Introduction to Operation Market Garden

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1 Introduction to Operation Market Garden

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Operation Market Garden
In the summer of 1944, the Allies launched a daring airborne operation to secure the River Rhine crossings and advance into northern Germany. Although it ultimately failed to achieve its objectives, the determination and courage shown by the airborne troops and the units that assisted them made Market Garden one of the Second World War’s (1939-45) most famous battles.

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The plan
In the summer of 1944, the Allies came up with an ambitious scheme to cross the River Rhine and advance deep into northern Germany and shorten the war.
Codenamed 'Market Garden', this plan involved the seizure of key bridges in the Netherlands by the 101st and 82nd US Airborne Divisions, and 1st British Airborne Division who would land by parachute and glider.
Then the British 30 Corps could advance over the bridges and cross the Rhine and its tributaries. The bridges were at Eindhoven, around 20 kilometres (13 miles) from the start line, Nijmegen, 85 kilometres (53 miles), and Arnhem, 100 kilometres (62 miles) away, as well as two smaller bridges at Veghel and Grave that lay between Eindhoven and Nijmegen.
If successful, the plan would liberate the Netherlands, outflank Germany’s formidable frontier defences, the Siegfried Line, and make possible an armoured drive into the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland.

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Landings
On 17 September the airborne divisions landed. Eventually all the bridges were captured in what was one of the largest airborne operations in history.
The plan failed largely because of 30 Corps’ inability to reach the furthest bridge at Arnhem before German forces overwhelmed the British defenders. Allied intelligence had failed to detect the presence of German tanks, including elements of two SS Panzer divisions.

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Arnhem
Around 10,000 men from Major-General Roy Urquhart’s 1st British Airborne Division and the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade landed at Arnhem. But their landing zones were 11 kilometres (seven miles) from the bridge at Arnhem. Only one battalion reached the objective while the remaining soldiers were squeezed into a pocket at Oosterbeek to the west.
Apart from a few anti-tank guns and howitzers, modified to fit inside gliders, the lightly armed airborne troops had few heavy weapons with which to resist tanks.

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XXX Corps
Although units of 30 Corps captured Nijmegen bridge in conjunction with the US 82nd Airborne Division, they could not reach the furthest bridge at Arnhem. Much of its advance was along a single narrow causeway, which was vulnerable to traffic jams and German counter-attacks.
In some places the advance was hindered by marshes that prevented off-road movement. Throughout the battle the Germans also showed a remarkable ability to put together scratch battle groups that fought to delay the armoured columns.

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Problems
Operations were also hampered by a shortage of transport aircraft. The airborne troops were flown into the Netherlands in three lifts rather than all together.
Arnhem’s wooded landscape severely restricted the range of wireless sets, so communication failures also reduced the chance of success. Thick fog in England and low clouds over the battle zone hampered both resupply and the air-lifting of reinforcements.

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Evacuation
On 24-25 September about 2,100 troops from 1st Airborne Division were ferried back across the Rhine. Another 7,500 were either dead or made prisoners of war.
The crossing of the Rhine and the capture of Germany's industrial heartland were delayed for six months. Now, the Allies would have to fight their way into the Reich on a broad front. There would be no quick victory.

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Failure
A costly failure, Operation Market Garden remains a remarkable feat of arms. This is not because of its strategic ambition, but because of the determination and courage shown by Allied airborne troops and the units that tried to reach them.
It also led to the liberation of a large part of the Netherlands at a time when many Dutch people were close to starvation.

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Allied Order of Battle
1st Allied Airborne Army
Commander : Lieutenant-General Lewis H. Brereton
1st British Airborne Corps
Commander : Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning
1st Airborne Division and attached units
1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group
52nd (Lowland) Division (NOT USED)
18th U.S. Airborne Corps
Commander : Lieutenant-General Matthew B. Ridgway
82nd U.S. Airborne Division
101st U.S. Airborne Division
Air Transport Forces
38 and 46 Groups RAF, RASC Air Despatch Units
52nd Troop Carrier Wing, USAAF
IX Troop Carrier Command (Less 52nd Wing), USAAF
21st Army Group
Commander : Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery
2nd British Army
Commander : General Sir Miles Dempsey
XXX Corps
VIII Corps
XII Corps

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German Order of Battle
Armed Forces Command (AFC) Netherlands
Commander : General der Flieger Friedrich Christiansen
II S.S. Panzer Korps
Kampfgruppe 'Von Tettau'
Heeresgruppe B {Army Group B}
Commander : Feldmarschall Walther Model
Fifteenth Army
Commander : General Gustav von Zangen
LXVII Korps (General Otto M. Hitzfeld)
346th Infantry Division (Generalleutnant Erich Diester)
711th Static Division (Generalleutnant Josef Reichert)
719th Coastal Division (Generalleutnant Karl Sievers)
LXXXVIII Korps
First Parachute Army
Commander : General Kurt Student
II Fallschirmjäger Korps
XII S.S. Korps
LXXXVI Korps
Wehrkreis VI
Luftwaffe West

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Filmography

Operation Market Garden was the subject of the 1946 film Theirs Is the Glory. This film mixed original footage from the battle with re-enactments, shot on location in Arnhem. Many of the actors portraying the paratroopers were soldiers who fought in the battle. Some played themselves, including Kate ter Horst, Frederick Gough, John Frost, and Stanley Maxted, the Canadian journalist who posted gripping reports from the front at Arnhem.
A Bridge Too Far is a 1977 epic war film, based on the 1974 book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan. It was adapted by William Goldman, was directed by Richard Attenborough, and had an all-star cast. Unlike the earlier film, it covered the entire operation from all sides: British, American, German, Polish, and Dutch.
Dramatizations of the actions of the 101st Airborne Division, 506th PIR during the battle (with cameo scenes also of XXX Corps, British paratroopers and Canadian engineers) formed part of the HBO television miniseries Band of Brothers.
The 2021 film The Forgotten Battle includes a depiction of the glider-borne insertion of Operation Market Garden.

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Memorials and remembrance

The prized Arnhem bridge for which the British had fought so hard did not survive the war. As the front line stabilised south of the Rhine, B-26 Marauders of 344th Bomb Group, USAAF destroyed it on 7 October to deny its use to the Germans. It was replaced with a bridge of similar appearance in 1948 and renamed John Frost Bridge (John Frostbrug) on 17 December 1977.
There are a number of monuments in the Eindhoven - Nijmegen - Arnhem corridor.
Several museums in the Netherlands are dedicated to Operation Market Garden, including the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, Wings of Liberation Museum Park in Best (near Eindhoven) and Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek. Annually there is a commemorative walk in Oosterbeek on the first Saturday of September which attracts tens of thousands of participants.

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TO THE PEOPLE OF GELDERLAND

A memorial near Arnhem reads:

TO THE PEOPLE OF GELDERLAND
50 years ago British and Polish Airborne soldiers fought here against overwhelming odds to open the way into Germany and bring the war to an early end. Instead we brought death and destruction for which you have never blamed us.
This stone marks our admiration for your great courage, remembering especially the women who tended our wounded. In the long winter that followed your families risked death by hiding Allied soldiers and airmen, while members of the Resistance helped many to safety.
You took us into your homes as fugitives and friends,
We took you into our hearts.
This strong bond will continue
Long after we are all gone.