What takes2 understand: The Bridge2Far; 感谢大S: UnitlTheEnd

移花接木
楼主 (文学城)

多谢大S的听歌作业 https://bbs.wenxuecity.com/mysj/224100.html

这首歌来自电影:The Bridge Too Far

WOW,Operation Market Garden,看过这段历史记录,多谢,去找电影看去。 -移花接木-

It may take some prerequisites to better understand the movie. There are not only different English accents, but also German or even Dutch. Language is not the only tool for communication, if one can understand the story,the German and Dutch language parts can also be comprehended.

The movie 'The Bridge Too Far' is based on the true historical event, an allied military action called Operation Market Garden during WWII, the movie reappeared the WWII battle scenes. Some background knowledge about the history, military terminologies, tasks, are helpful to understand the movie.  

Background knowledge of the movie : The Bridge Too Far

History

Operation Market Garden:

Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful World War II military operation fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. It was the brainchild of Field Marshal Montgomery and strongly supported by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. The airborne operation was undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps of the British Second Army.[13] The objective was to create a 64 mi (103 km) salient (bulge formation of troops) into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany.[4] This was to be achieved by seizing a series of nine bridges with airborne forces, with land forces swiftly following over the bridges. The operation succeeded in liberating the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, creating a 60 mi (97 km) salient into German-held territory, limiting V-2 rocket launching sites. It failed, however, to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, with the advance being halted at the river.

It was the largest ever airborne action, the overall operation was very daring, ambitious, and risky.  

My question: What is the opinion of Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Ally? 蒙哥马利的主意得到丘吉尔与罗斯福的强烈支持,这个冒险主意如果成功,将打开直通德国鲁尔工业区的大门,Arnhem大桥之后,德国再无险可守,提前结束战争,好大喜功,毫不奇怪被政客喜欢,军人哪? 为甚么没提盟军总司令艾森豪威尔的意见?

A few military units are mentioned in the movie, knowing the names of the units, help to understand the scales of particular actions in different scenes.  

RAF,英国皇家空军

Luftwaffe 德国空军, German & English pronounciation are the same

Panzer 德国装甲部队。

Field Marshal, 这个发音英语与德语很象

Military ranks:the main roles in the movie are frequently called by names or by their ranks, knowing the ranks help to identify who is who.

In the movie:

Browning & Horrocks are the two highest Lieutenant General,中将 from allied side.

German side highest is : Field-Marshal Walter Model, Lieutenant General Bittrich, etc. 

 

Tasks: Operation Market Garden

Market: an airborne assault to seize key bridges, and; Garden: a ground attack moving over the seized bridges creating the salient.

Three ally airborne divisions, British 1st airborne division  including Polish brigade, American 101 airborne division, American 82nd   airborne division were assigned to three zones, to take all the bridges, 9  in total and hold on.

The British 1st got the furthest, the final & most difficult task , Arnhem. 所以电影里Browning 中将对Roy Urquharts(Sean Connrey,yes, the 007 )少将,英军第一空降师总指挥,说  Roy, you got the price. …

Major-General Roy Urquharts, by Sean Connery

Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning

Meanwhile British 30 corps started from Belgium & Netherland border punching into German defence lines, totally 64 miles in 48 hours to reach the final Arnhem bridge and reinforce all the airborne troops down the road.

 

Map:

Indentifying the troops is important to follow the course of the movie, where the scenes switched from here to there. 

airborne troop armbands:

Uniforms: Indetify different troops by their uniforms, avoid confusion of who is in battle and where the battle ground is.

Brithish military officers: Beret

airborne: red beret,  ground: black beret

British ground spearhead commander, Lieutenant colonel JOE Vandeleur (front) by Michael Caine

and Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks(back) in a jeep.

 

British airborne troop with helmet:

American 101 airborne division/American 82 airborne division, only difference is their armbands

 

British infantry uniform:    

电影中的战争场面,可以体会到东西文化的差异,被困英军在医疗设备不够用的情况下,请求德军停战1小时,把伤员交给德军治疗,General Bittrich: we are winning the battle; Dr. Spaander: Win or lose is not important, but life or death is... after 1 hour you can kill us as you want.  德军居然接受。 最后英军撤退时,用伤员做掩护迷惑德军,最后伤员肯定会被德军俘虏并治疗。没有豪言壮语,无处不在的幽默,对上司的牢骚。

Doc. Spaander requested to pause fire for 1 hour to transport wounded British soldiers to German side, German Lieutenant General Bittrich accepted it.

 

功利主义,及时止损,一河之隔, 距离最终目标4miles, 放弃原计划, Urquharts将军趁黑夜带领2千剩余人员过河撤回,空降时的1万人损失8千, 几个当头儿的共同给出了放弃的客观理由,天气,桥,一条路,交通拥挤。

 

 

hardcore美军,虽说美军不是被分配的主角,但奉献精神明显高于英军,

82 airborne division, 不强调客观,急被困英军之所急,Major Julian Cook,大白天带领其营,冒着弹雨用冲锋舟强行渡河抢占大桥。

反倒是英军从RAF 到地面部队,时时刻刻地强调客观困难,天气有雾,不能起飞,坦克原地等步兵,没有命令不能行动,眼瞅着前面伞兵被困,原地不动,气的美军直跳脚。

英雄不论成败,胜负都是英雄

英军 1st airborne; Lieutenant colonel Johnny Frost的Battalion在空降后第一时刻到达Arnhem最后一座大桥,于是有了电影里那句:I'm awfully sorry, but I'm afraid we're going to occupy your house.

