Arnhem Trip - Oct 2018

Battlefield Tour led by Colonel Bob Stewart DSO MP 

27th/28th October 2018 

A group of 34 (half of which were associated with Beckenham Rotary Club) participated in this tour which followed the 60 mile route of Operation Market Garden.

Operation Market Garden was a World War II military campaign fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. Conceived by Montgomery, it was planned and predominantly led by the British Army. Its objective was to secure a series of nine bridges that could have provided an Allied invasion route into Germany. Success would have facilitated a pincer movement to take the Rhur, the heart of German industry, and bring an early end to the war. Airborne and land forces succeeded in the liberation of the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen but, at the Battle of Arnhem, the Allies were prevented from securing the final bridge, that at Arnhem over the Rhine.

Use was made of massive airborne forces, comprising 30 000 soldiers, 5 000 tons of gear and 1 900 vehicles. Capture of the bridges would allow a rapid advance by armored ground units to secure the route and bridges up to a point north of Arnhem. Key crossings were the large road bridges across the Maas River at Grave and those over the two arms of the Rhine, the Waal at Nijmegen and the Lower Rhine at Arnhem. There were several crossings over smaller canals and tributaries.

At the time, the Germans were retreating. It was anticipated that there would be little resistance to the allied advance on the route through The Netherlands and that the ground forces would reach the various key bridges seized by the airborne forces within two days.

The Allies captured the bridges up to and including Nijmegen at the beginning of the operation. However, the ground force advance had been delayed by the difficulties encountered by the airborne units in securing bridges at Son en Breugel and Nijmegen.

At the furthest point of the airborne operation, at the Battle of Arnhem, the British 1st Airborne Division met strong resistance. The various delays had given time for German forces, which unexpectedly included the formidable 9th SS and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, to organize and counterattack. The remoteness of suitable Allied drop zones compounded the problems taking the bridge at Arnhem. In the ensuing battle, only a small force managed to reach and capture the north end of the Arnhem road bridge. Sadly, on 21 September, after the ground forces were unable to relieve them in time, this force was overrun. The remainder of the British 1st Airborne Division was trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge and had to be evacuated on the 25th of September, after sustaining heavy casualties.

The Allies were unable to cross the Rhine at Arnhem. Thus, Operation Market Garden had failed to form a foothold on the German side of the Rhine. This ended Allied hopes of finishing the war by Christmas 1944.

In the journey from the Belgian border to Arnhem, Colonel Bob explained the challenges and vulnerabilities posed by the ambitious Operation Market Garden. As we progressed from bridge to bridge and visited various glider landing and parachute drop zones, he highlighted the seemingly impossible achievements of the forces involved. At key locations, he gave the background to particular examples of immense bravery.

We gained an appreciation of the scale of Operation Market Garden and intensity of the fighting when we visited the Airborne Cemetery on the outskirts of Arnhem. Here we saw the graves of 1700 Commonwealth and 79 Polish servicemen. Most of these were of the airborne troops who perished during the battle for Arnhem in September 1944. There are three VC holders buried here. As a mark of respect of those who had perished, President Tony Power laid a wreath on The Cross of Sacrifice at the far end of the cemetery.

Our last place of visit was the excellent Hartenstein Airborne Museum, where we were able to reinforce what we had learned on our journey. Also, we gained an insight to the great contribution that the Dutch Resistance made and how the Dutch people suffered with the German reprisals when the German forces regained some of the areas lost during Operation Market Garden.

We stayed overnight at the Courage Hotel in Nijmegen. The hotel looked out over the River Waal and the massive arch of the Nijmegen Bridge. We dined at a nearby restaurant which also offered views over the floodlit bridge.

An important contribution to the tour was made by Beckenham Rotary Club President, Tony Power. The picture below shows him addressing the touring group at the memorial just downstream of Nijmegen where 46 American soldiers lost their lives while making a murderous crossing of the Waal in order to secure the northern end of the bridge at Nijmegen. General Horrocks who observed the operation from a nearby power station declared that it was the finest attack he had ever witnessed. (A recently constructed road bridge across the Waal can be seen in the background).

The two pictures below show (i) the Maas Bridge at Grave and (ii) Colonel Bob addressing the group at the nearby memorial commemorating the achievement of Lieutenant Thompson and his small group of fifteen men in capturing the bridge without loss. Other paratroops in Thompson’s Company had fallen short of the intended drop zone.

The final two pictures are of (i) the Nijmegen Bridge where American troops made an invaluable contribution to its capture and (ii) the infamous “Bridge Too Far” at Arnhem.

We had left Beckenham at 6 am on Saturday morning and returned shortly before midnight on Sunday. Our journey had been quite tiring but was nothing compared to the ordeals that the British, American and Polish troops had experienced 74 years ago. I am sure all who participated in the tour appreciated the sacrifice that the troops involved in Operation Market Garden had made in their attempt to bring WW II to an early end. The events of September 1944 certainly put our current day “problems” into perspective.

A final note of appreciation must go to our driver, Justin, an ex-gunner on Lynx helicopters. His driving was impeccable and he expertly took us along some roads only wide enough for cars in order to get to some of the points of interest. In some locations, to the amusement of other passengers, he was one jump ahead of Colonel Bob in anticipating the route ...!

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