Operation MARKET GARDEN

[Ronv]

I actually visited the Ginkle Heath in Arnham where the British Paratroopers landed in 2010. Every year the Dutch hold a remembrance ceremony at the Ginkle Heath and the Dutch and British Paratroopers make a mass landing. There is in attendance about 30k people for this event. The Dutch are probably one of the few people who still remember what the allies did for them.
From the Ginkle Heath we walked to the Hotel Hartenstein where I had the opportunity to talk to some 1st Paras and walked to the river where they were picked up by US Airborne troops and Canadian Engineers manning the boats, and then on to the Bridge. There is a history center located near the bridge that gives the hole story about the para's resistance and the destruction of the homes surrounding the bridge. There were a large number of Dutch civilian deaths in Arnham because of a Bridge Too Far.

[Herk]

This weekend marks the 62nd anniversary of the start of Operation MARKET GARDEN - the airbourne & ground assault in the Netherlands.  This operation was the largest airborne assault ever attempted and was intended to allow the Allies to break through German lines and seize several bridges in the occupied Netherlands, including one at Arnhem, with the main objective of outflanking German defenses in order to end the war by Christmas of 1944.

The Operation is probably better known from the title of the Cornelius Ryan book - "A Bridge Too Far".  The book title comes from an unconfirmed comment attributed to British Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, who told Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the operation's architect, before the operation: "I think we may be going a bridge too far." [Referring to the planned seizure of the Arnhem Bridge over the Rhine]

Let us each pause to remember the sacrifice's made by the soldiers and airmen associated with this event.

Regards to all
Steve - Major, USAF (Ret)