We take a look at some of the Jeeps at Arnhem. Operation Market Garden took place between the 17th and 26th of September 1944. After the success of the Normandy landings the allied army’s swept through France and Belgium, the next objective for Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery was the Netherlands. The plan was to attack to the north bypassing the Siegfried Line and then to attack the Ruhr. The battle was fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze, Driel.
The British 1st Airborne Division, supported by the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade, landed at Arnhem to secure the bridge across the Nederrijn river.
Unfortunately the airborne forces landed some distance from their objectives and came up against resistance from the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions. Only a small force managed to reach the Arnhem road bridge while the main force was held up on the outskirts of the city. The paratroopers at the north end of the bridge were overrun on 21 September. The remainder of the 1st Airborne Division became trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge and were evacuated on the 25th of September.
Bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen were captured at the beginning of operation market garden. But the ground force advance was delayed because the American 101st Airborne Division were unable to capture Wilhelmina Canal bridge at Son before the Germans destroyed it. The British forces not able to hold Arnhem and the 82nd Airborne Division’s delay in capturing the main road bridge over the river Waal at Nijmegen until the 20th of September. With no captured bridges over the Nederrijn, the Allies were unable to advance. The river remained a barrier into Germany until March 1945. The failure of Market Garden to gain a foothold over the river Rhine ended expectations of the war being over by Christmas 1944
Jeeps at Arnhem