Decision Making in Alliance Warfare: Operation Market Garden - A Case Study
Abstract
This paper is an examination of how national politics affected the decision by General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery to conduct Operation MARKET GARDEN in the northwestern European Theater in September 1944. It is proposed that there was an unbroken chain that linked grand strategy to military strategy to campaign design, all of which ultimately influenced the decision to execute Operation MARKET GARDEN. It is further argued that these cascading influences contributed to one of the greatest Allied operational failures of the campaign in Europe. Military leadership at the strategic and high-operational level is also examined as a critical variable in the MARKET GARDEN decision. Differences in personality, temperament, past experience and individual competence all added complexity to a decision making process already made cumbersome by British and American attempts to apply a controlling hand from their national capitals.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA391211
Entities
People
- Steven P. Semmens
Organizations
- United States Army War College