The stand of the British 1st Paratroop Division at Arnhem ranks among the greatest achievements of the British Army. The attack itself was a risk taken in the knowledge that its success would shorten the war by many vital months, with a consequent saving of thousands of valuable lives.
The British were advancing into Holland from the south, entering a country bad in autumn for tank warfare, with sticky mud, numerous floods (these heightened by the German policy of flooding the countryside), and large, deep streams that ran across the route. A crossing of the River Maas had been forced, but beyond the river the enemy held the town of Eindhoven in the open plain, beyond Eindhoven were the two main branches of the Rhine, the Waal and the Lek, both great rivers spanned by steel bridges.
On the near side of the Waal lay Nijmegen, five miles to the north was the little town of Elst, five miles beyond that flows the Lek, on the farther bank of which stood Arnhem. It was decided to drop many thousands of paratroops to seize Nijmegen, Eindhoven and Arnhem. With these crossings gained, British armour would then rush across the bridge's, fan out into Westphalia. and thus with one stroke turn the defence system that protected western Germany. On September 17th 1944, this plan was attempted.
The great aerial armada that streamed out from airfields in Britain on that brilliant September day carried more paratroops than had ever been seen before in one air-borne operation. Eindhoven fell fairly easily, but Nijmegen yielded only after a sharp struggle. The operation was carried out like clockwork. The aircraft and gliders landed with their loads or dropped their paratroops dead to schedule. Some of the gliders carried light guns, jeeps, and small tanks. Their arrival was witnessed by Dutch civilians, many of whom were returning from church.
Simultaneously spearheads of the British army moved forward across the Dutch frontier, the whole point of the scheme was that the link-up between the main army and the air-borne men should be effected without delay. By 10 a.m. on September 18th, troops of the British Second Army had made contact with the air-borne troops at Eindhoven, and on the 20th they were smashing through to the River Waal, northeast of Nijmegen, as the city itself as the scene of a furious battle. Huge glider trains, filling the sky for 285 miles, swept out of Britain with reinforcements, with the great Halifaxe's and Stirling's acting as tow-planes.
Meanwhile the Germans were reacting with furious determination. At Arnhem, about 6,500 men had floated down by parachute and succeeded in gaining control of the bridge, together with an area about two miles square. By day and night they experienced frantic enemy counter attacks. The time factor began to turn against them, for the main British forces, advancing from Nijmegen, encountered impenetrable enemy resistance at Elst. On September 23rd, thousands of British and American glider-borne troops were dropped in support of the British Second Army's efforts to relieve the Arnhem men. At the same time the Germans made repeated efforts to cut the Allied corridor to Nijmegen.
Apart from some of the Dorsets and a few Poles, no reinforcements reached the paratroops, the R.A.F. in bad weather, continued to take frightful risks to drop supplies but steadily the tiny garrison were being decimated as the German's, recovered from their first shock, rushed up tanks, mortars, and self-propelled guns. Eventually the airborne men were split up into small bodies, still fighting, but with the enemy ring round them slowly contracting. By September 25th it was apparent that the bid had failed, and that there could be no link-up between the main army and the vanguard at Arnhem. During the nights of the 25th and 26th, the survivors slipped through the enemy lines and were taken back in boats. Two thousand eight hundred were evacuated, and 1,200 wounded had to be left behind. Such was the epic and glory of the Arnhem bridgehead, and though, the battles which were fought around the small Dutch town were fought in vain, the heroism and courage show by those brave gallant soldier's will never be forgotten and will be remembered every time the name Arnhem is mentioned
