It is an inconspicuous house in an inconspicuous street on the west side of Arnhem. But this is a house with a story. After the airborne landings of Operation Market Garden near Arnhem, airborne commander General Roy Urquhart of the 1st British Airborne Division was forced to hide in the attic of this house for…
The air raid siren in Arnhem had already gone off several times in the morning of Sunday, September 17, but each time it had been a false alarm. But from a quarter to eleven it was a hit. Dozens of military targets in Arnhem and the surrounding area were hit by Allied bombers until approximately…
An underexposed aspect of the Battle of Arnhem is the impossible task that the 1st British Airborne Division faced on the first day of the landings. In the first version of the plans for Operation Market Garden, all British paratroopers would land in the operations area near Arnhem on the first day of the operation.…
More than 12,000 British and Polish airborne troops whose aim was to capture the Rhine Bridge near Arnhem in one day. That is pretty much the image that many people have about the purpose of the British airborne landings near Arnhem on September 17, 1944. That is incorrect. Because there were insufficient aircraft available, only…
In addition to John Frost’s battalion, there was another British unit that managed to reach the Rhine Bridge on Sunday, September 17, albeit badly damaged. Those were the men in the jeeps of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron. The 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron was known within the British airborne forces as the ‘Freddie Gough Squadron’,…
Around 8 p.m. on Sunday, September 17, 1944, the first British soldiers reached the Rhine Bridge near Arnhem. To their surprise, the British discovered that the bridge was not defended by German soldiers. In the confusion after the airborne landings, the German army leadership had forgotten to send soldiers to the Rhine Bridge. After several…
After the airborne landings on September 17, three battalions with approximately 2,700 British paratroopers left for Arnhem via three different routes. 1st Battalion , which advanced to Arnhem via the north, came into contact north-east of Wolfheze with the first troops of the 9th SS Armored Division that the Germans had sent to Arnhem. During…
None of the original buildings that the British held on the north side of the Rhine Bridge during the Battle of Arnhem survived the war. In addition to drawn maps of the situation around the bridge, several illustrative films have been made in recent years that clearly show what the area around the Rhine Bridge…
Many people are aware that the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion led by John Frost managed to reach the Rhine Bridge via a route along the Rhine on Sunday, September 17. Much less known is that approximately fifty British soldiers from the 3rd Battalion also arrived at the bridge on Sunday night. Because the British…
The early morning of Monday, September 18. That was the last moment when it was quiet for the British at the Rhine Bridge. But from half past nine in the morning there was almost continuous fighting at the bridge. Because the British army units could not maintain contact with each other via radios , the…