Holding Hell's Highway

Operation Market Garden; Montgomery's plan to shorten the war by creating an “air bridge" of allied troops to the city of Arnhem, was floundering. The 101st Airborne Division had successfully seized its assigned bridges, but now had to defend them …

1944-09-20

HoN31

Operation Market Garden; Montgomery's plan to shorten the war by creating an “air bridge" of allied troops to the city of Arnhem, was floundering. The 101st Airborne Division had successfully seized its assigned bridges, but now had to defend them against persistent German counter attacks. This series of roads leading to Arnhem was named “Hell's Highway." Further evidence to support the name came on September 20th, when a large group of German tanks, complimented by Falischirmjager riders, attacked the defensive positions of the 101st at the town of Veghel.

Veghel, 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

American / UK

Germany