Every year I like to get away on a Battlefields type tour. Last year I did the Somme and Pascendale from the 1st World War with Catbypass Dave and his www.bikerbattlefieldtours.com
This year, we decided to do Operation Market Garden at Arnhem and the so-called "Bridge Too Far" from the 2nd World War conflict.
Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944) was an Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time.
The operation plan's strategic context required the seizure of bridges across the Maas (Meuse River) and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine) as well as several smaller canals and tributaries. Crossing the Lower Rhine would allow the Allies to outflank the Siegfried Line and encircle the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland. It made large-scale use of airborne forces, whose tactical objectives were to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands and allow a rapid advance by armored units into Northern Germany.
Initially, the operation was marginally successful and several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen were captured. However, Gen. Horrocks XXX Corps ground force's advance was delayed by the demolition of a bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal, as well as an extremely overstretched supply line, at Son, delaying the capture of the main road bridge over the Meuse until 20 September. At Arnhem, the British 1st Airborne Division encountered far stronger resistance than anticipated. In the ensuing battle, only a small force managed to hold one end of the Arnhem road bridge and after the ground forces failed to relieve them, they were overrun on 21 September. The rest of the division, trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge, had to be evacuated on 25 September. The Allies had failed to cross the Rhine in sufficient force and the river remained a barrier to their advance until the offensives at Remagen, Oppenheim, Rees and Wesel in March 1945. The failure of Market Garden ended Allied expectations of finishing the war in 1944 by Christmas.
The schedule of events was as follows:
Wed 25th May - RV at the Hull Ferry port for the overnight crossing to Rotterdam
Thu 26th May - Arrive at Rotterdam; visit the German cemetery at Lommel; Visit "Joes Bridge" which was the start of XXX Corps route (also known as Hells Highway); visit Valkensvaard and Eindhoven; Visit the "Wing of Liberation" museum at Best; Visit Son bridge (which was the 101st Airbournes objective); Overnight at Wolfswinkel;
Fri 27th May - Follow XXX Corps route over Grave bridge; Nijmegan bridge; View the Waal river crossing (when the US Airbourne had to cross the river in lightweight boats whilst underfire from the Germans); arrive at Arnhem and visit the Ginkle Heath dropzones (where the Parachute Regiment landed and tabbed 8miles in to Arnhem) and visit the famous "John Frost" Bridge (see the picture above);
Sat 28th May - Visit the Hartenstein Hotel at Oosterbeek; Head in to Germany crossing the Seigfried Line in order to visit German bunkers and defenses; Visit Rees where 51 Brigade crossed the Rhine in Operation Plunder); Overnight at Goch;
Sun 29th May - Visit Kemmel and Grunevald; visit Hekkens Crossroads and the Reichswald Cemetery; Visit Groesbeek National Liberation Museum in Holland; Return to Rotterdam for the Ferry back to the UK (arrival UK Monday 30th);
This is a rough map of the Hells Highway which the land component of the operation had to follow and the bridges which needed to be captured...
The group was 6 strong and we opted to meet up at the Macdonalds in Hull near the ferry port. Hull is very grim so there was nothing really there to keep us from getting on the ferry early and setting up camp at the bar....
After a good nights kip (well, for me anyways), we departed the Rotterdam ferry terminal and head to Lommel in Belguim where the large German cemetery is located. The cemetery contains around 39,000 graves and the pictures below dont do it justice. The sea of headstones only represent half of the graves there since the soldiers are top/tailed either side of the headstones.
Lots of "unknown solider" German graves...
After that sombering visit we moved on to the start of the "Hells Highway" road at "Joes Bridge" back in Holland. The original bridge had been destroyed by the Belgian Army in 1940, but the Germans had constructed a wooden Pontoon bridge to the west of it. This bridge was taken on the evening of 10 September 1944 by the Irish Guards under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J.O.E Vandeleur. While the Welsh Guards engaged the German forces around Hechtel, the Irish Guards advanced rapidly north-east through the villages of Eksel, Overpelt and Neerpelt, and launched their combined infantry-tank assault, with artillery support, from the grounds of the zinc processing factory in Overpelt. They succeeding in taking the bridge undamaged.
The capture of the bridge completed the encirclement of German troops in Hechtel. German units tried for some days to recapture the bridge from the north but were driven off, once at the point of the bayonet. Once the bridge was secure, men of the 615th Field Squadron, Royal Engineers, set about repairing it, while the Irish Guards secured a bridgehead along the N69 main road towards Valkenswaard.
