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Dec. 19th, 2003 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
Ponder for a moment the case of Major Brian Urquhart, an intelligence officer in the British I Airborne Corps in September, 1944. Somewhere there should be a monument to this man, and those of us who work for bureaucracies should look upon it and tremble.
Major Urquhart was upset that everyone in General Browning's headquarters thought the upcoming airborne attack on Holland would be a walkover. Since the Dutch Underground reported tanks near Arnhem, he had a photo reconaissance flight run. Sure enough, the film showed tanks.
He took the photos to General Browning. Who said not to worry, the tanks probably couldn't run or shoot. Then Browning called the medical officer, who called upon Major Urquhart. They sent him home. Nerves, they said. The poor boy keeps seeing dangers that don't exist. He needs a long, long rest, and perhaps some professional counseling. There can't be any danger. Field Marshall Montgomery says the Germans are broken!
But the tanks were there all right. Waiting.
I'm reading Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far at the monemt, obviously. It's good. The only problem is I have seen the movie three or four times, and I have that annoying little marching song they used as a theme running through my head OVER and OVER and OVER.
The horror!
Major Urquhart was upset that everyone in General Browning's headquarters thought the upcoming airborne attack on Holland would be a walkover. Since the Dutch Underground reported tanks near Arnhem, he had a photo reconaissance flight run. Sure enough, the film showed tanks.
He took the photos to General Browning. Who said not to worry, the tanks probably couldn't run or shoot. Then Browning called the medical officer, who called upon Major Urquhart. They sent him home. Nerves, they said. The poor boy keeps seeing dangers that don't exist. He needs a long, long rest, and perhaps some professional counseling. There can't be any danger. Field Marshall Montgomery says the Germans are broken!
But the tanks were there all right. Waiting.
I'm reading Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far at the monemt, obviously. It's good. The only problem is I have seen the movie three or four times, and I have that annoying little marching song they used as a theme running through my head OVER and OVER and OVER.
The horror!
