Cryhavoc101
Donor
Tactically they could have done better if they had landed gliders on the fields next to the Arnhem bridge, the British wrongly believed they had obstacles and/or mines there. The dutch resistance gave good intel on German dispositions particularly the Panzer units refitting around the town and told the Brits the fields were clear but following the debacle of what happened to SOE's Dutch networks no one believed they were not compromised at best or being played back by SD/Gestapo agents. The Ox and Bucks were criminally wasted as normal infantry and should have been used for more such precision attacks, they could have brought 6 pdr AT guns (and even 17 pdr AT guns had been landed by glider previously) with them. As for seizing the approaches to Antwerp, Montgomeries failure to do so was a significant lapse that resulted in major casualties and serious logistical issues that would have allowed further operations into late 1944.
The other issue of course is the Allied planners used the "wrong" approach route to Arnhem rather than the one they used which would have gotten a failing grade at the Dutch staff college pre-war.
On the subject of 6 pounder and 17 pounder AT guns - they did
http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/order_1st.htm
Each of the 2 paratrooper Brigades had an Anti tank Battalion
Each battalion had 4 batteries of 4 x six pounder for a total of 32 in the Division
Each Battalion also had 2 Batteries of 4 x Seventeen pounder for a total of 16 in the division (note that of the 8 sent with the first wave 2 were lost when their gliders were shot down and 2 were damaged when their gliders overturned - 1 of them being completely wrecked)
So 48 Anti tank guns for a op where no armoured units were expected!
The Ox and Bucks were Elite infantry who were also highly skilled in Urban operations or FISH (Fighting in someone's house) and it would have been 'criminal' not to have used them in the battles fought during that campaign - so by the time the Normandy campaign ended (and the Division took part in the advance to the Seine ops before it was finally taken off the line) which was on or about the last day in August the units of 6th Airborne were worn out and like the Commando battalions who had also been in the line for the entire campaign had suffered heavy losses and needed to be rebuilt and the men rested.
The idea that they could be recycled into a new op a few weeks after they had been withdrawn is I am afraid fanciful.
However given their legacy it always surprises me that all of the airborne units did not comprise at least one unit capable of an Operation Deadstick type mission - all 3 Divisions involved seemed to drop some way from the bridges - its the most baffling part of it for me given that the capture of the Bridges was the entire reason for the airdrops.