Talk:Frederick Browning

Untitled
The film gives an unfair impression of Browning. His comment about it being "a bridge too far" was made BEFORE the battle not as an aside afterwards. His men had the utmost respect for him.


 * I am not sure what you mean by "his men" - 1st Airborne Div? If so, fair enough. His U.S. counterparts absolutely hated the guy. See Eisenhower's Lieutenants, for example. DMorpheus 13:46, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Operation MARKET-GARDEN
It seems to me there needs to be a separate section on Browning during this operation in which he played a central role and which defined his life, and perhaps death....but currently there is nothing!--121.217.20.152 (talk) 02:17, 5 September 2009 (UTC)


 * After the drops he played almost no role. In the planning stages he played the negative role of using up 38 gliders to carry his Corps HQ in the critical first lift with no resulting benefit to the operation. Did he have some major planning role? Gavin thought he was an utter twit. Regards, DMorpheus (talk) 13:53, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

"The operation in many ways defined Browning's life and perhaps death." How did it define his death? AuntFlo (talk) 11:29, 2 August 2010 (UTC)


 * As stated above the decision by Browning to deploy his headquarters, deprived 1st Airborne Division of 38 Horsa gliders in the first days airlift. As each glider could carry an infantry platoon, they used the equivalent of three battalions worth of transport. Jim Sweeney (talk) 09:57, 22 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Something wrong with the arithmetic here. Since each Horsa glider could theoretically carry 29 men x 38 = 1102 somewhat more than the 825 strength of one battalion. In practice though, much less than a battalion stores, weapons and equipment. Hawkeye7 (talk) 11:33, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

Browning's wasteful use of 38 gliders for his corps HQ, an HQ which then played no effective part in the battle, didn't make any difference to Arnhem and it pales beside the mismanagement by Brereton at First Airborne Army and Williams at IX Troop Carrier Command, who infamously and for insufficient reason restricted the operation to one lift per day (weather permitting) and thereby destroyed any chance of surprise or success, besides grounding the Allies' tactical air support almost all the time to keep Brereton's air lanes 'tidy'. General Gavin didn't receive his glider-infantry regiment, the 325th, due on the second day of Market Garden, until the seventh day, not so much because of the weather, more because of the incompetent planning by Brereton and Williams. When Gavin, attempting to disguise his own rather serious failure to take the Nijmegen bridge, nationalistically claimed later that, in the US service, Browning would have been sent home in disgrace, he conveniently (and nationalistically) overlooked the fact that Brereton and Williams, the most glaringly incompetent Allied general officers in Western Europe, in fact suffered no such fate. (And only one or two of the US generals responsible for the six-month-long Hurtgen Forest fiasco were sent home, and that was only by way of scapegoating to protect the hindquarters of their at least equally incompetent superiors.) Browning's great mistake was to accept the air plan dictated to him by Brereton and Williams when it was clearly unfit for purpose. He should have said no, but he did not have what it took to do that. Khamba Tendal (talk) 18:33, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

Sosabowski
The text currently contains the following: "After the battle Browning's critical evaluation of the contribution of Polish forces led to the removal of Polish Brigadier-General Stanisław Sosabowski as the commanding officer of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. This is now seen as unjustified scapegoating of Sosabowski by the inner circle of British higher military ranks". This is obviously POV unless a solid citation can be provided to support it. The current citation gives a link to the website which has a Michael Sosabowski as its "UK Representative". This would suggest that the citation is perhaps not entirely NPOV in this connection. Has anyone got a more solid citation - there's nothing on the Operation Market Garden page nor on the Stanisław Sosabowski page either? If not, I'm afraid this bit will have to go. Stephen Kirragetalk - contribs 17:40, 10 February 2010 (UTC)


 * @Kirrages if it is a good enough source, Anthony beevor "arnhem" page 462 ff. in my copy which isnt in English. it gives a very good and sourced overview of brownings imvho disgraceful behaviour after the battle in regards to sosabowski. 46.15.227.227 (talk) 12:01, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

Surrender in Singapore
There appears to be a conflict between the captions on the photo whose caption says that it shows Browning with Mountbattten in Signapore

The caption says "Admiral Lord Mountbatten (centre, in white) delivering an address on the steps of the Municipal Building at Singapore after the surrender ceremony. Browning stands between him and Air Chief Marshal Richard Peirse on the right."

The description of the photo says "Left to right: General William Slim (in slouch hat), Admiral Lord Mountbatten (at microphone, in white), Lieutenant General Wheeler US Army, Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park."

Is it Browning/Pierce or Wheeler/Park on the right of the photo? Since Pierce had retired in May 1945, it's unlikely that it's him. Anyway, the men on the right of the photo look like Wheeler and Park. Scartboy (talk) 16:06, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

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