Return to Son

Back in Son, the Bailey bridge was complete and British units were crossing in force. Left to guard the area were elements of the 1st Battalion HQ and the C/506 on the north side of the canal and a platoon …

1944-09-19

17

Back in Son, the Bailey bridge was complete and British units were crossing in force. Left to guard the area were elements of the 1st Battalion HQ and the C/506 on the north side of the canal and a platoon of troop from the A/506 on the south side. Suddenly 2 Dutchman on their bicycles approached the Americans, pedaling for all they were worth. As they arrived they immediately started speaking in broken English – German tanks were coming. It was the 107th Panzer Brigade, attacking along the South side of the canal from the East.

Son, Holland

Operation Market Garden was a failed World War II military operation fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. It was the brainchild of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery and strongly supported by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. The airborne part of the operation was undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps of the British Second Army. The objective was to create a 64 mi (103 km) salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by seizing a series of nine bridges by Airborne forces with land forces swiftly following over the bridges. The operation succeeded in liberating the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, creating a 60 mi (97 km) salient into German-held territory limiting V-2 rocket launching sites. It failed, however, to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, with the advance being halted at the river.

Wikipedia: Operation Market Garden

German

American