Day 5 -Operation Market Garden

Firstly, apologies for not updating the site for ages, we have been without an internet connection for some time now, our reliable source of free WIFI courtesy of McDonalds does not seen to exist outside of Holland!

The end of day 4 saw us do some wild camping in the woods around ‘The Bridge Too Far’ which was where the airborne troops formed up after landing prior to the 10 mile march to take the bridges.  This would be our camp for the next 2 days where we could explore the history of Operation Market Garden.

 

The morning of day 5 saw us visit the Airborne Museum at Hartenstein which was the HQ of the Airborne troops during ‘Market Garden’.  It also served as a temporary medical facility for those wounded in the attack and subsequent defence of the bridges.

 

From here we visited the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Oosterbeek to pay homage to those who died during Operation Market Garden.

 

The afternoon saw us cross the River Rhine over the ‘Bridge Too Far’ which led us to Veldhoven where another 4×4 task had been planned for us in the local woods.  A number of crossword clues had been ‘hidden in and around the forest and it was our job to successfully navigate the car around the trees to find them in the hope we could decode the hidden words in the answers.  This sounds far easier than it was and the risk of damage was ever-present from trees which decided to ‘jump’ out into body panels.  One such tree was apparently a whole inch away (according to my co-driver) when it too decided to jump out as I drove past it.  Having heard the crunch we knew it sounded expensive and upon later investigation a large screwdriver was required to make adjustments’ to the body panels in order to let the passenger door open.  I’m sure a little T-Cut will sort the rest – Fingers Crossed.

We spent the rest of the day making our way back to the campsite via Nijmegen bridge on the route of ‘Hells Highway’.  This was the term given to the road XXX Corps took whilst trying to get to the paratroopers on the bridges in Arnhem to provide much needed reinforcements.  It was this failure to reach the Paras which led to the failure of Operation Market Garden.