In this week in military history, we explore the actions that took place during the failed World War II military operation known as Operation Market Garden. Market Garden was fought in the Netherlands from September 17th -25th, 1944.
Allied forces in Europe were eager to create an invasion route into northern Germany after the successes of D-Day and the liberation of Paris
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By September, the overstretched Allies began approaching the formidable Siegfried Line, the 390 mile German defensive wall built during the 1930s.
General Bernard Law Montgomery, a British Field Marshal, came up with the ambitious plan of sidestepping the Siegfried Line to cross the lower part of the Rhine River, with the intent of advancing into the industrial areas of northern Germany.
Code-named Market Garden, Montgomery’s audacious plan involved three Allied airborne divisions seizing key territories and bridges in the Netherlands. After landing by parachute and glider, ground forces were to seize key bridges and hold them until Allied armour could reach them, thus facilitating a daring rapier thrust into the heart Germany.
Employing all three divisions of the First Allied Airborne Army, this was largest airborne operation up to that point in World War II. Market Garden began on September 17th as forces landed and eventually captured all the necessary bridges but one.
Despite this initial momentum the Allies were unable to capture the furthest bridge at Arnhem, delaying the momentum of the attack and allowing for German forces to overwhelm the British despite heroic resistance from the British paratroopers.
The failure to capture the final bridge meant for no bridgehead across the Rhine. It was not until February 1945 that the Allies would secure the area they had originally hoped to conquer in Operation Market Garden.
Join us next time for another segment of This Week in Military History with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library!
