- Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
- The true story of Operation Market Garden, the Allies attempt, in September 1944, to hasten the end of World War II by driving through Belgium and Holland into Germany. The idea was for U.S. airborne divisions to take the towns of Eindhoven and Nijmegen and a British airborne division, reinforced by a Polish airborne brigade, to take the town of Arnhem. They would be reinforced, in due course and in turn, by the British XXX Corps, land-based and driving up from the British lines in the south. The key to the operation was the bridges, as if the Germans held or blew them, the paratroopers could not be relieved. Faulty intelligence, Allied high command hubris, and stubborn German resistance would ensure that Arnhem was a bridge too far.—grantss
- It is near the end of World War II. The Germans have lost most of France, and the Allied forces decide to give them the final hit. They plan to drop thousands of paratroopers in the Netherlands and keep a few key positions there, until reenforcements arrive. The most important spot is the bridge of Arnhem. Once it's captured, it can block everything west of Germany.—Chris Makrozahopoulos <makzax@hotmail.com>
- Tells the story of Operation Market Garden. A failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of World War II to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in the Netherlands allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.—Jon Butler
- A black and white documentary explains that in September 1944, British Field Marshal Montgomery devised a campaign called Operation Market Garden to outflank the German Army in Holland and end World War II by Christmas.
The man in charge of implementing Montgomery's plan is Lt. General Frederick Browning, commander of Britain's First Allied Airborne Army. Browning briefs his British, American and Polish generals about their mission: 35,000 paratroopers will drop behind German lines in what will be the greatest airborne operation in history. As Lt. General Brian Horrocks' XXX (30) Corps ground troops advance northward along a narrow Dutch highway toward the city of Arnhem on the German border, Major General Maxwell Taylor's 101st Airborne Division and Brigadier General James Gavin's American 82nd Airborne Division will land near several bridges along the way and hold them until Horrocks arrives. British General Roy Urquhart's First Airborne Army will capture Arnhem, and Major General Sosabowski's Polish Parachute Brigade will be held in reserve. Urquhart worries that since his troops will parachute in daylight, their only safe drop zones will have to be outside Arnhem, miles from the bridge, but Browning assures him that the only German defenders will be boys and old men.
Meanwhile, at German headquarters near Arnhem, Field Marshal Von Runstedt mistakenly guesses that U.S. General Patton will lead the Allied assault directly against Germany. Having studied Patton, Von Runstedt knows what to expect from him. The field marshal orders Lt. General William Bittrich to pull two Waffen SS Panzer tank divisions from the 2nd SS Panzer Division back to Arnhem to rest and make preparations for Patton's attack. Soon afterward, a Dutch boy riding his bicycle on the outskirts of Arnhem sees a German staff car with a distinctive Panzer flag. The boy's father, working for the Dutch underground, identifies the insignia as belonging to Field Marshal Walter Model and radios the news to England. General Browning ignores the report, but one of his officers, Major Fuller, requests a reconnaissance flight just in case. When three aerial photographs reveal Panzer tanks hiding under trees, Browning insists that the tanks are a ruse. He won't let three photographs stop the biggest campaign since D-Day at Normandy three months earlier. To discourage any further skepticism, Browning orders Major Fuller to take sick leave.
Elsewhere at British headquarters, a communications officer tells one of his men that the army's radios, designed for the African desert, aren't strong enough to work in the Dutch lowlands, but he doesn't want to be the one to tell Browning and "rock the boat."
Days later, XXX Corps prepares to cross the Belgium border into Holland. Lt. Colonel J. O. E. Vandeleur's Irish Guards will lead the convoy up the 65-mile highway "like the U.S. cavalry" and take Arnhem within two or three days.
At the U.S. 82nd Airborne camp, Captain Glass expresses his fears about the operation to his friend, Staff Sergeant Eddie Dohun. When Dohun claims that there's nothing to worry about, Glass asks the sergeant if he can guarantee that they won't die. Dohun says he'll guarantee it.
