The military leader of the Allied forces was the American General Dwight Eisenhower. Leading an army that consisted of allied nations was a difficult task in which public opinion and politics could not be ignored. The cooperation between the Britons and Americans was not without friction, as was the case with Eisenhower and the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

Montgomery, promoted to Field Marshal on the 1st of September 1944, believed the battle in the West could be ended before Christmas. He thought one big thrust towards Berlin, supported by all available resources, would be the way to end the war. Eisenhower, on the other hand, preferred a double thrust. He assumed that Germany would use what remained of their army to defend the Ruhr and the Saar (both important German industrial regions). So those were the areas where Eisenhower thought the Allied assaults should be concentrated. Although he said the thrust northwards should be emphasized, he did not agree with Montgomery that the operation should be begun at the expense of all other operations.

Before Eisenhower and Montgomery met to discuss the matter, Montgomery already had figured out how he could use the Airborne divisions at his disposal. The message from England that London was being attacked by V-2 missiles made Montgomery choose an assault over the rivers Maas and Waal, with the bridge at Arnhem as the primary target. Under this strategy, the western part of the Netherlands, where the missile bases were located, would be cut off from the Germans and London would be free of V-2 attacks.

Montgomery was a man of persuasion, whereas Eisenhower was cautious and prone to compromise. So when the two men met, it was Eisenhower who gave in. The decisive point Montgomery made was that his plan would cover manoeuvres in the mouth of the Schelde river, and that Antwerp's harbour would soon be operational. Furthermore, if the bridges over the Rhine were in Allied hands, they could continue the attacks against the Ruhr area. One demand Eisenhower made was that Montgomery’s 21st Army Group's logistical priority would be short lived. Although Montgomery preferred absolute priority, Eisenhower didn't intend to give up his broad-front strategy.

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