Some 3 km to the east, in the centre of Lommel, SS troops had placed 40 randomly-selected Belgian civilians in the street, at machine gun-point, as a human shield. However the swift advance of the British from the east prevented a massacre. The Germans held the north side of the Maas-Scheldt canal up to the 17th September, apart from the area around the bridge.
The bridge became known as "Joe's Bridge", after Lieutenant–Colonel Vandeleur, or possibly because the Royal Engineers troop who repaired it were known as "Joe's Troop".
Moving onwards and further up Hell's Highway we passed through Valkensvaard and around Eindhoven and onwards to the "Wings of Liberation" museum at Best. This is a cracking museum and its really LARGE (you could easily spend a whole day walking aruond the place) fronted by a large cafe (serving fresh coffee and applepie - which would become our daily snack) and also fronted by a Sherman tank welcoming you in....
This is a US Army 155mm "Long Tom" howitzer. This field gun can chuck a 45kg shell over 23,000 meters (you do the conversion to imperial).
We were fortunate enough to find the museums warehouse unlocked and open so being nosey Brits we walked in and had a look at the stuff yet to get out on to the museum floor.
One of the Dakotas used in the airbourne drops...
The notorious "doodlebug" or "Buzz Bomb" - the V1!
After leaving the museum we headed to the small bridge at Son and then headed for our overnight accomodation. Unfortunately the original place turned out to be a bit "rough" (read a pig sty - literally a pig sty - without the pigs) however after explaining to the owner we werent overly happy, he kindly arranged a stop at another B&B along the road. Talk about landiong on our feet...
This is the main farmhouse of which we had the use of an internal huge kitchen, pool table, wine/beer fridge, settees, etc etc etc..
We had one of these little "Heidi" cottages each...
Which also had an outside undercover kitchen which we opted to use for a "buffet" style evening meal....and spacious parking for our bikes!
All that for 15Euro each for the night! Result. If your interested in the place its called Vogeltjesdorp - each of the chalets sleep 2 (electric, chairs, etc), with 2 communial showers/bogs, plus there are rooms in the house. www.vogelshof.nl
After a damn fine evening nosh, plenty of beer and wine, plus copious games of pool, we turned in for the night and got some shuteye. The next day gave us pretty much our only bit of rain for the trip, so we had breakfast and donned our waterproofs and made our way to Grave Bridge!
There are memorials next to most if not all of the bridges on Hell's Highway. This is the one next to Grave bridge. The US 82nd Airbourne regiment had this bridge as their objective for 17 Sept 1944.
Locals were stopping to ask us about our trip and one of them pointed us down a nearby track to a museum bunker house (free to enter).
The view from the top window of the bunker going over Grave bridge.
After leaving the bunker, we rode over the Grave bridge and headed toward Nijmegan and its bridge and the famous Waal river crossing. In the film, this is where Robert Redford and his guys paddle boats across the Waal river whilst under machine gun fire and shells from the field guns mounted on the far bank.
The local are building a new bridge in the area therefore the landmark memorial has been moved. This is all that remains.
What cant be expressed is the width of the river at this point where the US troops crossed and the speed. It must have been a nightmare to cross, let alone the 5 or 6 times the guys were doing it to ferry men across to the German side.
After taking in the views and Dave briefing us on what the US guys were doing, we pushed off toward Arnhem. We opted not to visit the John Frost Bridge that evening as it had been a long day, so we made our way to Ginkle Heath where the 1st British Parachute Regiment (the Red Devils) landed. They then had to tab (march) 8miles to the centre of Arnhem and capture/hold the main bridge!
Here is a photo of parachutists landing at Ginkle Heath at a commemorative memorial day.
After that we got ourselves to a hostel where we were stopping overnight and since we were in Arnhem and it was Friday night we opted to go out for some drinks ;D
The next day we just about had come to in order to make our first scheduled stop at the Hartenstein Hotel - thankfully the hostel put on a cracking buffet breakfast to offset the small sea of alcohol we had consumed the night before.
The Hartenstein Hotel is now the Arnhem museum and was the scene of a major defesive action by the Allied forces. Outside the museum there is a British 25 pounder cannon. If you look closely you will see that the defesive plate has been punctured by shell fire. It is believe that a single British serviceman operated this cannon and was eventually killed by a German Tiger tanks shell piercing the armour of the cannon.
