My hackles have been raised by Max Hastings' review of Anthony Beevor's #Arnhem book.
What an obtuse, self-serving, and pompous review.
The @nybooks should be embarrassed to publish this kind of partisan drivel.
Stay with me for a thread/rant while I vent.
#MarketGarden
1/14

Market Garden, and Arnhem especially, have always been controversial. Hastings leaves no doubt his feelings about the operation as he titles his piece "Botch on the Rhine." He condemns with all the power of 20-20 hindsight, a fatal flaw for any historian.
2/14

The first 2 lines set the tone: "They were better. Man for man, German soldiers fought more effectively in World War II than their Allied counterparts did."
What absolute crap, and completely wrong. I don't even know where to start with this nonsense other than to move on.
3/14

His review is essentially a replay of the Donkeys argument recycled for a new war. Montgomery, Horrocks, Browning, Hackett, etc., are all mindless drones who sent their men to their deaths for the wrong reasons while German commanders (& US to a lesser extent) saved the day.
4/14

My favourite line elicited words I shouldn't repeat: "Beevor’s great coup in writing this account, the first by a major writer since Ryan..." W-T-F. REALLY?
Middlebrook, Kershaw, Buckingham, Ritchie, Buckley & Preston-Hough are a few of the EXCELLENT recent studies.
5/14

Isn't it wonderful to write off the air forces in one sentence: "In the first days, Allied close air support was largely ineffective because it was ill-directed, especially around Arnhem." NOT THAT SIMPLE.
See Seb Ritchie's excellent book for a proper treatment of the topic.
6/14

Hastings usefully points out that Montgomery prioritizing MG over opening the port of Antwerp was a big mistake. But, he then blows it because he can't resist poking at the colonials: "This task [the Canadian clearance of the Scheldt] could ...
7/14

... have been swiftly accomplished in September, had Montgomery grasped its importance to the campaign."
NO WAY!
The German 15th Army - 100,000+ well supplied and well-armed men - occupied the approaches to Antwerp. Many historians have lamented ...
8/14

... the German escape across the Scheldt but if they had been trapped Antwerp would have remained closed until the end of the war. It still took weeks of hard fighting by the Canadian Army, even once the limits on resources imposed by Market Garden were lifted.
9/14

His review also unceasingly panders to his US audience where Beevor's book has just been released: The 82nd and 101st airborne divs fought very well while stifled by British command. It was only the British 1st Airborne and XXX Corps that cocked it up for the Americans.
10/14

And, @James1940 pointed out in his excellent @WeHaveWaysPod earlier today, the cronyism of the review was off the charts. Hastings and Beevor are old friends and this needed to be said. In nearly 4,000 words, Hastings could find nothing to criticize in Beevor's work.
11/14

Hastings overtly fawns over Beevor: "His account surely leaves almost nothing for future historians to discover or say about Arnhem..." WOW!
How clueless is he? New books WILL appear, with many meaningful contributions to our understanding of MG. That's how History works.
12/14

And Hastings ends his review with a cheapshot at Italian martial abilites, underpinned with an outdated and long-disproved racial stereotype. This is below even him.
13/14

Here's the link to the review if you want to read it yourself. Warning...it WILL raise your blood pressure.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/05/28/battle-arnhem-botch-rhine/
Hastings has convinced me NOT to buy Beevor's book. There are other REALLY GOOD alternatives.
And, treat @nybooks reviews with much suspicion.
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