On September 17, 1944, the airborne invasion arrives. When Model receives a report that Allied planes are dropping paratroopers outside of Arnhem, he concludes that they've come to capture him. He moves to General Bittrich's nearby headquarters south of Arnhem, where Major General Ludwig, commander of the two SS Panzer divisions, insists that the Allies have come not to grab the general but to seize the bridges at Nijmegan and Arnhem. Bittrich takes responsibility for defending Arnhem and sends Ludwig to Nijmegan.
Meanwhile, the First Airborne has landed unopposed eight miles outside of Arnhem. Urquhart is told that the jeeps haven't arrived, so they'll have to reach the bridge on foot. But to make matters worse, their radios are not working and thus they aren't able to reach General Browning or the American units farther south. Encountering a dozen laughing escapees from a lunatic asylum, Urquhart asks one of his officers, "Do you think they know something we don't?"
Meanwhile, at the Belgian border, the Irish Guards' initial success has bogged them down with German resistance leaving them with several destroyed vehicles, German prisoners and crowds of Dutch revelers greeting them as liberators.
Far ahead up the road, before Colonel Bobby Stout's 101st Airborne unit can capture the small Son bridge, German artillery shells blow it apart.
Farther north, the 82nd Airborne has taken the bridge at Grave, but XXX Corps can't get there until the Son bridge is replaced.
Meanwhile, outside Arnhem, General Bittrich tries to convince Field Marshal Model that they should destroy the Arnhem and Nijimegan bridges before the Allies arrive, but Model insists they will need the bridges when the German Army counterattacks.
Later that day, a German soldier discovers copies of the Market Garden battle plans in a crashed glider and presents them to General Ludwig. But when Ludwig shows Model maps found on the crashed glider, Model insists that they're British counterintelligence fakes.
A few miles away, First Airborne Lt. Colonel John Frost leads the first British troops into Arnhem, but without a working radio he can't contact anyone. Frost sees Germans on the other side of the bridge and sends a few troops over to test their strength. A machine gun in a nearby bunker opens fire, forcing them to pull back, but later that night a pair of British soldiers with a flamethrower goes after the bunker and mistakenly detonates a German ammunition dump.
The next day, German reinforcement arrive in the form of an armored column of the 9th SS Recon Battalion under the command of Captain Paul Grabner, who leads the Germans in a counter-attack from the south bank of the Arnhem bridge to Frost's positions. But after a violent battle, Frost's unit unit stops them and clutters the bridge with burning vehicles, and killing dozens of German soldiers including Captain Granber. Taking note of the insignia on the uniforms of several German prisoners, Frost realizes he's fighting crack Panzer soldiers, not old conscripts.
A few miles away, Urquhart, now separated from his own men, comes to the same conclusion. Surrounded by German soldiers patrolling the streets, he and another officer hide in the attic of a sympathetic Dutch family.
Forty-eight miles south of Arnhem, the Irish Guards are stuck in another Dutch village by another liberation festival that fills the streets. Colonel Stout from the 101st Airborne approaches Vandeleur to request pontoon bridges in order to replace the destroyed Son bridge ahead.
Farther up the road at Nijmegan, General Gavin discovers that Panzer troops have sealed off the area around his unit and they cannot get to the bridge at Nijmegan.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Dohun finds the body of Captain Glass, the man he guaranteed wouldn't die, puts him in a jeep and, in a long detour around German lines, delivers him to a medical station. When the surgeon tells Dohun to dump the body with all the others, the sergeant points a gun at his head and orders him to check the captain for signs of life. The doctor is surprised to find that the captain is still breathing. After a surgery that lasts several hours, the medical doctor tells Dohun that Captain Glass will live, but uncertain about possible brain damage. Dohun offers to turn himself in and the medical doctor turns him over to a MP captain and to tell him to hold Dohun in custody for 10 seconds. Afterwords, Dohun is allowed to rejoin his unit.
