Stories from Operation Market Garden & the Battle for Arnhem

Explore the history and stories of the soldiers of Operation Market Garden, one of the Allies’ most audacious actions of World War Two.

Operation Market Garden: the stories

What was Operation Market Garden?

Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne assault in history.

Its goal was to knock German troops out of the Netherlands, securing a northern route for the Allied advance into Nazi Germany by bypassing the formidable Siegfried Line border defences.

It was conceived by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, victor of El Alamein, and executed by British, Polish and US troops. The original plan consisted of two connected operations:

• Garden – Advancing a British armoured corps alongside mobile infantry up through the Netherlands from the Belgian border across bridges of the lower Rhine to force a way into Northern Germany.
• Market – The landing of 40,000 paratroopers to capture those vital bridges and hold them in time for the armour to advance.

Montgomery hoped his ambitious plan would be enough to shorten the war, hoping to have it all over by Christmas 1944. Instead, popular thinking has found the Allies tried to go “a bridge too far”.

The battle begins

Image: Arnhem Bridge ahead of the operation

Market Garden kicked off on September 17^th, 1944. The operation would continue until the 25^th.

On the morning of the 17^th, the skies over the south of England were alive with the sounds of transport planes, ferrying thousands of paratroopers and glider-mounted troops to their drop zones all over Southern Holland.

Three airborne divisions, consisting of the 1^st British Airborne Division, the US 101^st, and 82^nd Airborne, were dropped at landing areas close to their respective objectives. They were later reinforced by the 1^st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade.

1^st British Airborne and their Polish compatriots were to capture the most northern bridge on the route at Arnhem. The 101^st was tasked with capturing Eindhoven and several other bridges along the route. The 82^nd Airborne’s objective with capture the bridge at Nijmegen south of Arnhem.

On the ground at the Belgian Border, the tanks, and vehicles of British XXX Corps were gearing up to move into the Netherlands. Montgomery believed XXX Corps could push up the single highway into the Netherlands to link with the paratroopers within two days. Allied planners believed they had the men and ammunition to last four at max.

Despite striking with the element of surprise, the Allies quickly became stuck. Within minutes, several tanks had been knocked out by German panzerfaust anti-tank weapons, blocking the route. XXX Corps would advance just eight miles on the first day.

Airborne troops did meet with some success initially. The 101^st Airborne managed to capture most of its bridges, except for a key bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son.

For the British at Arnhem, it was another story. 10,000 troops had been landed on the first day but only 800 had managed to make it to Arnhem Bridge. The rest had been kettled into a small perimeter at Oosterbeek northwest of Arnhem by stiffer-than-anticipated German resistance.

What was thought to be a limited force of old men and young boys turned out to be much stronger than first suspected. To make matters worse, SS troops and tanks were being refitted in the area.

The Allies managed to reach and liberate Eindhoven, around 50 miles south of Arnhem, by the 18^th. However, the fighting around Arnhem was becoming increasingly desperate. The 2^nd Battalion of 1^st Airborne under Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost had reached the bridge but was encountering strong German resistance.

The German counterattack, spearheaded by two elite SS Panzer Divisions, was beginning to hit Colonel Frost’s men hard. The bridge had become a tangled mass of wrecked vehicles and artillery. With the British running low on allies, medical supplies, food, and men.

To make matters worse for the British, their commanding officer Major General Roy Urqhart had become separated from his men and unable to conduct the battle. British radios were also not working, leading to a major lack of communication between the troops.

The Allies lose momentum

Image: An Irish Guards Tank advances passed a knocked out Sherman

The tanks of XXX Corps linked up the 82^nd Airborne on 19^th September. Even so, the town and its bridge were still in German hands. A daring dinghy-based assault was ordered by the 82’s commander General James Gavin, but the required boats were at the rear of the armoured column and wouldn’t arrive for some time.

In Arnhem, a final push to rescue the beleaguered troops at Arnhem Bridge stalled. Bad weather prevented a landing by the Polish paratroopers from relieving their British counterparts. Colonel Frost’s men would have to hold out alone.

By now, the Allied advance was beginning to stall. German attacks on the road linking Eindhoven and Nijmegen, the now infamous “Hells Highway”, gained intensity. Despite this, Allied troops managed to capture Nijmegen Bridge by the evening of September 20^th. Heavy fighting meant that Guards Armoured Division and the fighting vehicles of XXX Corps had reached the ends of their limit.

