Was Daphne du Maurier responsible for the attempt to cross the 'bridge too far'?

A few months ago I gave a talk at Boy's prep school on one of the most glorious debacles in British military history — Operation Market Garden — which marks its 65th anniversary this week.

To bring it home, I told them that many of the boys from 1st Airborne Division who landed by glider and parachute near Arnhem on that deceptively calm, sunny September weekend weren't much older than they; and I showed them photographs of the heartbreaking inscriptions at Oosterbeek cemetery, where some of...