"of the country. Its captures included the capital Brussels and the port city of Antwerp. Second Army's highest profile operation in 1944, apart from Operation Overlord, was providing the main force for Operation Market Garden. During the operation, American (82nd and 101st), British (1st) and Polish (1st Polish Parachute Brigade) airborne troops, outside the control of Second Army, were landed to capture vital bridges over several rivers in the east of the Netherlands, in order to allow Second Army's XXX Corps to cross the Rhine and advance into Germany, relieving the parachute troops en route. However, the single road XXX"
"1944, they proceeded quickly towards the Dutch border. On September 5 most of the Dutch thought the liberation would be very soon; the day is known as ""Dolle Dinsdag"" (Mad Tuesday). On September 17 a daring operation, Operation Market Garden, was staged to make a quick incursion into the southern Netherlands and capture bridges across the three main rivers. The bridge at Arnhem, across the Rhine, could however not be captured. The part south of the rivers was liberated in the period September - November 1944. However, for most of the country people would have to wait until May 1945."
"cited as one of the fundamental differences between the Netherlands and other Western European occupied by the Germans. From 1944 to 1945, the Reichskommissariat came under attack from Allied forces. The first attempt to liberate the Netherlands by the Allies was during Operation Market Garden in 1944, involving the use of paratrooper divisions to take over key bridges in the Netherlands to allow Allied tanks positioned in Belgium to quickly go through the Netherlands and reach Arnhem, which held a bridge over the river Rhine. This would put the Allies in a strategic advantage to invade Germany and quickly end"
"the Dutch/German border, ready to close the pincer. The operation made massive use of airborne forces, whose tactical objectives were to secure the bridges and to allow a rapid advance by armored ground units to consolidate north of Arnhem. The operation required the seizure of the bridges across the Meuse River, two arms of the Rhine (the Waal River and the Lower Rhine), together with crossings over several smaller canals and tributaries. The Allies captured several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen at the beginning of the operation. Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps ground force advance was delayed by the initial"
"areas, there was an extreme post-war housing crisis. Battle of Nijmegen The Battle of Nijmegen or Liberation of Nijmegen occurred in the Netherlands from 17 to 20 September 1944, as part of Operation Market Garden during World War II. The Allies' primary goal was to capture the two bridges over the Waal River at Nijmegen – the road route over the ""Waalbrug"" (Waal Bridge) and Nijmegen railway bridge – and relieve the British 1st Airborne Division and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade at Arnhem, 10 miles (16 km) north of Nijmegen. The Allied infantry units at Arnhem were surrounded by"
"the Rhine River, the last major water obstacle short of Berlin. This airborne assault would be made in daylight. The 101st Airborne Division was assigned the southernmost bridges at Eindhoven, Son, Sint Oedenrode and Veghel, with the 501st assigned the Veghel Bridges. The airborne assault went as scheduled on 17 September 1944, with an improved performance by troop carrier units. Most drop zones were hit with good drop patterns. 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, however, was dropped some east of its planned drop zone. In spite of this, the four bridges in Veghel were captured intact. Then began the"
"Battle of Nijmegen The Battle of Nijmegen or Liberation of Nijmegen occurred in the Netherlands from 17 to 20 September 1944, as part of Operation Market Garden during World War II. The Allies' primary goal was to capture the two bridges over the Waal River at Nijmegen – the road route over the ""Waalbrug"" (Waal Bridge) and Nijmegen railway bridge – and relieve the British 1st Airborne Division and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade at Arnhem, 10 miles (16 km) north of Nijmegen. The Allied infantry units at Arnhem were surrounded by German forces, and involved in heavy fighting for"
"Netherlands, few believed the mission would actually be conducted. The operation would require seizing the longest bridge in Europe over the Maas River and several other bridges over the Maas-Waal Canal. The men of the 504th became even more doubtful the mission would go when told that the planned flight was through the Scheldt Estuary (nicknamed ""Flak Alley"" by Allied bomber pilots) and that they were reportedly outnumbered by 4,000 of Hitler’s Schutzstaffeln (SS) troops and an unknown number of German tanks. No cancellation was received, however, and on 17 September 1944 at 12:31 hours, the pathfinders of the 504th"
