Operation "Market Garden" +70 Years
September 2014 was the month of the 70th anniversary of Operation ""Market Garden", the Allied plan to end World War Two in 1944.
This is our report of "Market Garden 1944-2014".

70 Years after Operation "Market Garden", the Operation Market Garden 2014 event was held to commemorate the liberation of the towns and cities along Hell's Highway from the Belgian border South of Eindhoven North to Arnhem and beyond. Unfortunately the outcome of the Battle of Arnhem did not end World War Two before the winter of 1944 and '45. BattleDetective.com witnessed the events commemorating this battle.
Saturday, September 13th 2014
The day of the traditional / annual Photo Reenactment with Yank Reenactment in Sint-Oedenrode.
We played the role of a Nazi Prisoner of War for a change recreating a famous photo of American press photographers posing with three Luftwaffe prisoners before taking them to a POW collection point.
We then visited the Veghel Base camp. Among many other items a replica of a CG4A "Waco" glider was on display.

click to enlarge:
Sunday, September 14th 2014
The first tour of the Operation Market Garden 2014 vehicle parade was held on this weekend day. Our favorite group: 4 jeeps of the 82nd Airborne Division's Recon team with extra armor plates and .50 caliber machine guns.
As seen from the 10th floor balcony of a friend's apartment.
We met the same recon team again further North in the town of Son.
Four recon jeeps named "Rhino", "Rescue", "Rapunzel" and "Ricochet". Noticed that all four jeeps' nick names started with "R" for reconnaissance?
We then met up with Michel van Eert's group during the lunch break on John Fitzgerald Kennedy-laan in Eindhoven with 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) signals officer Antoine Nouens.
Reenactors set up a perimeter defense on the North ramp of the Wilhelmina Canal Bridge at Son.
After the event we rode our bicycles on the blocked JFK-laan in Eindhoven.
Riding bicycles on the West lanes of JFK; normally the main drag North from downtown Eindhoven, with speeding traffic in both directions.
That evening we discussed battlefield mysteries with World War Two veteran of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) John Primerano at the BBQ of the Round Round Canopy Parachuting Team held at the windmill in Eerde.
We are in the group photo of diners at the Round Round Canopy Parachuting Team BBQ in Eerde.

click to enlarge:
Monday, September 15th 2014
Today we visited the Base Camp in Veghel again to meet up with Don van den Bogert and Boy Eysbroek.
Afterwards we joined the crowd watching the beautiful drop of Round Canopy Parachuting Team and WWII Airborne Demonstration Team members at Eerde with WWII Veterans Ray Nagell (321st Glider Field Artillery Bn.) and John Primerano (501st Parachute Infantry Regiment) as dignitaries in the crowd.

click to enlarge:


"It never snows in September"
Eerde DZ
Band of Others: Good company at the DZ.
Tuesday, September 16th 2014
As if by accident we stumbled upon today's camp site of the Liberation Task Force for their overnight stay in Son.
We shot great images of Nynke writing her name on a Sherman tank, the daily weapons check and storage, the waiting in line for weapons storage with Dutch reenactor Floris Baars handing in an Enfield revolver. We met
506th Parachute Infantry Veteran Bill Galbraight again and a British regimental soldier.
Great images of Sherman tanks of the Guards Armored Division, Sherman tank with messages in chalk from liberated Dutch towns and Shermans, more Shermans. And a soldier's bath in Wilhelmina Canal and soldiers resting  before the next move across Wilhelmina Canal tomorrow. Some taking part in a drill exercise.
We found an "owned"! captured Nazi PAK 40 anti tank canon and went to see the progress made on the
Bailey Bridge ready to be pushed across Wilhelmina Canal in Son tomorrow morning from the northern canal bank.
And got a prized "Market Garden" chocolate bar from men of the 411th Combat Engineer Company, Royal Netherlands Army working on the bridge as feverishly as in the movie A Bridge Too Far: "Pound it, soldier, pound it! We've got a schedule to meet!"

