OPERATION MARKET GARDEN: A Bridge Too Far

Where once Allied and German troops waged a vicious, costly firefight, a skatepark sits today, the only sounds the splash of water and the delighted shrieks of happy children. The park is tucked underneath one of the many bridges over a waterway that winds through The Netherlands into Germany. In the fall of 1944, it was hoped that this and eight other bridges that span the Waal and Lower Rhine River could be secured to create the Allies’ pathway into Germany, and ultimately, Berlin. But that’s not at all what happened.

After D-Day and weeks of combat in France, Easy Company was pulled off the line and returned to Aldbourne, England. There, they rested, tended their wounds, and grieved their losses. In late August, 2000 soldiers of the 506th Parachute Regiment gathered for a memorial service at Littlecote, an estate in the English countryside. A prayer read aloud beseeched God to

“Be with us… when we leap from our planes into the dark abyss and descend in parachutes into the midst of enemy fire.”

The names of the 414 men the regiment had lost were read aloud.

After two scheduled drops—one into Chartes, France, the other Tournai, Belgium near Lille—were canceled after the Allies overtook German positions, the 501st parachuted into The Netherlands in September as part of Operation Market Garden. The daylight jump met little resistance, the paratroopers actually landing in their drop zones unlike Normandy, when they’d scattered over the French countryside. They were to secure a series of bridges in Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Arnhem over the road dubbed “Hell’s Highway”that would take them into Germany. The US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, the British 1st Airborne, and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade were the “Market” part of the operation; the infantry ground forces that would arrive later, comprised the “Garden.” It would be the largest airborne assault in history—larger than D-Day.

The campaign was designed and executed by British General Bernard Montgomery, commander of Allied ground forces in Europe, despite the objections of Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower. Ike is said to have told Montgomery a "single thrust" toward Berlin would not work, as quoted in Cornelius Ryan’s book A Bridge Too Far:

What you're proposing is this—if I give you all the supplies you want, you could go straight to Berlin—right straight (500 miles) to Berlin? Monty, you're nuts. You can't do it... If you try a long column like that in a single thrust you'd have to throw off division after division to protect your flanks from attack.

The Nijmegen railway bridge, outside Eindhoven, The Netherlands

As students of World War Two history know, it was indeed not a workable plan, with the Allies ill-equipped to overcome a German force they had underestimated, that tied them down en route, burning tanks blocking the road and causing critical delays. Paratroopers initially secured bridges in Eindhoven and Nijmegen, the locals ecstatic, believing liberation had arrived. But the British 1st Airborne Division was unable to secure the bridge 60 miles further up the road at Arnhem because the infantry reinforcements did not arrive in time. The division was forced to withdraw—8,000 of their 10,000 soldiers dead, missing, or captured. The objective was “A Bridge too Far,” the story detailed in the movie and book of the same name. Eindhoven was brutally bombed as the Allies had no anti-aircraft guns to drive off German planes. As Captain Nixon famously says in “The Band of Brothers” miniseries, “Looks like we’re going to have to find another way into Germany.”

Eighty years later, this bridge still bears pockmarks and bullet holes from the battle waged here.

Our guide and a tour member re-enact a photo of two members of Easy Company taken in Eindhoven soon after they parachuted in—before the Germans resumed control of the city.

A Dutch collector keeps this Dodge army truck in working order. Left behind after the battle, it was used to carry cargo, commanders, troops, and to speed the wounded to medical care.

As it becomes clear Market Garden will not succeed, Easy Company retreated to "the Island," a five kilometer area bordered by the Lower Rhine to the north and the Waal River to the south, where they run into a company of SS troops. The German objective was to push all Allied troops out by infiltrating the Allied lines and creating confusion. Under the leadership of Captain Dick Winters, two platoons pushed them back across the river to the German side—learning later that their small force had faced off against 300 Germans. The monument below describes Winter’s heroics at the battle that came to be known as The Crossroads.

As in Normandy, memorials to Allied soldiers who fought and died here are plentiful. This honors Lt. Col. Robert George Cole. When orange tarps needed to be set out to signal aircraft where to drop needed supplies, Cole didn’t give the job to a private but opted to do it himself. He was spotted and felled by a German sniper. For his sacrifice, Cole was a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Private 1st Class Joe Mann was badly wounded destroying a gun emplacement in Best. The following day, he was on guard duty when a grenade landed nearby. He fell on it, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. He, too, was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Lt. Col. Cole, Pvt. Mann, and Corporal William Dukeman who was killed at The Crossroads, are among those buried in The Netherlands American Cemetery. 8288 Americans are laid to rest here, with another 1722 soldiers’ names recorded as missing in action. Dutch citizens carefully tend these graves, having applied for service they consider an honor.

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Eindhoven is a peaceful, vibrant city today—streets overloaded with bicycles, restaurants and clubs full of happy people. But the years of brutal occupation are not removed from memory. Embedded in the sidewalks in front of many houses are these gold squares, bearing the names of Jews who once lived here—fathers, mothers, children— ripped away and sent to extermination camps. You can see these emblems in many European cities now, reminders of the millions of lives taken by a tyrant who believed in the primacy and privilege of the “Arayan” race. Today, sadly, there remain some who still have not abandoned the false ideology that one race is superior to another.

A favorite photo from our trip: a rainbow rises over the Mariënhage monastery complex, the statue at the top known locally as “Jesus the daredevil.” The church is now a hotel, but was once a headquarters and hospital for the occupying Germans in Eindhoven.

After the Netherlands, Easy Company enjoyed a bit of R&R in France, before heading into Belgium for the final months of the war. Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge awaited.