"Battle of the Afsluitdijk The Battle of the Afsluitdijk of 12–14 May 1940 was an unsuccessful attempt by German ""Wehrmacht"" forces to seize the ""Afsluitdijk"" during the invasion of the Netherlands. German invasion plans called for a simultaneous attack on Vesting Holland from multiple directions, expecting to capture the country's capital and most important region in a day's time. To facilitate an attack from the north, ""Wehrmacht"" elements commanded by General Kurt Feldt first needed to cross the ""Afsluitdijk"", a -long causeway and dike connecting the country's northern provinces to its western province of North Holland and ultimately to Amsterdam"
"invasion of Sicily and in the landings at Salerno. Promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 June 1944, he was the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, 505th PIR, during the airborne landings in Normandy. Vandervoort led his battalion in defending the town of Sainte-Mère-Église on 6 June in ""Mission Boston"", despite having broken his ankle on landing. During ""Operation Market Garden"" in September 1944, he led the assault on the Waal Bridge at Nijmegen while the 3rd Battalion, 504th PIR, made the assault crossing. General Matthew B. Ridgway described Vandervoort as ""one of the bravest and toughest battle commanders I"
"the Canal further west at Gheel. By midday on 8 September, the leading elements of the 4/7 DG and 12th K.R.R.C were over the canal. The Brigade was now stood down for the first period of rest since D-Day. Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944) was intended to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands to allow rapid advance by armoured units through large-scale use of airborne forces. The operation was initially successful, with the capture of the Waal bridge at Nijmegen on 20 September. But it was a failure overall, since the planned"
"same objectives as ""Comet"" but to be carried out by three divisions of the First Allied Airborne Army. Operation ""Market Garden"" was an airborne assault by three divisions in the Netherlands in September 1944, including the British 1st and the American 82nd and 101st, to secure key bridges and towns along the expected Allied axis of advance. Farthest north, 1st Airborne, supported by the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade, landed at Arnhem to secure bridges across the Nederrijn. Initially expecting an easy advance, XXX Corps, under Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks, to reach the airborne force at Arnhem within two to three"
"city is famous for its parks and greenery. The urbanization in the north on hilly terrain is also quite unusual for the Netherlands. In the Second World War (1939–1945), during Operation Market Garden (September 1944), the British 1st Airborne Division, under the command of Major-General Roy Urquhart, and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were given the task of securing the bridge at Arnhem. Glider infantry and paratrooper units were landed into the area on 17 September and later. The bulk of the force was dropped rather far from the bridge and never met their objective. A small element of"
"Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day). A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in"
"Allied military operation under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, to capture Dutch bridges over the Rhine fought in the Netherlands and the largest airborne operation of all time. The plan, as outlined by Field Marshal Montgomery, required the seizure by airborne forces of several bridges on the Highway 69 across the Maas (Meuse River) and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine), as well as several smaller canals and tributaries. Crossing these bridges would allow British armoured units to outflank the Siegfried Line, advance into northern Germany, and encircle the"
"Operation Market Garden (September 17, 1944 – September 25, 1944). The Allies attempted to capture bridges with an airborne assault, to open the way into Germany and liberate the northern Netherlands. Since heavier German forces than intelligence had predicted were present, the British 1st Airborne Division was almost completely destroyed, and the operation failed. The weather of 1944 combined with a poor situation for the Allies led to a stagnant situation on the western front. The Americans continued to grind away at the defenders in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest (September 19, 1944 – February 10, 1945). As long as"
"in Operation ""Market Garden"", the airborne attack on the Netherlands in September 1944. It also escorted bombers to Germany and struck rail lines, trains, vehicles, barges, power stations, and other targets in and beyond the Siegfried Line during the period October–December 1944. By November 1944, Allied air superiority had been so firmly established that the Luftwaffe attempted only two more full-scale interdiction missions against Allied bombers before the end of the war. On 2 November, a German force of about 250 fighter aircraft intercepted 1,121 Eighth Air Force bombers and their fighter escort en route to the synthetic oil plants"
