[Oberon]

Originally Posted by August

There was a German plot to lure the Allies into launching an invasion of Holland? That's news to me.

The Germans were just recovering from their headlong flight across France. Had Market-Garden gone off a week earlier while they were still running, or if the Germans had moved those SS divisions somewhere else to rest and reequip the Allies may well have pulled it off.

Call it what you want, even arrogance in the Allied high command, the fact is the Germans just lucked into being in a position to counter it. No Sun Tsu judo tactics involved.

I'd have said that it was more:

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

There were warning signs, many warnings signs, but Browning ignored them all and dropped the paras right on top of the hornets nest.

I also wouldn't be so dismissive of the writings of Sun Tzu, and his ideas that have been practiced for over two millennia. Senior generals of the American civil war took their theories from the French general Antoine-Henri Jomini who was a keen studier of The Art of War, and it's on the Marine Corps recommended reading program, and essential reading for military intelligence and the CIA. Not bad for someone who died before the Roman Empire was created.