I like how the assault on Brecourt Manor (1944) - basically a company level assault on an artillery battery - has been studied so much. It's the "textbook" example of an infantry assault.

Operation Market Garden has fascinated me for years. I first learned about it from playing the old computer game "Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far". This was the same year I first saw "Saving Private Ryan" and played Axis and Allies. Needless to say, it started a lifelong obsession with WW2! So in this operation, the British and Americans launched a ground and airborne invasion of the German-occupied Netherlands, hoping to grab bridges across the Rhine and get into Germany itself. This was September 1944, so after D-Day but before the Bulge and Remagen Bridge. I love the idea of paratroopers being landed ahead of a major offensive and needing to race to their objectives and dig in while the main force arrives. The fact that the campaign focused on a series of bridges along a single highway makes it quite easy to visualise and strategise for. It seems clear in hindsight why the operation failed - it was far too ambitious and didn't take into account the huge reserves of SS Panzer units (mostly without tanks btw), Fallschirmjaeger, Luftwaffe ground troops and other assorted Wehrmacht units. The British paratroopers in Arnhem (the final bridge) were cut off for a long time and forced to surrender by superior German forces. But in the immediate aftermath of Market Garden, what did people blame for its failure? The Poles. General Sosabowski's 1st Independnt Parachute Brigade had been landed to reinforce the British in Arnhem. They too were facing superior forces and had to cross a river in rubber boats to reach their objective. A tall order for any unit. The Poles fought valiantly but could not achieve their mission. Blaming the Polish Brigade for the failure of a multi-division operation is just so completely unfair. Especially considering that these guys were actually hoping to drop into Warsaw and assist their own countrymen in winning independence from Germany and the Soviet Union. The Polish paratroopers are awesome and really deserve their own game. And they shouldn't cop the heat for Monty's over-the-top plan!