Arnhem - A March Visit

At the end of March this year I made a two day trip to the Netherlands. I had wanted to go because of one particular reason. Market-Garden. Operation Market-Garden was the code name of Field Marshal Montgomery's plan to enter the The Third Reich; an airborne assault made on Nazi occupied Holland by British, American and Polish forces in September 1944 as a way of ending the war by Christmas of that year. It is known as the largest airborne operation ever mounted. On the 28th March, I visited Arnhem, the site of the famous battle between the British 1st Airborne Division and an outnumbering force of German SS Panzer divisons.

Market-Garden involved paratroopers and glider troopers from Britain, the USA and Poland. The 'Market' part of the plan. Led by Lieutenant General Frederick Browning, airborne forces dropped into Holland with the intention of securing bridges over the Meuse, Waal and the lower Rhine rivers. Meanwhile, ground forces led by General Brian Horrocks would move north from their position to cross over the bridges, moving tanks and other armour into Germany. This was known as the 'Garden' part of the plan. The unit that spearheaded this section was the British XXX corps.

The US 82nd Airborne Division would drop into the area of Nijmegen and capture the bridge in the town over the Waal river, as well as the Grave bridge over the Meuse river. The US 101st Airborne Division would parachute into the area south of the 82nd and capture the bridges at the Veghel and Son canals, whilst also liberating the city of Eindhoven. The British 1st Airborne divison would drop into the area of Arnhem. This was the prize. The bridge over the lower Rhine.

The operation began on 17th September 1944 with soldiers dropping from the sky in broad daylight. Almost all soldiers landed on their planned drop zones, a stark contrast to the early hours of D-Day on the 6th June 1944, where paratroopers missed their drop zones and were scattered all over the Cherbourg Peninsula in Normandy, northern France.

The 1st Airborne made their advance towards Arnhem and the bridge located in the town. They were soon under attack, halting their advancement to the bridge. Unknown to intelligence and the allied forces, parts of two German SS panzer divisions - the 9th and 10th - were stationed in and around Arnhem at the time the British paratroopers made their assault. Additionally, their radios were out of action, making it impossible to communicate their position and plan of attack with any other outside forces. However, a small brigade of 500 men led by Major John Frost managed to reach the bridge located inside Arnhem, and took up offensive positions on the northern end. The rest of the division, led by General Roy Urquhart, were held up in the village of Oosterbeek, where they set up headquarters at a local hotel called the Hartenstein.

                                                  The Hartenstein hotel today, Oosterbeek.

At this point, XXX corps were heading north in support of the Airborne carpet but their progress was hampered by German ambushes and the destruction of a number of the planned bridges. The effects of events taking place south of Arnhem were felt by the British Airborne troops desperately holding out in the town and the surrounding area. XXX corps were unable to relieve the lightly armed force on schedule. When the ground forces did reach the southern bank of the Rhine, opposite the 1st Airborne positions, they could not cross. Heavy German artillery controlled the river.

After four days of fighting house to house, block by block in Arnhem, Major Frost and his men were overwhelmed by the intense offensive from the SS divisions. Meanwhile, the rest of the division were encircled in a small pocket in Oosterbeek to the north of the river. They could not be resupplied by XXX corps, the RAF or the Poles who had dropped into the vicinity four days after the operation had been launched. They made desperate attempts to link up and support the division, all the time under heavy fire.

Nine days of battle concluded with the evacuation of what was left of the British 1st Airborne divison (2,500 men) in Operation Berlin on the night of 25/26 September. They had lost almost 8,000 men. Nearly 1,500 men were killed at the Battle of Arnhem while over 6,500 were taken prisoner. This included John Frost and his men who had reached the road bridge in the middle of the town. Another evacuation was executed a month later, known as Operation Pegasus, where 138 1st Airborne men were rescued by the Royal Engineers, US 101st Airborne and the Dutch Resistance.

Operation Market-Garden had failed. Miscommunication, failure of intelligence and optimistic planning  all played key parts in the failure of the plan. It would be another 4 months before the Allies could cross the Rhine and make their way into Germany's industrial heartland. The roadbridge at Arnhem did not survive the war and was blown up by American B-26 Marauder bombers in October 1944 as a way of stopping the Germans using it as a supply line. It was rebuilt in exactly the same style after the war.

The British 1st Airborne Division never fully recovered after Arnhem, suffering heavy losses that almost wiped out the whole division. They were sent to Norway at the end of the war to oversee and control the disarmament of occupying German forces.

Operation Market-Garen will always be special to me for a number of reasons. At the war memorial in the village of Billingshurst, West Sussex, the name 'Robert Claude Bondy' is inscribed on the stone monument. Bondy was a jeep driver in the Airborne who was killed at Arnhem on 17th September 1944. He is buried at Arnhem-Oosterbeek War Cemetery. Bondy was a resident of Billingshurst, the village in which I reside.

While living in Rhyl, North Wales, my mother's neighbour, Mr Salisbury, was one of the many servicemen who took part on September 17th 1944, the launch date of Operation Market-Garden.

Harry Denton.

© Harry Denton : 18/05/13