History
Operation Market Garden: From Lommel to Arnhem
Operation Market Garden, September 1944, ran along one road from Joe's Bridge in Lommel through Son and the Waal Bridge in Nijmegen to the John Frost Bridge in Arnhem, with Oosterbeek's Hartenstein hotel on the way.
The plan was to seize a chain of bridges with airborne troops while ground forces drove north to meet them. It failed at its most important objective, the Rhine bridge at Arnhem. This route follows the bridges in order, from the springboard in Belgium to the last bridge in the Netherlands. The exact crossing at Son is not pinned.
Timeline & locations
What do the location labels mean?
- Exact
- The pin marks the actual place where it happened or was filmed.
- Approximate
- The right area — a town, park or district — but not a precise spot.
The ground offensive began here. British troops captured Bridge No. 9 on the canal in September 1944, and the Irish Guards took it undamaged. Engineers then repaired it. The crossing became known as Joe's Bridge, after Lieutenant-Colonel Joe Vandeleur. It was rebuilt after the war, and a memorial below its southern edge records the famous name.
Visitor guidance: The memorial sits below the southern edge of the bridge; the Irish Guards Memorial is on the northern bank.
Sources
- Operation Market Garden
- Locator:
- Introduction; Battle
- Operation Market Garden
On the first day, the 101st Airborne met little resistance and captured four of the five bridges assigned to it. At Son the fifth was lost: the Germans blew up the bridge as the Americans approached. Its capture was crucial to the success of the operation, which made its loss a serious blow.
Not pinned on the mapVisitability not confirmedLocation precision: The sources name the bridge at Son but give no exact spot, so this stop has no pin.
Sources
- Joe's Bridge
- Locator:
- Capture; Post-war
- Son, Netherlands
- Locator:
- History
- Joe's Bridge
On 20 September the 504th crossed the Waal in canvas folding boats, the only boats available. Rowed by engineers in 26 boats, and short of paddles, some troopers used rifle butts. The costly attack was nicknamed "Little Omaha". The Waalbrug itself had been saved from German demolition by Jan van Hoof, a Dutch Resistance member, and was captured that day.
Visitor guidance: The 604-metre Waalbrug is still in use in Nijmegen.
Sources
- Operation Market Garden
- Locator:
- Introduction; Battle
- Nijmegen road bridge
- Locator:
- Introduction; History
- Operation Market Garden
Major General Roy Urquhart chose the Hartenstein, then a hotel, as headquarters of the British 1st Airborne Division. The division became trapped in Oosterbeek. After holding out north of the Rhine for nine days, it had to be withdrawn. Today the building houses the Airborne Museum, dedicated to the Battle of Arnhem, close to the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.
Visitor guidance: Now the Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek.
Sources
- Airborne Museum Hartenstein
- Locator:
- History; Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem
- Airborne Museum Hartenstein
The Arnhem road bridge should have been the final objective. Only about 740 men under John Frost reached its northern end, and they closed the bridge to German armour for some four days. The bridge survived the battle but was bombed and destroyed on 7 October 1944. A new one, in exactly the same style, opened in 1948 and was renamed the John Frostbrug on 17 December 1977.
Visitor guidance: The rebuilt bridge still crosses the Lower Rhine at Arnhem.
Sources
- Operation Market Garden
- Locator:
- Introduction; Battle
- John Frost Bridge
- Locator:
- History
- Operation Market Garden