click to enlarge:
Wednesday, September 17th 2014
This was the day the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA) constructed a Bailey Bridge across the Wilhelmina Canal in Son allowing British 30th Corps to cross, the 'reception in the field' of the Commandant of the RNLA and a demonstration by the 501st Infantry Regiment of how they would attack Grave bridge when they would have been given that task today.
Thursday the 18th was spent in the Rijk van Nijmegen area and Grave; mostly on historical Drop Zones.
On Friday the 19th, the wreath laying ceremonies of the Society of Dutch Airborne Friends took place in Eindhoven and the towns north of it; all liberated by the 101st Airborne Division and the subsequent "Remember September" memorial dinner hosted by the Airborne Friends.
Saturday the 20th was spent in the Oosterbeek/Arnhem area and Sunday the 21st was the day Alpha Company of the 501st Infantry Regiment, First Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division (the same unit which liberated Grave bridge on the 17th) conducted the river crossing of the Waal in Nijmegen. Enjoy our photo report.

0500AM, Royal Netherlands Army engineers rolling the Bailey bridge across Wilhelmina Canal in Son.
Constructing the Bailey Bridge at Son:


 Field Reception of the Commandant Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA) at the Maas river Bridge at Grave:

click to enlarge:



That night in Eerde: Frenk Derks van de Ven managing the debate about which US Army airborne division is the real parent of the 501st Infantry Regiment & the littlest Andrew Sisters:

click to enlarge:

Thursday, September 18th 2014
During our visit to the Rijk van Nijmegen area we found that Then&Now photography was made real easy in Grave near Overasselt.
We then went to the CG4A glider monument on the Klein Amerika Landing Zone in Groesbeek unveiled the previous day, displaying two United States Army Air Corps emblems.
As a tradition we visited the Dutch Casemate at Grave Bridge and subsequently talked to the Mayor of Grave after a ceremony in honor of three downed British airmen. At the Grave bridge across the Meuse river we conducted some Combat Scene Investigation at the Landing Zone where .223 caliber blanks had been fired by Alpha Company of the 501st Infantry Regiment a day earlier.

click to enlarge:
Friday, September 19th 2014
This day was mostly spent with wreath laying ceremonies, acting as the Master of Ceremonies with US Embassy staff, Mayor of the Municipality of Sint-Oedenrode the bugler of the Airbornevrienden, Ian Gardner and his wife and many more spectators Veghel, Heeswijk-Dinther and other towns liberated by the 101st Airborne in September 1944.
We posed with with Airborne Friends Chairman Mathew VanLuyt and the Color Guard of the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Heeswijk-Dinther.
That night we had the annual Remember September Memorial Dinner with 106 diners among whom 16 original WWII American liberators.

click to enlarge:
Saturday, September 20th 2014
This Saturday was mostly spent at Arnhem Bridge and Oosterbeek:

click to enlarge:
Sunday, September 21st 2014
At the Car Park Vasim in Nijmegen prior to the Waal Crossing demonstration, watching British tankers of 30th Corps getting a behind the scene look, we met with Douglas McCabe of the University of Ohio. Doug is the curator of author Cornelius Ryan's research material for his book A Bridge Too Far and from whom this agency has received numerous documents. It was very interesting attending Doug's 'flash lecture' shortly after this and to discuss battlefield myths with him.

We then witnessed Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment preparing for their river crossing at "De Oversteek" bridge and 82nd Airborne Division artillery commander, Colonel Moretti giving divisional patches to us on the bleachers.
Now we were equipped with "The complete wardrobe of the Waal river crossing demonstration tourist".
During the crossing Royal Netherlands Army infantry provided covering fire with machine guns and 30th Corps with 17 pounder guns.
We saw wave after wave making the combat Waal river crossing at the same location as 70 years (+1 day) ago while the RNLA used simulated gun fire and artillery hits on the northern river bank.
After the last wave a red star signified "Mission accomplished".
The event was organized perfectly.

click to enlarge:

Back to Commemoration Page
 
 
(c) 2007-Present Day Battledetective.com. Email: tom@battledetective.com. all rights reserved.