Thirty-nine miles south of Arnhem, Colonel Stout's unit works half the night to build a pontoon bridge across the river so that the British convoy can continue. By dawn on September 19, the bridge is completed and the British tanks resume their course. But Col. Stout is displeased because the British are 36 hours behind schedule. The British quickly make it to the Grave bridge held by American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne, twenty-two miles south of Arnhem, but they are now blocked at Nijmegan.
Outside Arnhem, Urquhart's British soldiers rescue him from his hiding spot and take him to the First Airborne's field headquarters. Here, Urquhart finally learns the seriousness of the situation that the 1st Airborne has landed on top of two battered still resilient Panzer divisions. To make maters worse, 1st Airborne is low on food and ammunition, and the Royal Air Force's drop zones for delivering supplies are in German hands; worse, the British soldiers can't contact the R.A.F. because the radios STILL are not working. Meanwhile, when Colonel Frost refuses General Bittrich's offer to surrender, Bittrich gives the order to "flatten Arnhem" and Panzer tanks begin taking the city apart.
Downriver at Nijmegan, General Gavin tells Horrocks that he's going to retake the Nijmegan bridge, but first he needs boats. The only ones available are rowboats without paddles, so the men will have to use their rifle stocks. Gavin picks Maj. Julian Cook to lead a daylight crossing.
On September 21, the Americans struggle across the river and assemble on the riverbank for a final charge, but Ludwig has placed snipers on the bridge's superstructure. Cook's paratroopers are saved by the sudden arrival of Irish Guard tanks. When the Germans try to destroy the bridge with wired explosives, the detonator doesn't work. Maj. Cook wants to move his battered American forces farther up the road, but the British tankers refuse to move until their supporting infantry units arrive.
In Arnhem, Colonel Frost tells his men to sneak out of town in small units and try to make it back to the main force. Frost himself, who is wounded, stays behind with other wounded soldiers to cover the evacuation. By the end of the day, the Germans have overrun all resistance, and the Arnhem Bridge is back in German hands.
That evening, the Polish Parachute Brigade has finally joined the campaign, but they are too late. As the Poles drop into Arnhem, German gunners shoot many of them before they reach the ground. A evening or two later, when the Poles try to pontoon their way across the river at night, the Germans illuminate them with flares and shoot most of them before they can reach the opposite bank.
The British XXX Corps finally resumes its advance towards Arnhem, but they are blocked at the town of Elst, just five miles south of Arnhem, forcing them to go around to the town of Driel on the south bank of the Rhine to try to rescue the remains of the besieged 1st Airborne Division.
Near Arnhem, a Dutch physician, Doctor Spaander, has set up a field hospital, but British casualties overwhelm him. He arranges a cease-fire with the Germans long enough to gather the British wounded and dead.
After viewing the situation, with the 1st Airborne Division trapped in a thumb-shaped defensive perimeter and with the Arnhem bridge in German hands, Browning decides that the whole operation is now a failure and sends a message to Urquhart ordering him to withdraw across the Rhine back to XXX Corps since the British tanks are unable to get through. On the evening of September 25, after nine days of fighting, the remains of Urquhart's unit slips away across the Rhine river at night to join the British invasion force, which is now only a mile from Arnhem, but that mile is meaningless. Rather than press forward, Browning orders XXX Corps to retreat back down the highway.
When Urquhart reaches Browning's headquarters, he accuses the general of mishandling the campaign, reporting that less than 2,000 of his 10,000 troops made it back and suggesting Market Garden was a disaster. Browning disagrees, telling Urquhart that Field Marshall Montgomery "is proud and pleased" with Market Garden and has deemed it "90% successful." Browning expresses his opinion that they simply overreached and tried to "go a bridge too far."
Outside Arnhem, as hundreds of wounded British soldiers sing "Abide With Me" in unison, German troops arrive to take them prisoner.
In the final scene, Dr. Spaander and his daughter in law Kate ter Horst and her children leave their destroyed house and walk away exhausted and defeated down a country road to face an unknown future with most of the Netherlands still under German occupation.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content