Operation Market Garden (1944): The Bridge Too Far at Arnhem

Operation Market Garden was an Allied offensive in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944 that tried to seize a series of river bridges with airborne troops and carry an armoured corps across the Lower Rhine at Arnhem. It was the largest airborne operation of the war up to that time. The bridges as far as Nijmegen were captured, but the British 1st Airborne Division was surrounded and largely destroyed at Arnhem, and the hope of ending the war by Christmas 1944 faded.

Background: the race to the Rhine

After the breakout from Normandy and the collapse of German forces in France in August 1944, Allied armies swept into Belgium. Brussels was liberated on 3 September and Antwerp on 4 September. Many Allied commanders believed the German army was close to collapse.

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British 21st Army Group, argued for a single narrow thrust into northern Germany rather than Eisenhower’s broad-front strategy. He proposed using the newly formed First Allied Airborne Army to open a corridor through the Netherlands, outflanking the Siegfried Line and reaching the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland. Eisenhower approved the plan on 10 September.

The plan: Market and Garden

“Market” was the airborne part. The US 101st Airborne Division was to take bridges and canal crossings around Eindhoven, the US 82nd Airborne Division the bridges at Grave and Nijmegen and the high ground near Groesbeek, and the British 1st Airborne Division, with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, the road bridge over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem.

“Garden” was the ground advance by the British XXX Corps under Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, led by the Guards Armoured Division. It had to cover about 100 kilometres (64 miles) along a single raised road through flat, waterlogged country, linking up with each airborne division in turn and reaching Arnhem within two to four days.

The plan had serious weaknesses. There were not enough transport aircraft to drop all the troops at once, so the airborne divisions arrived in lifts over several days. At Arnhem the landing zones were chosen 10–13 kilometres from the bridge because of fears about anti-aircraft fire and unsuitable ground. Intelligence, including reports from the Dutch Resistance and aerial photographs, suggested that German armour was refitting near Arnhem, but these warnings were discounted.

The battle for the corridor

The operation began in clear weather on Sunday 17 September 1944, with more than 1,500 transport aircraft and about 500 gliders delivering the first lift. Most landings were accurate, and surprise was largely achieved.

The 101st Airborne took most of its objectives, but the Germans blew the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son. Engineers built a Bailey bridge, and XXX Corps crossed on the morning of 19 September. The 82nd Airborne seized the bridge at Grave, but the great road bridge at Nijmegen remained in German hands.

On 20 September men of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment crossed the wide River Waal in daylight in flimsy canvas assault boats under heavy fire, and the Nijmegen road bridge was captured that evening by British tanks and American paratroopers. The Germans repeatedly cut the corridor, which American soldiers called “Hell’s Highway”, delaying supplies and reinforcements.

The battle at Arnhem

Unknown to the planners in detail, the II SS Panzer Corps under Wilhelm Bittrich, with the remnants of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, was close to Arnhem, and Field Marshal Walter Model had his headquarters at Oosterbeek. German units reacted quickly and blocked most British routes into the town.

Only the 2nd Parachute Battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost, with some other troops, about 700–750 men in all, reached the northern end of the Arnhem road bridge on the evening of 17 September. They held it against tanks and artillery until the morning of 21 September, when, out of ammunition and with many wounded, the survivors were overrun.

The divisional commander, Major-General Roy Urquhart, was cut off in Arnhem for more than a day after going forward to find his brigades, and spent part of that time hiding in the attic of a Dutch house while the division fought on without its commander. Attempts by the 1st Parachute Brigade’s other battalions and by the 4th Parachute Brigade to break through to the bridge on 18 and 19 September failed with heavy losses in the streets around the St Elisabeth Hospital.

Once Urquhart returned, the rest of the division was forced into a shrinking perimeter at Oosterbeek. Radios failed, supply drops fell into German hands, and bad weather delayed later lifts. The Polish brigade under Major-General Stanisław Sosabowski landed south of the river at Driel on 21 September but could cross only in small numbers. On the night of 25–26 September, in Operation Berlin, about 2,400 men were ferried back across the Rhine.

Key people

• Bernard Montgomery, who conceived the operation and later called it 90 per cent successful.
• Frederick Browning, commander of I Airborne Corps and deputy commander of the airborne army.
• Roy Urquhart, commander of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem.
• John Frost, who held the Arnhem bridge; it was renamed the John Frostbrug in his honour in 1977.
• Walter Model, the German commander whose rapid counter-attacks defeated the airborne landing.

By the numbers

Consequences

Market Garden created a salient up to Nijmegen but did not cross the Rhine or open a route into northern Germany. Allied resources had been diverted from clearing the approaches to Antwerp, whose port did not open to shipping until late November 1944, prolonging supply problems through the autumn.

For the Dutch, the cost was high. Arnhem was evacuated and looted, and after a national railway strike called in support of the Allies the German authorities blocked food transport to the west. The resulting Hunger Winter of 1944–1945 killed an estimated 18,000–22,000 people. The Rhine was finally crossed in force in March 1945, after Germany’s last great offensive in the Battle of the Bulge had been defeated.

Legacy

Many Dutch families in Oosterbeek sheltered wounded soldiers in their cellars, and the Hartenstein Hotel, Urquhart’s headquarters, now houses the Airborne Museum. The local Kate ter Horst, who cared for around 250 wounded men in her house near the Old Church, became one of the best-known civilian figures of the battle.

The battle is remembered for the courage of the airborne troops and the help given to them by Dutch civilians in Oosterbeek. Veterans and their families have returned for commemorations every September, and the Airborne Cemetery at Oosterbeek holds more than 1,700 graves. Cornelius Ryan’s book A Bridge Too Far (1974) and the 1977 film of the same name fixed the operation in popular memory. Historians still debate whether the plan was a reasonable gamble or fatally flawed from the start; most agree that ambition outran the available resources. Critics point to the decision to land so far from the Arnhem bridge, the single exposed road and the failure to act on intelligence about the SS panzer units, while defenders note that the Germans themselves were surprised and that the operation came close to success at Nijmegen.

Timeline

• 1944, 4 September: Antwerp is liberated.
• 1944, 10 September: Eisenhower approves Montgomery’s plan.
• 1944, 17 September: First airborne landings; Frost reaches Arnhem bridge.
• 1944, 19 September: XXX Corps crosses the rebuilt canal bridge at Son.
• 1944, 20 September: The Waal is crossed and the Nijmegen bridge captured.
• 1944, 21 September: Resistance at Arnhem bridge ends; Polish brigade lands at Driel.
• 1944, 25–26 September: Survivors of the 1st Airborne Division are evacuated across the Rhine.

Why it matters

Market Garden was the boldest Allied attempt to end the war in 1944. Its failure showed the limits of airborne warfare against a capable enemy, prolonged the war in north-west Europe and condemned the occupied Netherlands to a winter of famine.