Major General Roy Urquhart's Operation Market Garden
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Mission Command is the application of expert and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable methodical initiative within the commander’s intent to empower active and adaptive leaders in the management of unified land operations. Operation Market Garden: The Battle of Arnhem was the British and Allied Forces plan for a combined arms operation to seize bridges over major rivers in Netherlands under German control, in order to open a breach to Berlin for ground forces. Operation Market Garden was a two-phase approach that involved an airborne assault and land operations under Major General Roy Urquhart’s command. He accepted to face his new assignment and was excited of obtaining his first division command, but even he had an outstanding battlefield record his leadership was constantly tested and his mission command abilities severely questioned during the Battle of Arnhem. He was not the obvious successor for this position due to his lack of airborne experience that also lead him to a numerous inabilities on the battlefield resulting in…show more content… His insufficient mission command abilities resulted in lack of situational awareness, no succession of command, unsustainable OPTEMPO, and over 75% casualty losses. Additionally, he lacked experience in airborne operations that may have led to the lack of mutual trust from his fellow airborne cohorts. These factors coupled by poor communications and insufficient intelligence resulted in the British loss at the Battle of Arnhem. Unfortunately, those events will remain forever and will depict the failure in the campaign. As Lieutenant General Lewis Brereton, First Allied Airborne Army Commander