The second memory was of the problem of trying to stop them slowing down our men by pressing cakes, milk, etc., on them. The Dutch were very much in family groups, in staid clothing, out on this fine Sunday afternoon. Captain Tony Frank wrote of his memories of the march to the bridge: “One was the incredible number of orange flowers or handkerchiefs that suddenly appeared like magic. The battalion moved through the towns of Heveadorp and Oosterbeek against light opposition, enjoying a rapturous welcome. The drop went off almost perfectly, with Frost’s 481 men forming up and heading along “Route Lion,” backed by some Royal Engineers and five 6-pounder (57mm) antitank guns.
The battalion had a strong Irish and Scots character. Frost, its men had made combat jumps on a raid into France to seize a radar station and airborne assaults in North Africa and Sicily. Once on the ground, 1st Airborne was to send a squadron of jeeps equipped with Vickers machine guns racing ahead of the ground forces to seize the bridge and hold it until the foot troops marched up.Īssigned to reach the bridge first was the 2nd Battalion, a veteran outfit that had been formed on October 1, 1941. The division’s paratroops and glidermen would land on a field six to eight miles from the Arnhem bridge, the final objective of the Allied drive. In any case, the plan called for the British 1st Airborne Division to make the deepest drop, at the town of Arnhem, 63 miles behind enemy lines. But if Monty’s audacious plan worked, it could shorten the war by weeks or months.
It was a plan that gambled on speed, surprise, and German disorganization, and it was the brainchild of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, the victor of El Alamein, not a man known for relying on speed and surprise.
#THE FLESHY FUN BRIDGE SERIES#
Some 35,000 British and American paratroopers dropped up to 63 miles behind German lines in The Netherlands to open an “airborne carpet” across a series of rivers, enabling the British 2nd Army to drive across the Rhine and be in a position to menace both the Ruhr and the Nazi V-2 sites in Holland. The 2nd Battalion’s arrival at the bridge was the culmination of the Market-Garden plan, which was the largest airborne assault in history. (You can take a deeper look at the fighting in the European Theater and hear its stories straight from the source in WWII Historymagazine.) Operation Market-Garden: An “Airborne Carpet” Now the battalion-and elements of the 1st Parachute Brigade trickling in-simply had to hold it until they were relieved by the British 2nd Army, heading north from the Dutch-Belgian border. After a long march from its drop zone, the 2nd Battalion of Britain’s elite Parachute Regiment had reached the objective of the entire Market-Garden campaign, the Arnhem bridge. It was 8 pm, the evening of September 17, 1944. The CO arrived and seemed extremely happy, making cracks about everyone’s nerves being jumpy.” There was a complete absence of any enemy and the general air of peace was quite incredible. Lieutenant Robin Vlasto later wrote, “Things were organized amid the most awful row.
2 Platoon was led by A Company, and soon they concentrated underneath the ramp carrying the roadway onto the bridge, out of sight of any Germans on the bridge itself. It was getting dark when they reached Arnhem bridge, but there it was, still intact.
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