The information given in this document is not to be communicated either directly or indirectly to the press or to any person not holding an official position in the service of the Government of India/ State Government of the Union of India. PROMOTION EXAM PART ‘B’ MIL HISTORY 2015-16 COMPILED & PUBLISHED BY THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF MILITARY TRAINING (MT-2) INTEGRATED HEADQUARTERS OF MoD (ARMY) INDEX MILITARY HISTORY : PART ‘B’ EXAM (2015-16) Ser Chapter Page No From To 1. Syllabus i ii PART - I : BATTLE OF ARNHEM 2. Background 02 02 3. Operation Market Garden 03 08 4. The air armada 09 17 5. The vital hours 18 26 6. Formation of Oosterbeek perimeter : 20 Sep 27 34 7. Evacuation 35 36 8. Aftermath 37 38 9. Reasons for failure 39 40 10. Lessons learnt 41 42 11. Conclusion 43 43 PART - II : OP DEADSTICK - CAPTURE OF PEGASUS BRIDGE 12. Background 45 48 13. Prep & plg for the Op 49 54 14. Airborne ops on D-day 55 58 15. Aftermath 59 59 16. Conclusion 60 60 17. Lessons learnt 61 62 PART - III : BIOGRAPHY - MAJOR JOHN HOWARD, DSO 18. The Early Years 63 65 19. Personal and Military Traits 65 69 20. Life After the War 69 69 i SYALLABI FOR PROMOTION EXAMINATION PART 'B' : MIL HISTORY (2015) (WRITTEN) Ser Subject Total Pass Time Syllabus Remarks/ No Marks Marks Allowed Recommended Study 1. Military 500 200 3 hr Aim. The aim of Military History paper is to 1. The topics for Military History History test the candidates‟ ability to draw lessons from paper would be promulgated by the prescribed campaigns and biographical DGMT (MT-2) in a block of four studies and apply these to contemporary and years. This would also include the future war situations. books to be read for each topic. The topics to be changed each year. The DETAILS OF SYLLABUS topics of Military History would be revised after every four years. 1. Military Campaign. The study 2. Philosophy of Selection. should including the following :- The philosophy of selecting the topic (a) Military Geography of the would be as under :- theatre. (a) The topic selected (b) Application of Principles of War. should be commensurate (c) Major Tactical Battles. It to the knowledge level and should include :- service maturity. (i) Planning of unit level (b) Lessons. Officers battles and combat should draw lessons application. which they can apply (ii) Conduct of operation immediate or in the including battle array of units. immediate future, in their (iii) Small team operations. respective service levels. (iv) Lessons learnt at sub- 3. Selection of Topic. One unit / unit level. campaign (with two specific battles) (v) Operations logistics and one related biography. challenges and solutions. 4. Reference material issued by (vi) Relevance in today‟s DGMT (MT-2). context at unit level. (vii) Unconventional / innovative concepts and procedures adopted including out-of-box thinking. (d) Human Element. Highlights of tactical battles amplifying following issues :- (i) Junior Leadership. (ii) Personal courage and sacrifice. (iii) Espirit-de-Corps. (iv) Morale. (v) Training at sub-unit level. (vi) Human elements. 2. Biographical Study. To include the following :- (a) Background, early life, self and formal training. (b) Junior leadership traits evident / development during formative years. (c) Personality and their affect on their command at sub unit/ unit level. (d) Leadership and command techniques at unit / sub-unit level and their relevance in today‟s context. ii Ser Subject Total Pass Time Syllabus Remarks/ No Marks Marks Allowed Recommended Study 3. Junior Leadership. Aspects amplifying following issues :- (a) Man management. (b) Officer-men relationship. (c) Welfare of troops. (d) Human psychology. (e) Morale. (f) Motivation. (g) Efficiency including time management. (h) Physical and moral courage. (j) Espirit-de-corps. (k) Self discipline. (l) Truthfulness. (m) Honour code. (n) Junior leadership traits. (o) Tactical acumen. 1 BATTLE OF ARNHEM (17TH SEP - 26TH SEP 1944) Four months after the allies had landed at Normandy the German army was rapidly retreating from France. British Field Marshal Montgomery’s audacious plan to drive deep into the heart of industrial Germany relied on British and American paratroopers to capture and hold vital bridges over the Rhine until relieved by reinforcements. The key to success would rest on British 1stAirborne Division at Arnhem. ULTIMATELY IT WAS A BRIDGE TOO FAR 2 CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND 1. Background. By September 1944, the Second World War had almost reached a conclusion. The Allied armies had rapidly pushed the disorganized Germans almost completely out of France and Belgium, and it was here that the front line stood, several miles short of the Dutch border. This rapid advance had caused the Allies crippling supply problems and despite their best efforts, all the armies did not have the