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  • The Battle of Arnhem

  • The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II
  • Written by: Antony Beevor
  • Narrated by: Sean Barrett
  • Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (32 ratings)

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The Battle of Arnhem

Written by: Antony Beevor
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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Publisher's Summary

The prizewinning historian and internationally best-selling author of D-Day reconstructs the devastating airborne battle of Arnhem in this gripping new account.

On September 17, 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the groaning roar of airplane engines. He went out onto his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders, carrying the legendary American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the British 1st Airborne Division. 

Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept, but could it have ever worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war. 

Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, American, British, Polish, and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student called "The Last German Victory." Yet The Battle of Arnhem, written with Beevor's inimitable style and gripping narrative, is about much more than a single dramatic battle - it looks into the very heart of war.

©2018 Antony Beevor (P)2018 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What the critics say

"Beevor conveys a clear sense of what was happening in each fight and the knock-on consequences for the others. What’s more, the compressed time scale and limited strategic scope of Market Garden ideally suit the author’s testimony-rich approach.... Mr. Beevor is a highly accomplished architect of what the American literary scholar Samuel Hynes calls 'battlefield gothic': the nightmarish horrors and absurdities of combat which themselves become a badge of authenticity for war stories...no one could be better placed to explore these topics.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“[The Battle of Arnhem] is destined to be a World War II military history classic.... Excellent maps make the action easy to follow, and the author’s clear, quick prose makes for fascinating, informative reading.... Beevor’s superb latest offering, in keeping with his established record of excellence, is a must-read for the general military history enthusiast and the WWII history expert.” (Publishers Weekly

The Battle of Arnhem brings a wealth of new detail to a major World War II disaster.... Beevor brings to the familiar story a vast amount of research in German, British, American, Polish, and Dutch archives. As usual, his narrative bristles with specifics, including countless observations gleaned from eyewitnesses to every stage of Market Garden. Devoted readers of military history will enjoy the wealth of details." (Christian Science Monitor

What listeners say about The Battle of Arnhem

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Detailed and gripping

My knowledge of Market Garden was limited to the movie A Bridge Too Far and as such it was good to have the record corrected and the intricate details filled in. The scope and horror of the defeat in Arnhem and subsequent Hunger Winter are sobering.

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Great story aaaaand

... the bonus is that narrator Sean Barrett's voice is calming enough to listen to whenever and wherever. Everything about this book was great and I think it should be recommended to anyone who is even remotely interested in the Battle of Arnhem.

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