Reply With QuoteThank you for reminding us of the sacrifice those taking part made on all sides.
And for your in-depth research.
I have seen the film many times.
On Sunday 17th, 1944, Allied para troopers landed west of Arnhem and they tried to siege and secure the north side and the complete bridge over the river Rhine in Arnhem for the US Airborne troops advancing from the south.
The reason that I write this today, on the 11th, has a reason. On this day, 80 yrs ago, the first house in the Netherlands was liberated by the Allied. A farm, south of Maastricht in the southernmost tip of the country. The allied advance was impressive: the speed forward, the ground covered was about 5he so0kms to the north. The Netherlands is 'cut in half' by a 'string' of parallel rivers: the Waal, the Rhine. The country, the soil between the rivers (a stretch of ± 20kms) consists of clay.
When things go wrong, they go wrong in a massive way. First, the weather before the 17th was bad. On Sunday, the weather was fine again. The advancing troops were confronted by the fact that they couldn't move forward on the flat clay soil and that they had to use the main roads. No cover. (Russia experienced the same when advancing during their '3 days to Kyiv assault'...). Single main roads are easily defended in this case by the Germans. and the advance was halted between the bridge over the Waal and the bridge over the river Rhine. Band of Brothers has an episode about that; according to those who know the local situation, a very accurate episode.
Sunday 17th, the weather was fine. Paras -mainly British- were dropped and 'glided in'. on large stretches of heathland west of Arnhem. All in broad daylight. I wrote that the south side of the river Rhine has a clay soil, north of the river, it's sandy with woodlands and hills. The idea was that the paras should advance from west to east, using 3 main roads. On paper, a good plan...
However... German HQ had pulled back an SS panzer division from the front for a few days R&R in and around the woodlands of Arnhem. Until this very day, a popular holiday destination. They must have been surprised seeing all those parachutes coming from the skies while doing maintenance on their vehicles, washing their clothing and playing soccer on a Sunday afternoon. The Dutch resistance had warned the allied command that there was an SS division 'on the ground' (to use a modern phrase).
The fighting started much quicker than expected for the paras. And the opposite side was armed with tanks and heavy stuff. The paras had their bren guns and piat-anti-tank throwers. Let's say these lacked the touch of German engineering...
The attack plan:
https://www.operatiemarketgarden.nl/...art/kaartA.jpg
The attack plan of the 82nd Airborne:
https://www.operatiemarketgarden.nl/...art/kaartB.jpg
The attack plan of the 101st Airborne:
https://www.operatiemarketgarden.nl/...art/kaartC.jpg
The plan to get the paras out. But in all cases, the Germans managed to defend all Allied attacks. And in all cases, they had to cross the Rhine: for re-inforcements and/or retreat.
https://www.operatiemarketgarden.nl/...art/kaartD.jpg
A second plan:
https://www.operatiemarketgarden.nl/...art/kaartE.jpg
Note that Polish troops are mentioned there. Their role is often overlooked, but not in the Market Graden Museum in Oosterbeek. During Market Garden the Allied HQ/hospital. After the war it became the Market Garden Museum. Polish history education emphasizes on this event and the number of Polish visitors equals the number of British visitors these days.
I really would like to bring this museum to your attention. It has a dedicated room about the Victoria Cross, 'dioramas' (is that the correct word) of the makeshift hospital etc. Very impressive!
Here's a screenshot of a list of Market Garden related websites.
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The question is, why did the Montgomery proceed? 'Green light' was given on the 10th of September... only 7 days before the attack. Montgomery wanted to 'roll out a carpet of airborne troops' to land over a 50km stretch from Eindhoven - Nijmegen - Arnhem. The 101 and 82 Airborne were successful in the south and advanced north. The British had not scored a single succes. There's an idea that Montgomery was too quick because he wanted to 'give' the British paras their own victory.
Another reason was the V2 rocket: on Sept 8th, the first V2, launched from the Dutch coastline, hit London. The idea was also to cut off the supply lines for the V2.
The third reason was that the Germans had put up a string of defense lines from Kleve, just over the Dutch border to Switzerland. But north of Kleve, to the Danish border, there was no fortified defense line. The Allied forces could have walked into Germany with a picnic hamper on the Jeep.