resources to keep advancing at their present pace. Given the view that the Germans were almost at the point of collapse, it was agreed that a single army should be given priority of the supplies to enact a plan that would deal the final blow and win the war before the end of 1944. This honour fell to Field Marshal Montgomery and his 2nd British Army. Montgomery proposed a highly ambitious plan to fly three divisions of glider and parachute troops (35,000 men) and land them in various parts of Holland to capture no less than five key bridges. British tanks would simultaneously break through the front line and link up with the Airborne Divisions one by one to properly secure these bridges. Once they were all taken, there would then be no further river obstacles between the British and Germany, and a quick conclusion to the war would surely follow. The plan, the largest airborne assault in the history of warfare, was codenamed Operation Market Garden. D-Day was set for Sunday, 17th September. 2. Operation Comet. Montgomery desperately tried to persuade Eisenhower to agree to a number of plans that he felt would achieve this, one of these was given the codename Operation Comet. The plan was to drop the elite 1st British Airborne Division by parachute and glider into Holland to capture the five key bridges in and around the towns of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. The 2nd British Army would then break through the German front line and advance the sixty four miles to the River Rhine at Arnhem, properly securing each of the bridges as they went. Once the final bridge at Arnhem had been reached, there would be no more river obstacles standing between the 2nd British Army and Germany. Montgomery then wished to advance on Berlin and seize it from under the noses of the Russians, but with the great distances that this involved it was considered far too cavalier a move to be possible. Eisenhower, however, was persuaded of the merit of capturing the Dutch bridges and so gave his consent to Operation Comet. It was to have been launched on 9th September, but Comet was cancelled shortly before takeoff as it became apparent that it was asking too much of a single division to capture and defend so many bridges over such an expanse of territory. It is widely accepted that if Comet had taken place then it would have been a complete disaster for all concerned. 3. The plan was not dead, however. Instead it was renamed Operation Market Garden and the number of airborne troops involved was dramatically increased with the addition of the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The plan was essentially the same, except that the bridges in the Eindhoven and Nijmegen areas became the responsibility of the 101st and 82nd Airborne respectively, allowing the 1st Airborne Division to concentrate on the bridges at Arnhem. At the moment that these troops began to land on their drop zones, the 2nd British Army, with XXX Corps in the lead, would then drive with all speed to Arnhem, linking up with the airborne troops in turn. Success at Arnhem would enable the 2nd British Army to begin an encircling movement from the north whilst the 1st US Army did likewise from the south. If the Ruhr was captured, Germany's production capabilities would collapse and it was believed that the war would be over before the end of 1944. 3 CHAPTER 2 OPERATION MARKET GARDEN 1. Operation Market (Market being the codename for the airborne phase of the plan, Garden being that of the ground forces) involved a high degree of risk for all the units involved. The danger was particularly severe for the 1st Airborne Division landing at Arnhem, sixty four miles into German territory, because their fate largely depended upon the success of others. If the Americans, landing to the south, failed to capture any one of their major bridges, then all of the estimated eleven thousand nine hundred men of the 1st Airborne Division and its attached units would likely be cut off from friendly forces and inevitably captured. Even an unusually long delay in the arrival of the relieving ground forces could result in the same fate. ALLIED FORCES PROGRESS OF OPS : SEP 1944 4 2. The Plan. (a) Forces. The 1st Airborne Division consisted of three infantry brigades and assorted support units such as artillery, engineers, pathfinders etc. Due to the insufficient number of transport aircraft available, the first lift on Sunday, 17th September would see only the following units transported to Arnhem: the 1st Parachute Brigade, the glider borne 1st Airlanding Brigade (less two companies of the 2nd South Staffordshires), Major General Urquhart's Divisional Headquarters, and approximately half of the divisional units, including two of the three artillery batteries of the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, and the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron.