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Arnhem: Black Tuesday

The Classic World War II Battle Told As Never Before

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Arnhem: Black Tuesday

By: Al Murray
Narrated by: Al Murray
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The Battle of Arnhem is one of the best-known stories in British military history: a daring but thwarted attempt to secure a vital bridgehead across the Rhine in order to end the war before Christmas. It is always written about, with the benefit of unerring 20/20 hindsight, as being doomed to fail, but the men who fought there, men of military legend, didn't know that that was to be their fate.

By focusing on the events of one day as they happened through the eyes of the British participants and without bringing any knowledge of what would happen tomorrow to bear, Al Murray offers a very different perspective to a familiar narrative. Some things went right and a great many more went wrong, but recounting them in this way allows the reader to understand for the first time how certain decisions were taken in the moment and how opportunities were squandered.

Tuesday 19 September 1944 was that terrible day which became known as Black Tuesday. From just after 12:00 hours while plans were being made to seize the initiative and optimism reigned, to the following midnight, when Arnhem was burning and the Allied fortunes looked very different, a mere twenty-four hours changed the course of the war.

Al Murray has always been obsessed with Arnhem, and in Arnhem: Black Tuesday, brings all of his knowledge, interpretation and enthusiasm to bear to tell the story of one of history’s great heroic failures differently for the first time.

© Al Murray 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

 Europe Military Thought-Provoking War

Critic reviews

This book is a revelation, not in facts delivered, but in the mood evoked. This is Arnhem unplugged…By confining himself to men in and around Arnhem on that Tuesday, Murray achieves something special.
This well-crafted, original title comes highly recommended and should sit towards the top of the pile of texts discussing the fateful engagement. Hopefully there will be more to come on the topic from Murray.
An original and insightful account... Murray breaks the story into its constituent parts and, demonstrating a deep understanding of events, argues that had the cards fallen differently, the plan might have worked
By examining the Arnhem battle in such forensic detail and delving well beyond the normal parameters on this subject, Al Murray has convincingly exposed a number of aspects that no-one has ever considered before and with highly conclusive results. This is an utterly brilliant work of history: compelling, entertaining, in parts truly shocking, profound, revelatory, full of wisdom and delivering a mass of totally fresh material. The twenty-hour timeframe is inspired, and despite focussing on only one day of fighting, this book really is the last word on the Battle of Arnhem. (James Holland)
Superb. By focusing on a single day, Al Murray’s Arnhem reintroduces the element of jeopardy to this famous battle and reminds us that, for the participants, nothing was set in stone. He is a military historian of originality and insight to compare with the best. (Saul David)
All stars
Most relevant
Al has lived and breathed Arnhem, and this book shows. Well worth a listen.

A labour of love.

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Really found this fascinating. The approach of looking at a single day was a great idea.

Excellent account

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Al takes on one of the classic battles of WWII from a different perspective just one crucial day, he covers all the interesting points and operational level to different standard.

insightful and an interesting take on a iconic battle

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Interesting book, nothing new really from the many other stories told of the operation.

I kinda wish I didn't know the overall story, as this 1 day would have been facinating if I hadn't read/watched many other stories about the operation. This would have made me want to go and read more.

interesting story

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Whilst I recognise the incredible courage of the men who fought at Arnhem, this thought provoking book by a "non historian" makes me feel like the greatest contribution of the men who planned Arnhem from Montgomery down was to give the germans 7,000 extra prisoners to feed and manage at a stage in the war when they could least afford it.

I'm not an experienced miltary planner or staff officer but It seems obvious that airborne operations means you can only fight with what you've got and when that runs out it's going be fisticuffs while rolling around in the dirt and ultimately surrender or death. It's only going to work if you quickly bring the might of the the rest of your resources to the fight when the airborne have delivered a strategic punch. If I planned a 3 day camping trip and it took me 3 days to get all the stuff to the campsite I'd be sure the element of surprise was gone.

Urquhart sounds like a particularly dim bulb, leaving no succession plan for if he like you know get's killed or something, he goes forward gets, surrounded and shits in somebody's attic. Sounds more like perverted rugby club tour antics to me.

This book reminds me of "Fritz and Tommy" there's no judgement it's just telling a story.

Enjoyable thought provoking work from Al Murray

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