Like Stephen Ambrose s books, I found Mr. Ryan s "A Bridge Too Far" hard to put down. Ryan has style in the way he weaves a story, especially one as complicated as that of Operation Market Garden. During the first few days of Market and the beginning of Garden the Germans generally believed that the British and Ami s were staging some big rouse - clearly an airborne drop of that size and magnitude could not have been planned by Montgomery, it was too daring, he was known to be (overly) cautious. But it was Monty s baby. It took Monty a lot of maneuvering to convince SHAEF and Eisenhower to make the dash for the Rhine (and Berlin as Monty s true objective). It had panache and daring and if everything that could have gone wrong hadn t it may have just been the end of the war. As it played out it was a huge set back for the Allies, and given the failure to clean up the Germans around Antwerp because troops were diverted to Garden, one could say that Hurtgen and The Bulge were direct fallouts from Market-Garden s failures. Military objectives aside Market-Garden was an amazing testament to the men who fought it, especially those lonely British airborne troops who held out so admirably in Arnhem. Mr. Ryan does their sacrifices justice with this work. A Bridge Too Far is a must read for all serious students of WWII and should be read by anyone interested in great battles.