69th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by August

I'm not being dismissive of Sun Tsu's writings, just with the idea that the Germans laid a trap for the Allies in Holland. There was no attempt on their part to "appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak" a similar suggestion was "pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance". They were completely surprised by the offensive.

Well, I can't disagree with that, both sides were just as surprised as each other. Although certainly the encouragement of arrogance could be laid at the feet of Browning, and whilst the German army were certainly not perceived as inferior, it was arrogance, bullishness or some sort of failure which made Browning ignore the intelligence that was placed in front of him and the concerns raised by all around him. I guess we will never truly know.