AL MURR AY INTERVIEW
Phil L oder talks to Al Murray about his new book Arnhem: Black Tuesday, in which he draws on eyewitness accounts to examine the key 24 hours when the operation slipped from opportunity into disaster
Al Murray, co-host with James Holland of the successful World War Two podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk, needs little introduction. Following Command, Al’s 2022 book in which he examined the performance and careers of several high-ranking and lesserknown Allied officers in the Allied armies, he has turned his attention to the Battle of Arnhem, a topic that has fascinated him from an early age.
In the two airborne lifts that took place on September 17 and 18, 1944, more than 10,200 men were delivered successfully by glider and parachute to the landing zones around the town in the eastern Netherlands. The soldiers included infantry, engineers, gunners, signallers, service corps, chaplains, medics, mechanics and reconnaissance troops. The plan to seize the Arnhem Bridge over the River Rhine and hold it until relieved by XXX Corps of the British Second Army proceeded well, until the operation began to unravel.
Looking at extracts selected from Al’s new book,