There were still eight miles to go until they reached Arnhem.

Digging in at Oosterbeek

Image: General Urquhart poses outside the Hartenstein Hotel, Oosterbeek

General Urquhart had found his way back to his men and ordered them to dig in around the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek.

Meanwhile, at Arnhem Bridge, Colonel Frost had been badly wounded. His men were under constant pressure and now running perilously low on ammunition and water. German artillery and tanks were blasting the buildings the British were holed up in.

A single British Cromwell tank crossed Nijmegen Bridge on September 21^st. The town had finally fallen to the Allies.

Unfortunately, the Wehrmacht Kampfgruppe Knaust was still blocking XXX Corps’ way. Improved communications meant XXX Corps could finally coordinate with 1^st Airborne trapped at Oosterbeek, offering fire support, but breakout still seemed difficult.

The situation in Arnhem had gone from bad to worse. 2^nd Parachute Battalion had lost its toehold on the bridge.

The weather cleared enough in the evening to allow landing by the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade at Driel, some four miles from Arnhem.

This was a disaster.

Luftwaffe aircraft caused many of the transport planes to quit the landing zones. Some were just simply shot down. Around 750 Polish Paratroopers under Major-General Stanislaw Sosabowski managed to land but faced a hellish storm of fire from nearby German troops.

Endgame in Arnhem

Image: British troops move through a ruined school

General Urquhart and the men of the 1^st Airborne in Oosterbeek were still holding out and hoping for relief. Fire support from XXX Corps was managing to hold back the worst of the German attacking troops but was unsustainable.

Elsewhere, Wehrmacht troops had managed to briefly cut Hell’s Highway. Clearing the way took valuable time. Very few of Sosabowksi’s Poles had managed to make it from Driel to effect relief of the British 1^st Airborne.

The men of the 43^rd (Wessex) Infantry Division reached Driel on September 22nd. A link was established with the 1^st Airborne, but instead of reinforcement, the chatter was about getting them out of there.

The Germans held the numerical advantage in Oosterbeek and by the 23^rd were beginning to break into the British perimeter. A truce was called on the 24^th but around 1,200 wounded Poles and British were taken into German captivity.

BY now, 1^st Airborne Division had been whittled down to 1,800 exhausted men.

The evacuation of Oosterbeek began on the 25^th of September.

Was Operation Market Garden a success?

Field Marshal Montgomery may have thought it was 90% successful, but Market Garden fell short of achieving its main goal.

Roughly 1,500 British and Polish airborne troops had been killed. A great deal more were injured or taken into captivity. Estimates suggest the Allies, including US troops, took up to 17,000 killed, captured, or wounded casualties during Operation Market Garden.

The number of German casualties from the Wehrmacht has raised debate with some historians the suggestion came to just over 13,000.

Had they gone a bridge too far? Perhaps. But there were many mitigating circumstances that mean the Allies struggled to meet their objectives.

• Limited transport – Inadequate numbers of transport planes meant that instead of landing in one single drop as intended, the Market landings took place over three days.
• Poor communications – British radios issued to troops proved faulty, leading to a breakdown in communications the Airborne and XXX Corps. The separation of General Urquhart and his men also proved costly as there was no senior officer present to direct the crucial Arnhem stages of the battle.
• Bad Weather – Thick, low clouds prevented timely landings of men and material to relieve the men at Arnhem.
• Slow advance – Speed was of the essence, but XXX Corps proved too slow to reach the trapped 2^nd Parachute Battalion. Part of this was geography. The route taken by XXX Corps was a single highway, which proved easy to block by German troops
• Stiffer German resistance – Following the success of the Normandy and Belgian campaigns, the Allies may have felt overly confident. Despite intelligence reports that two SS Panzer visions were in the area, the Allies pushed ahead with Operation Market Garden, perhaps thinking the men facing them would have lost morale. As we can see from history, this wasn’t the case.

The war was not over by Christmas. As we know, World War Two would grind on in Europe until May 1945.

The Germans, who were in mass retreat on the Eastern Front, were able to turn victory over an elite British paratrooper force into a huge propaganda victory.

The Allies would have to return to the drawing board. While Operation Market Garden may have got the ball rolling, the final liberation of the Netherlands would not occur until 1945. Canadian troops were at the forefront of this endeavour.

