Most of you might know what happened during the operation market garde, but for all who don't know a lot of information about this battle here there's some information about the battle ( text from BBC history):
The first day:
On Sunday 17 September, 500 gliders and 1,500 aircraft flew over the men of XXX corps, whose job was to follow beneath them in their tanks and trucks. As the aircraft flew over, the Allied guns began a huge barrage to hit the Germans guarding the road ahead. The weather that day was beautiful, with a cloudless blue sky and a warming autumn sun. Major Tony Hibbert remembers:
'... an enormous feeling of excitement, and I think everyone at that stage felt totally confident they would win. Certainly the flight over from England was absolutely beautiful. There was an absolute mass, an armada as far as the eye could see, in both directions, and about 20 planes wide, the most extraordinary sight I've ever seen.'
Moffat Burriss was a company commander in the American 82nd airborne division, charged with taking one of the crucial bridges at Grave.
'I remember standing in the door with a Sergeant, and we looked down as we flew over the bridge, and the tracer started swinging toward us and we ducked back, looked at each other and started laughing, because why were we ducking behind this little thin skin of the plane? It would not stop a bullet. And he stuck his head out and said you dirty Krauts, we'll be down there and get you in a minute.'
The sergeant's prediction was right. American and British gliders and parachutists drifted down on target, gathered up their equipment and began to move towards the bridges they had to take. The road up which XXX corps would have to travel to reach the bridges was narrow, just wide enough for two vehicles to pass. It was defended by small groups of determined German infantry.
As the XXX corps tanks approached, they picked off the leading nine vehicles, bringing the whole column to a standstill. It was 40 minutes before they moved again. The Germans were quick to organise against the airborne troops.
The British paratroopers began their advance towards Arnhem, and were soon under attack. They quickly found that their radios didn't work properly. It was impossible to co-ordinate the attack properly, because no one could communicate. However, one British battalion did find a way through the German perimeter around Arnhem, and by 8pm on the first day, they had captured the northern end of the road bridge across the Rhine. The Americans had also reached their objectives. But most of the bridges had been blown up before they could be captured.
At the end of the first day, XXX corps had advanced only seven miles from their start line, and had not reached the first in the sequence of bridges. Meanwhile the Germans were reinforcing, and their tanks were moving into Arnhem ready to take on the lightly armed British paratroopers.
So near yet so far:
On 18 September, the second day, XXX corps began to make the progress expected of them. Their tanks covered 20 miles in a few hours, hooking up with the Americans at one of the intact bridges near Grave. On the third day they reached Nijmegen, where the Americans were still fighting in the streets in their efforts to reach the bridge across the might River Waal.
Once they had taken Nijmegen bridge, only Arnhem would be left, and the north end at least was still in British hands. It seemed that Operation Market Garden might succeed.
But they could not get across the bridge. General Horrocks, XXX corps commander, ordered American troops to attack across the River Waal, so that they could capture the German end. The attack was enormously costly.
'The bullets hitting the water looked like a hailstorm, kicking up little spouts of water. When we reached about the halfway point, then the mortar and artillery fire started falling. And when a boat was hit with an artillery shell or a mortar shell, it just disintegrated, and everybody was lost.' (Moffat Burriss)
Half of Burriss's company was killed or wounded on the crossing. The survivors reached the far bank, and from there successfully stormed the Nijmegen bridge. At last the route to Arnhem was in Allied hands. However, it was too late for the British parachute battalion at the north end of the bridge. The Germans had moved their tanks into the town, and one by one they were demolishing the houses in which the British were fighting.
By now the paratroops had few anti-tank weapons, they had no food, and, crucially, they had little ammunition left. Major Tony Hibbert remembers the German tanks were now devastatingly effective.
'We really had nothing we could do to them, and they drove up and down the street, firing high explosive into the side of the building, to create the gap, and then firing smoke shells through that. The phosphorus from the smoke shells burned us out. By about 8 o'clock, on Wednesday evening, the fires got out of control and of course we had by this time about 300 wounded in the cellars.'
The Allied troops were forced to abandon their positions near the bridge, and to try and fight their way out. Three miles from Arnhem British paratroops were holding a pocket of land at the village of Oosterberck. By now XXX corps, commanded by General Horrocks, was on the other side of the river from the airborne troops. They could not, however, cross.
German artillery controlled the river. Horrocks decided to evacuate the British survivors; only some 2,500 eventually made the crossing. The Parachute division had left behind nearly 1,500 dead, and more than 6,500 prisoners, many badly wounded.
Operation Market Garden had failed. It would be another four months before the Allies crossed the Rhine again and captured the German industrial heartland. The war dragged on, costing the lives of many thousands of civilians and servicemen.
For more information, I recommend you to go to wikipedia or, if you have the opportunity, go to Arnhem and Holland, it's amazing!
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