Headscratchers / A Bridge Too Far

• If the Allies are so close to the vital bridge why don't they just keep going?
  • The Germans have the bridge and will simply destroy it if they try, whilst the Allies have liberated vast swathes of Holland without the bridge they cannot cross the Rhine and destroy Germany's industrial heartland in the Rhur.

• Why did the Allies not listen to the warnings of the Dutch Resistance?
  • The Dutch Resistance had been thoroughly penetrated by the Gestapo in what they termed Operation North Pole or the "Englander-Game". Captured radio operators were forced to send fake messages asking for more personnel and supplies to be dropped who were then also captured and the planes dropping them shot down on the way home. The Allies therefore did not trust their sources within Holland and may have been correct. Christian Lindeman, one of the great heroes of the Dutch resistance defected to the Germans to save his brother and sister in law who were captured as part of North Pole and would undoubtedly have provided them warning of the plan.