Arms and Armour

Battle of Arnhem

The Battle of Arnhem was fought during the Second World War, as part of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It took place around the Dutch city of Arnhem from 17 to 26 September 1944. The Allies had swept through France and Belgium in August 1944, after the Battle of Normandy. Market Garden was based upon the smaller Operation Comet that had been overtaken by events. Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, who favoured a single push northwards over the branches of the Lower Rhine River, allowing the British Second Army to bypass the Siegfried Line and attack the important Ruhr industrial area. The First Allied Airborne Army was to capture the bridges to secure a route for the Second Army with US, British and Polish airborne troops dropped in the Netherlands along the line of the ground advance, being relieved by the British XXX Corps. Farthest north, the British 1st Airborne Division landed at Arnhem to capture bridges across the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine), with the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade following on. XXX Corps was expected to reach Arnhem in two to three days. The 1st Airborne Division landed some distance from its objectives and met unexpected resistance, especially from elements of the II SS Panzer Korps. Only a small force was able to reach the Arnhem road bridge while the main body of the division was stopped on the edge of town. The XXX Corps advance northwards from Nijmegen was delayed due to the failure, in the Battle of Nijmegen, to secure the bridge before the ground troops arrived and the British were not relieved in time. After four days, the small British force at the bridge was overwhelmed and the rest of the division was trapped in a small pocket north of the river. The paratroops could not be sufficiently reinforced by the Poles or by XXX Corps when they arrived on the south bank, nor by Royal Air Force supply flights. After nine days of fighting, the remnants of the division were withdrawn in Operation Berlin. The Allies were unable to advance further and the front line stabilised south of Arnhem. The 1st Airborne Division lost nearly three quarters of its strength and did not see combat again.

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See also

• ▸Battle of Vítkov Hill
• ▸Fantome Island Lock Hospital and Lazaret Sites
• ▸Aarburg

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