The Battle of Arnhem: the Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II

The Battle of Arnhem: the Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II by Antony Beevor, 459 pages.
Beevor has this great gift for including an amazing amount of detail. He is able to weave together a wide variety of accounts from contemporary witnesses and the work of more recent authorities into a compelling narrative. Beevor looks at the decisions that led up to the disastrous attack in September of  1944, and the plans, movements and skirmishes as they unfolded. His sources are primarily the soldiers involved in the fighting, and their commanders; from the Sherwood Rangers, the Guards Armored, and the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade (Polish), to the 506 Parachute Infantry, and the 327 Glider Infantry. That is just the allied side. They were attacking the 107th Panzer Brigade, the 10th SS Frundsberg Panzer Division, and the 1st Fallchirmjager Regiment on the German side, all playing defense. We here from these soldiers too.
Over the course of one week in September, a number of Dutch towns were briefly liberated, and miles of roadway cleared as allied airborne and glider troops went ahead of to the armored troops to seize the bridges. The armored troops and infantry soldiers who followed were supposed to hold the path into Germany. Beevor recounts the brave fighting by the soldiers, the horrible conditions for the civilians, and the squabbling and blaming by the officers involve as the allied plans began their unwinding and disintegration.