Outside the hotel there are many memorials, but this one caught my eye. Although a lot of people know about the "Bridge Too Far" film and that the operation didnt succeed, what they dont know is that the Dutch people suffered terrible retribution from the Nazis after the operation and 90,000 were shot/killed or effectively starved to death afterwards by the Nazis. This memorial is from the Allied forces to the people of Holland.
After visiting the museum we made our way to the famous John Frost Bridge. For those who dont know, John Frost Bridge (John Frostbrug in Dutch) is the road bridge over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem, in The Netherlands. The bridge is named after Major-General John Dutton Frost (1912–1993), who commanded the British forces that reached and defended the bridge during the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944, and is depticted in the film by Anthony Hopkins (blowing the hunting horn). This is the man...
Frost is best known for his involvement in the Battle of Arnhem during Operation Market Garden. During this battle Frost was to spearhead the 1st Airborne Division's assault on the bridge at Arnhem and hold it while the rest of the division made its way there. If all had gone to plan there would have been almost 9,000 men holding Arnhem bridge for the two days it was supposed to take XXX Corps to reach them. On the 17 September 1944, as commander of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, Frost led a mixed group of about 745 lightly armed men who landed at Ginkle Heath and marched into Arnhem. The battalion reached the bridge capturing the northern end, but Frost then found that his force was surrounded by the II SS-Panzerkorps and cut off from the rest of 1st Airborne. Frost led the incredible four day battle in which the Germans rained artillery fire on to the Para's positions, and sent tanks and infantry into some of the most fierce fighting seen by either side with very little mercy given. The Germans were astounded by the Para's refusal to surrender and their continuous counter attacks. After a short truce on the third day, when 250 wounded were removed, the battle continued until the remaining paras had run out of ammunition. There were around one hundred Paras left. As a result of this action, during which he had been wounded by shrapnel in his feet, Frost became a legendary figure in the Paras and the British Army. In action, Frost was a tough leader whose clear head in battle won the respect of every Paratrooper in the battalion. "He didn't mix his words and seemed to inject confidence in everyone, even if you didn't like what he said. We would have followed him anywhere" said one Para. Following his capture, Frost was held as a prisoner of war at Spangenberg and later a hospital in Obermassfeldt. He was freed when the area was overrun by United States troops in March 1945.
At the bridge we stopped for a briefing from Dave where he explained the aboves amazing performance by Frost and the Paras. I noticed an interesting vehicle crossing the bridge at the same time which explained to be the meaning of VW...
We visited the bridges information centre located directly next to it for more Operation Market Garden bumpf. After which we pushed off over the Lower Rhine and onwards in to Germany. I unfortunately started to suffer quite badle from hayfever at this time which didnt make for a pleasent trip as I had failed to bring my flipfront helmet
We crossed the Seigfried Line and were in to Germany seeing the various locations Dave had found for us to view. Our overnight was in another B&B in the small village of Goch. 
The accomodation turned out to be fantastic again and we had another 3 course slap-up German meal. The breakfast the next day was also tip-top and sorted us out for the trip home back Through Germany and in to Holland.
On the way out of Germany we stopped at Reichswald Woods and the Cemetery located there.
Not far down the road from the cemetery is a small cross roads called Hekkens Crossroads.
A personal friend of Daves (WO1 John Boswell REME) was in an armoured recovery vehicle at this crossroads when he was hit by a German shell from a Tiger tank. He had only been given the vehicle and its crew a couple of days prior to this event and although Boswell was thrown clear (suffering flesh and bone injuries) his entire crew were killed. Boswell returned to the War in only a couple of months and was left with a permanent limp.
Leaving the area after walking around the cemetery, we headed up to what would be our final visit of the trip - the National Liberation museum at Groesbeek back in Holland. The ride to the museum was excellent and it was clearly a biking day as there were a lot of bikes out on the roads. The museum was a general WW2 museum with some specifics about Operation Market Garden.
After the visit we made plans to make our way back to the Rotterdam ferry terminal and our onward trip home. Of course, arriving in the UK, it was pissing it down so we got soaked on the trip back. One of our number had suffered a minor mechnical issue with his gear selector linkage which was resolved with a couple of forks from the kitchen.
All in all, it was another thoroughly interesting and moving visit to a World War historic location. Many thanks to Dave Platt for organising the visit and being a dutiful host.