Soldiers' stories from Operation Market Garden

It’s our mission to keep the stories of all our war dead alive at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Here is a look at some of the men who gave their lives during the battle for Arnhem and Operation Market Garden.

Lieutenant Peter Cane

Image: Lieutenant Peter Cane

Born in Reading, Berkshire, Lieutenant Peter Cane was amongst the first wave of paratroopers to land on Arnhem in Market Garden’s opening stages.

Lieutenant Cane was already a combat veteran by the time 2^nd Parachute Battalion dropped on the Netherlands. He had served in the tough fights in Sicily and Italy.

As the Lieutenant led his men through the narrow streets of Arnhem, they were first met by crowds of cheering Dutch citizens. Soon, though, they would start encountering German troops.

Cane was struck almost immediately during his men’s first encounter with the Wehrmacht. Despite being mortally wounded, he continued to encourage his men into action, shouting “charge the bastards” as his men fought back.

Lieutenant Cane died shortly after this skirmish. He was buried in a makeshift grave close to where he fell before he was moved to Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery in October 1945. He resides there to this day.

Captain Lionel Queripel VC

Image: Captain Lionel Queripel

While the 2^nd Battalion of 1^st Airborne was fighting for its life on Arnhem Bridge, their comrades were fighting hard to break through and reach them.

Guiding the men of the 10^th Battalion Parachute Regiment was Captain Lionel Queripel.

Queripel had graduated from Sandhurst Military College in 1939 and had already seen action. He was one of the many evacuated at Dunkirk and would fight in the gruelling North African and Italian theatres.

On the way into Arnhem, Captain Queripel and his men came under heavy fire from both sides of the road they were traversing. Pinned down, Queripel ran from one side of the road to the other, coordinating his men’s response.

Queirpel sustained a facial wound but managed to carry an injured soldier to a makeshift aid station before returning to personally lead an assault on the attacking German position.

As the day drew on, 10^th Battalion was starting to run low on ammunition. Wehrmacht soldiers were pressing home their advantage in numbers. Deciding it was impossible to hold their current position, Captain Queirpel ordered the retreat.

Queripel was wounded in both arms. Despite this, and against the protests of his men, he elected to stay behind and cover their exit, armed only with a few hand grenades and an automatic pistol. He wasn’t seen alive again.

For his gallantry and calm leadership under fire, coupled with the complete disregard for his personal safety above that of his men, Captain Queirpel was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Porucznik Stanislaw Antoni Slesicki

Image: Porucznik Stanislaw Antoni Slesicki

Like many of his Polish comrades who had managed to escape the Nazi invasion of his homeland, Porucznik (Lieutenant) Stanislaw Antoni Slesicki had already had an eventful war.

Slesicki had joined the Polish Army in 1930 so was already something of a veteran. He fought in the invasion of Poland. Unfortunately, the tide turned against the valiant Poles, and Slesicki had to escape. Making his way to the UK via Hungary, Italy, and France, he vowed to continue to fight, joining the newly assembled Polish Independent Parachute Brigade that was Forming in Scotland.

The Polish paratroopers had been champing at the bit to drop into the Netherlands during Market Garden. Inclement weather meant it wasn’t until September 21^st that Lieutenant Slesicki and his comrades joined the fight.

Dropping on Driel, the Poles were met with murderous fire from Germans zeroed in on the drop zone. Assembling on the banks of the river at Driel, the Poles were discussing their best crossing options to push on to Oosterbeek.

A German shell landed right in the middle of their number. Lieutenant Slesicki was killed instantly. Many more of his men were wounded.

Around 200 Poles would fall in the Battle for Arnhem. Nearly 80, including Lieutenant Slesicki, are buried in Arnhem Oosterbeek Cemetery.

Commemorating the Fallen of Operation Market Garden

Arnhem Oosterbeek Cemetery is one of the largest Commission World War Two cemeteries in Europe. It contains around 1,700 Commonwealth, Polish and Dutch burials from the Market Garden Landings and those who fell in further fighting during around Arnhem during the city’s liberation.

400 or so casualties from Market Garden have no known grave. These missing men are commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial near Nijmegen.

To find more of our Netherlands sites, use our Find Cemeteries and Memorials tool.