"commonly known as the Waal Bridge. At the time, the Waal Bridge was a remarkable feat of engineering: it was the longest tied-arch bridge in Europe. On 10 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands, the Road Bridge had been demolished by Dutch military engineers to prevent a rapid advance of the Wehrmacht. In the course of the German occupation, the bridge was repaired, and reopened in 1943. On 22 February 1944, the Allied Bombing of Nijmegen took place. Its intended target of opportunity was the railway station area (which the Germans used for weapons transport), but because"
"occasionally diverted from strategic targets to support ground forces. Preparing for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, it attacked bridges, V-weapons launch sites, and airfields. On D-Day it bombed gun positions. As Allied forces advanced across northern France in the summer of 1944, it attacked troop concentrations and road junctions. During Operation Market Garden, it struck gun positions near Arnhem to minimize losses among glider and paratroopers attempting to seize bridges across the Rhine River. In December 1944 and January 1945 it supported troops fighting the Battle of the Bulge. In the spring of 1945 it supported Operation Varsity, the"
"occasionally diverted from strategic targets to support ground forces. Preparing for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, it attacked bridges, V-weapons launch sites, and airfields. On D-Day it bombed gun positions. As Allied forces advanced across northern France in the summer of 1944, it attacked troop concentrations and road junctions. During Operation Market Garden, it struck gun positions near Arnhem to minimize losses among glider and paratroopers attempting to seize bridges across the Rhine River. In December 1944 and January 1945 it supported troops fighting the Battle of the Bulge. In the spring of 1945 it supported Operation Varsity, the"
"citation for their action in Normandy. They were briefed on several planned air assaults into France, each aborted when the allies overran planned objectives. In the early fall of 1944 they began preparing for an airborne assault into the occupied Netherlands. Code-named ""Market Garden,"" it combined a deep airborne thrust through the west of the Netherlands by the 1st Allied Airborne Army, with an overland drive by the British 2nd Army. The plan visualized airborne forces seizing key bridges over rivers and canals so 2nd Army could move very deep and fast over a distance of more than , past"
"Battle for the Kapelsche Veer In the hard winter 1944/45, a battle between German Wehrmacht and allied troops happened at the 'Kapelsche Veer' at the Maas River in Noord-Brabant near the village of Capelle. The Wehrmacht occupied the Netherlands since May 1940; it had conquered the country during the Westfeldzug. Both sides together had casualties of over 1000 men (dead, missing, wounded, war captivity). Commander of the 1st British Corps was General John Crocker. He thought this German bridgehead should be overwhelmed at any price. The last part of this battle was Operation Elephant, the codename of an Allied operation"
"to protect the key cities of Dordrecht, Utrecht, Haarlem and Amsterdam, and creating a ""Vesting Holland"" (or ""Fortress Holland""). In late 1939, with war already declared between the British Empire, France and Nazi Germany, the German government issued a guarantee of neutrality to the Netherlands. The government gradually mobilized the Dutch military from August 1939, reaching its full strength by April 1940. Despite its policy of neutrality, the Netherlands was invaded on the morning of 10 May 1940, without a formal declaration of war, by German forces moving simultaneously into Belgium and Luxembourg. The attackers meant to draw Allied forces"
"September 1944, the airborne troops were to seize roads, bridges and the key communication cities of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, thus cutting the Netherlands in half and clearing a corridor for British armoured and motorized columns all the way to the German border. The 101st mission was to secure the fifteen miles of Hell's Highway stretching from Eindhoven north to Veghel. Under the command of Colonel Michaelis, the unit was to land in the Netherlands on DZ C, seize the small highway bridge over the Dommel river north of St. Oedenrode and the railroad and road bridges over the Wilhelmina"
"moved towards the River Rhine, to the east of which lay the German heartland. Most of France had been liberated, as had the Belgian cities Brussels and Antwerp. Although Operation Market Garden had failed in 1944, by 1945 the Allies had overrun most of the southern Netherlands and the Scheldt Estuary. As the ground forces moved across Europe, the Allied tactical air forces moved into new bases on the continent, to continue providing close support. The only limiting factor for the Allies was the weather. As winter came, the rains and mud turned airfields into quagmires, so large-scale air and"
