On day four of Operation Market Garden, British commanding officer Roy Urquhart gave up trying to relieve John Frost at Arnhem bridge and instead ordered his remaining men to form a defensive perimeter around the village of Oosterbeek. Al Murray explores the small pocket in which three thousand British troops grimly hung on waiting for a relief force that would never arrive.
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The British Army relied heavily on public school boys for its officer class at the start of the war but was forced to abandon its class prejudice as the conflict took its toll. Al Murray and James Holland explore the
Merry Christmas from We Have Ways of Making You Talk. Over the next 12 days Al and James are reading extracts from some of their favourite books about the Second World War. Today Al is reading from Operation Bunghole, by
Al and James speak to Dr Alex Richie about the the Eastern Front. Red Army tactics, POW deaths and Operation Bagration are up for discussion.
After spending an evening watching A Bridge Too Far, both Al Murray and James Holland are keen to discuss the film’s stunning scale and also its frustrating inaccuracies. Plus why did Portugal stay neutral, despite a long standing alliance with