ADLERTAG (Eagle Day)

{(ADLERTAG (Eagle Day)}

Durning the Second World War, there are dates of specific events that stand out. December 7th is one, So might be June 6th. Pearl Harbor and the Normandy landings respectively. Perhaps lesser known but still important would-be September 17th. In 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, September 17th had been termed as adlertag. Eagle Day. Ax it turned out, Eagle Day was to prove the half-way point which saw British fortunes improve to the point where the planned German invasion was cancelled as air superiority had been unable to be attained by the German Luftwaffe. Then, in the strategic of the war, Hitler turned east to invade the Soviet Union.

Then, on September 17th, 1944, there had been an attempted Allied operation called MARKET GARDEN. This had been the "brain-child" of British General Bernard Law Montgomery. His idea had been to lay a carpet of airborne troops across Holland in an attempt to secure bridges, at Eindhoven, Nimajian, and a third drop at Arnhem. As it happened, the latter proved a "Bridge too far." In any event, once the bridges had been secured, an armored thrust was to advance across the "captured" bridges and with said linkups, MARKET GARDEN would have had the Allied host over the Rhine and have the War ended by Christmas.

There has been extensive examination of both failures. It can be argued that by the time of Eagle Day, the Battle of Britain was already lost. For the same reason that the Germans allowed Dunkirk to happen. Luftwaffe Chief Herman Goering wanted his piece of glory that came with the Fall of France. But when it came to the Battle of Britain, the effort was distracted from limiting his efforts against the Royal Air Force airdromes exclusively to begin the bombardment of civilian targets, London, Coventry, and so on. That diluted the overall effort so by the time Eagle Day arrived, the Luftwaffe was all but a spent force.

Operation MARKET GARDEN had its own flaws as well. The aforementioned Bridge at Arnhem, where the division assigned lost 8,000 of its number, but, beyond that, the route there was only one road and as a German build-up that had been missed by Allied intelligence, a formation for which speed was of the essence, was slowed to a crawl.

Here are two examples of plans gone badly. Decisions made for one result or another only to engender an un-desired outcome. And right now, the country is perhaps facing two not necessarily desired outcomes.