"A Bridge Too Far, The Classic History of the Greatest Battle of World War II" by Cornelius Ryan, published by Simon & Schuster, 1974. First printing with '1' present in the line on the copyright page.

Hard boards, black cloth [some fading and some soiling]; silvery lettering on spine and silvery signature of Cornelius Ryan on the front board; 6" x 9.1/4"; the endpapers are maps [bared name on the front ep]; 670 pages, many illustrations, very good condition.

A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan gives an account of Operation Market Garden, a failed Allied attempt to break through German lines at Arnhem by taking a series of bridges in the occupied Netherlands during World War II.

"One of the best WWII books that I have read in quite some time. First of all, Ryan writes in a very artful fashion - easy to read but with very rich detail and narrative with a lot of well-crafted research every step of the war. In addition to readability that is very difficult to match (to me, even superior to Ambrose), the author lays out the invasion from conception to its rather challenging conclusion. He details every aspect of Market Garden from the role of the top brass to the bravery of the Red Devils, the Polish Airborne, The U.S. Airborne (82nd and 101st) under Maxwell and Gavin, and Horrock's XXX Corp which get bogged down early in the fight.

I really appreciated the individual detail to the soldiers on the ground and the anecdotes provided both at the beginning and the end (as well as what happened to them after the war if they survived). Also, there was very good detail regarding the German forces, the Dutch underground and the Dutch citizenry who were extremely helpful to the wounded of all combatants. The author does a good job in detailing the discussions about the attack between Eisenhower and Montgomery...

...Ryan detailed well the critical mishaps that occurred from the communications snafus to the bad weather and the inability of the various ground forces to properly coordinate. But they really did come close to achieving their objectives all things considered…. Many interesting twists and turns involved in this often under-appreciated battle. This was a very enjoyable book and I would heartily recommend to anyone." [a private book review]

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