原计划坚守桥头48小时的任务,只有轻武器面对德军装甲部队,拒绝德军投降建议,苦战四昼夜援军未到,受伤,弹尽,毫无遗憾,坦然被俘。那座桥入如今被命名为John Frost Bridge.

Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Frost

 

官僚主义,Browning 将军面对参谋提供空中侦察得到的德国装甲部队照片,竟然自欺欺人,视而不见,或许是最高统帅部的压力,他只能执行,坚持原空降计划,不断提供劝告的参谋Fuller少校后被要求病休。随后剧情中空降部队全部被德军装甲部队包围,损失惨重,最终任务失败,Roy Urquharts少将险些被俘。

Major Fuller

British reconnaissance aircraft, flew over the Dutch underground boy, it is a reconnaissance version British fighter plane: Spitfire, only equiped with cameras no weapons.

下级的无奈

英军空降有三批次,波兰旅为第三批,因雾天气,RAF拒绝起飞,空降不断推迟,空降地点已经无保密性,面对空降后真接被大屠杀的可能性,指挥官Sosabowski少将,气愤地要求Browning给他证明信,表明不是他愿意领导而是被迫执行勃朗宁的任务。。。。  

Maj. Gen. Sosabowski & Lieutenant Gen. Browning

b
beautifulwind
感谢花董和大S让我了解了这个战役,这么惨烈啊,这句说得好“英雄不论成败,胜负都是英雄”。在你们的熏陶下,感到我英语的进步

感到我英语的进步及对英语的兴趣的增加:)

沿
沿途美景
赞花爷强贴,战争片我看得不是很多,这部非常喜欢。谢谢你这么精道的介绍。

这个有点离题哈:“Language is not the ony tool for communication", yes, language is far not the only tool for commuication.

”Professor Mehrabian combined the statistical results of the two studies and came up with the now famous—and famously misused—rule that communication is only 7 percent verbal and 93 percent non-verbal. The non-verbal component was made up of body language (55 percent) and tone of voice (38 percent).“

我虽然bu'shi 特别同意上面的比例,但是对于non-verbal部分在沟通中起到的作用,感同身受。

M
Marauders
Try to answer your question

First of all, military operation is always a part of politics. Therefore, civilian leaders had a final say in the decision making, especially in the grand themes. At the time, US army has not proven itself in the battle, at least not considered as battle seasoned as the British army.

In North Africa, Monty (Field Marshall Montgomery) orchestrated the tremendous victory at the el Alamein Campaign and decimated Nazi African Korps. US Army merely entered the scene then. Naturally, Monty's opinion carried more weight at the time leading to Market Garden. Ike (Eisenhower) as the supreme commander may have raised his concern but obviously not enough to pull back Monty's plan.

Operation Market Garden was a strategic brilliance however a tactical disaster. If successful, it will greatly reduce Germany's war capability by threatening the industry land of Ruhr, and may have ended the war before the winter came or if not, at least prevent subsequently the Battle of Bulge. (in which US Army was battle hardened and emerged as the main thrusting force overwhelming the German.) Ike wanted to concentrated his supply and effort further south in France and then cross the Rhine into southern Germany in the US zone. But he also had to yield in the political game within the Allied circus (at the expense of lives of ordinary soldiers and civilians, but history can not be experimented or relived, nobody can say for sure that Monty would fail).

After Market Garden, Monty lost his halo and Ike was much freer to command. Naturally, the Ike-Bradley-Patton line prevailed. If you are into this, I would also suggest you look into the CBC mini series "Dieppe". It was a sacrificed attempt mainly suffered by the Canadians, which I think basically paid its due to the Queen.

移花接木
oh, Montgomery really isnt too smart. N. Africa vic.

Endless supply, American joined in, north Africa's victory was not a fair game.  Remind me the Red Alarm game , Montgomery was conservative and kept built up war material to overwhelm enemy.  

 Too bad for Rommel, fought alone.

树的花花世界
杀人放火金腰带,补路修桥无尸骸。
M
Marauders
Like I said, Monty won, and history can not be re-lived.

Nobody knows if someone else in Monty's place would win or lose. Even to build up the endless supply should be considered one of Monty's brilliance. You put someone else there, those may not be steered that way. He can pull strings, he can manage his boss, that's smart to me. Don't you agree? :)
移花接木
绝对同意,我一直这么认为的,司马懿对付诸葛亮一样,直接耗死你,没花样
移花接木
KISS , keep it simple stupid
b
beautifulwind
喜欢看华山论剑,英雄相惜:)惺惺相惜英文怎么说?
移花接木
德军坦克指挥官MichaelWittmann,名下有125个击毁记录,倍受盟军推崇,还有隆美尔被双方推崇

隆美尔除了或许还有,参与谋反希特勒之嫌

移花接木
这一边祭奠的人怎么都不想想他们为谁而战
M
Marauders
Also, traditional Prussian Army Officiers had ver different atti

toward their oponents than that of true Nazi's.  I think that's why the German general would allow the hand over of Allied war casualties for humanitarian medical treatment.

 

Hitler disliked that.  His personal guards, the SS troopers were much crueler in treating enemies. (e.g. Malmedy Massacre) 

 

 

ps, wenxuecity's text editor really sucks.

 

 

b
beautifulwind
I'm going to ask administrator tomorrow regarding the text edito
忒忒绿
也喜欢看战争片
b
beautifulwind
谢谢大S,花董和RC等童鞋们及时指出问题。英文text editor编辑问题解决了!谢谢网管,谢谢技术部!
b
beautifulwind
恭喜花董。首页进来,谢谢网管, What takes2 understand:The Bridge2Far;感谢大S”挂首成功:
爱听歌的奥黛丽
福利強帖啊!