"troops entered the Netherlands on September 9, 1944, on a reconnaissance patrol; on September 12, 1944, a small part of Limburg was liberated by the US 30th Infantry Division. During Operation Market Garden, the Americans and British established a corridor to Nijmegen, but they failed to secure a Rhine crossing at Arnhem. During the rest of 1944, the Canadian First Army liberated Zeeland in the Schelde Campaign, in order to free access to the harbour of Antwerp. By 1945, the entire southern part of the Netherlands (up to the Waal and Maas rivers) had been liberated. After Operation Veritable, the"
"January 22, 1944, the 504th took part in an amphibious assault at Anzio. The fighting took a heavy toll, Megellas being wounded again, It was not until April before the regiment was withdrawn. Due to the losses at Anzio, the 504th did not participate in the D-Day Normandy Landings. They did, however, parachute into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden, the airborne invasion of that country. Megellas took part in the crossing of the Waal River near Nijmegen, where the American forces crossed the river in flimsy boats while under heavy machine gun fire. During the day's fighting,"
"approaches to Antwerp, and previous Allied bombing of the French and Belgian railways, resulted in a long supply line from Normandy served mainly by trucks. After the break-out from Normandy, there were high hopes that the war could be ended in 1944. In order to do so, the last great natural defensive barrier of Germany in the west, the Rhine River had to be crossed. Operation Market Garden was orchestrated to attempt just this. It was staged in the Netherlands with the airborne troops of the American 82nd and 101st and one British 1st airborne divisions and the 1st Polish"
"Europe. In June 1944, subordinate units dropped paratroops in Normandy, subsequently flying numerous missions to bring in reinforcements and needed supplies. During the airborne attack on The Netherlands (Operation Market Garden, September 1944), the squadron dropped paratroops, towed gliders, and flew resupply missions. Several of its subordinate units also participated in the invasion of southern France in August 1944. The 50th supported the 101st Airborne Division in the Battle of the Bulge by towing gliders full of supplies near Bastogne on 27 December 1944. When the Allies made the air assault across the Rhine River in March 1945, each aircraft"
"the Netherlands in September 1944, Allied operations during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945, and Operation Lumberjack, and helped defend the expansion of Remagen bridgehead on the east side of the Rhine during March 1945. The squadron also flew air interdiction, strafing and bombing troop concentrations, railroads, highways, bridges, fuel and ammunition dumps, armored vehicles, docks and tunnels. In addition, it flew fighter escort missions, covering operations of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, Consolidated B-24 Liberators and Martin B-26 Marauders. The squadron received a Distinguished Unit Citation for three armed reconnaissance missions it flew on 10"
"paratroopers. These would quickly seize several crucial bridges across major rivers (Market), after which the heavy armour could advance straight through the Netherlands, along Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, and reach the Ruhr, where a vital part of Germany's war industry was located (Garden). This may have been sufficient to finish the war before the end of 1944. The success of Market Garden depended on the timely and intact capture of a number of bridges in the southeastern Netherlands by American, British, Polish and Canadian airborne forces. These were to clear the way, Highway 69 or later nicknamed ""Hell's Highway""– from"
"of her daughters, Sophie, still resides in the family home in Oosterbeek. Kate ter Horst witnessed the landings by the British 1st Airborne Division at the beginning of Operation Market Garden on September 17th 1944, noting the event in her diary. The goal of the operation was for the paratroopers to seize the bridges in and around Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. The plan called for the British XXX Corps to advance across these bridges and then push into the Ruhr Valley industrial area of Germany. However, the advance on Arnhem fell behind schedule and the troops there were forced into"
"the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. In June 1944, subordinate units dropped paratroops in Normandy, subsequently flying numerous missions to bring in reinforcements and needed supplies. During the airborne attack on The Netherlands (Operation Market Garden, September 1944), the squadron dropped paratroops, towed gliders, and flew resupply missions. Several of its subordinate units also participated in the invasion of southern France in August 1944. The 50th supported the 101st Airborne Division in the Battle of the Bulge by towing gliders full of supplies near Bastogne on 27 December 1944. When the Allies made the air assault across the Rhine River in"