Thank you for reminding us of the sacrifice those taking part made on all sides.
And for your in-depth research.
I have seen the film many times.
I live in Winchester at the top of Hampshire, which had a massive part to play in D-Day. When the Supermarine and Thorneycroft factories in Southampton were bombed in 1941 parts manufacture for the Spitfire was distributed to secret sites across the county with each part made in multiple locations so supply wouldn't be affected if one site was hit. Next to the cinema in Winchester, for example, is the site of an old garage where Spitfire parts were made. All Spitfire testing from 1941 took place at Worthy Down airfield, just outside Winchester, and all 26 pill boxes that surrounded the airfield are still there to be explored. Three or so Dutch barns still stand there where the Seafire - Spitfires with folding wings for carrier use - were stored during testing. WW2 history is dotted around the area, if you've ever passed the viaduct by the M3 going past Winchester and wondered what it was, the Southampton-Newbury line ran along it (part of the A34 embankment close to the M3 used to carry the old railway) and it was the key supply line for goods, munitions and soldiers coming from the midlands and north for D-Day and after - something crazy like 3,000,000 troops went through Southampton docks during and after D-Day. There's a small village called Chilbolton just north of Winchester, Nissen huts are dotted all over the area and were used to build Thunderbolts brought in from Southampton and up a different railway line to Stockbridge. The first fighter-bomber raid to soften up Normandy before D-Day took off from Chilbolton and in 1944, 40 gliders were towed from Chilbolton as part of Market Garden. It's always sobering to go past the old airfield - you can see the observatory built slap bang in the middle of the old airfield from the A30 running along the ridge above it - and think of the men who set off from there.
There was a mock-up of a Horsa glider at the Goodwood Revival last weekend, standing inside it was quite something, just wood and canvas with a couple of pilots sitting in the front behind a few bits of wood and glass.
"A man of little significance"
You had to be a British-style kamikaze pilot steering that thing! All the glass would terrify me during the whole trip. A greenhouse on wings. No safety glass as we know it nowadays.
I know that the heathlands were pretty flat at the spots where they landed; they stood a good chance. But still lots of them died. Remember, they had to get out of the glider and start fighting as a soldier! Some searching on the internet shows a very high fatality rate among the ranks of the glider pilots. Including the casualties during training.
I have visited Arnhem and Oostetbeek, and stood on the John Frost Brugge. The heroism of the soldiers and the locals is sobering.
I believe that local schoolchildren tend the graves in the cemetery?
As an aside, all the soft skin vehicles used in the film "A Bridge Too Far" were provided by a man my dad knew.
"Utrinque Paratus"
James Holland’s and Al Murray’s podcasts are covering Market Garden at the moment and Al Murray has a book out covering a single pivotal day at Arnhem - Black Tuesday
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This is an excellent Podcast that I have been following for over 3years.Originally Posted by BillyCasper
James Holland’s and Al Murray’s podcasts are covering Market Garden at the moment and Al Murray has a book out covering a single pivotal day at Arnhem - Black Tuesday
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It's fascinating history and very well presented I thoroughly recommend it
This weekend marks the end of the Remembrance Week, complete with a life stream on YT. The weather (until now) is perfect for parachute jumping.
My dad was a member of the 1st Airbourne division from 1941-44 and fought in North Africa, Scilly, Italy and Arnhem.
He was the Sgt major of the 1st Airlanding Antitank battery and was delivered to Arnhem by glider along with a jeep, to some of you this might be a surprise but in 1944 they had no other way of delivering heavy equipment. The gliders landed first and after then the Airlanding brigades secured the drop zones to give the paratroopers some cover. Actually it was the path finders parachuted in first to mark the LZ areas. for the gliders.
Dad went forward with battery HQ and one troupe of antitank guns and the 2nd battalion of the parachute regiment to the bridge.
He remained there until taken POW on the Thursday morning.
There were other units at the bridge as well making up the 700 odd who managed to get there.
Just a foot note of the 10500 troupes at Arnhem just under half were airlanding brigades so not Paras.
Don't believe Hollywood all the time.
Dad's issued watch he managed to keep from the Germans on capture.
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