the reliance on an optomistic weather forecast to limit drops to one per day;
the lack of arrangements for close air support;
the decision to make the drops from south to north, which gave the Germans the most early warning for their defensive;
the really poor drop zone location choices and reliance on the machine gun jeeps; and
the lack of effective communications equipment and contingencies.
According to his diary, General Gavin, of U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, was among those very skeptical of the plan and highly critical of British General Browning, noting that he "...unquestionably lacks the standing, influence and judgment that comes from a proper troop experience... his staff was superficial..."
And then there has been much criticism of the apparent lack and drive and aggressiveness of XXX Corps.
Of course, one could only give the most extravagent praise to the British soldiers, especially the airborne groups, involved. Eisenhower in fact noted " 'There has been no single performance by any unit that has more greatly inspired me or more excited my admiration than the nine day action by the lst British Parachute Division between September 17 and 25"
Like any movie about a true event, it undoubtedly overstated or understated certain things for dramatic license but overall, I thought the impressions created were consistent with the historical perspective.
