Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful World War II military operation fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. It was the brainchild of Field Marshal Montgomery and strongly supported by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. The objective was to create a 64 mi salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine. This was to be achieved by seizing a series of nine bridges with 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 salient. It failed, however, with the advance being halted at the river.
About Operation Market Garden in brief
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful World War II military operation fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. It was the brainchild of Field Marshal Montgomery and strongly supported by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. The objective was to create a 64 mi 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 with 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 salient. It failed, however, with the advance being halted at the river. The failure of Operation Market Garden to form a foothold over the Rhine ended Allied hopes of finishing the war by Christmas 1944 in France and the Low Countries. After major defeats in Normandy, remnants of German forces withdrew across France and Low Countries towards the German border by the end of August 1944. In the first week of September, British 21st Army Group commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery sent its British Second Army advancing on a line running from France to Wesel. The Allied forces would project north from Belgium, 60 miles through the Netherlands, across theRhine and consolidate north of Arnhem on the DutchGerman border, ready to close the pincer. The attack was the largest airborne operation up to that point in World War Two. Supreme Commander General Eisenhower’s strategic goal was to encircle the heart of German industry, the Ruhr area, in a pincers movement.
The northern end of the p incer would give easier access into Germany across the north German plains enabling mobile warfare. However, in contrast to this large airborne force, the ground forces were light with only one corps moving north of EINDhoven, XXX Corps. The Allies had to sustain heavy casualties sustaining heavy casualties to cross the river and advance into Germany until March 1945. The remainder of the British 1st Airborne Division was trapped in a small pocket west of the Arnhem bridge, which was evacuated on 25 September after after being overrun by the Germans. The Germans had remained a barrier to the Allies’ advance into their offensives at Remagen, Oppensives and Reeses and Reelheim, until March 1944 in March 1945 in Wesel, Rees and Oppen, and Wesel in March 1944. The German forces demolished the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son before it could be captured by the US 101st Airbourne Division, and a partly prefabricated Bailey bridge was then built over the canal by British sappers. This delayed XXX Corps’ advance by 12 hours; however, they made up the time, reaching Nij megen on schedule. The US 82nd Airborne. Division’s failure to capture the main highway bridge. over the Waal River at NijMegen before 20 September delayed the advance by 36 hours. After the ground force advance was delayed by the initial failure of the airborne units to secure bridges, they were overrun on 21 September.
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This page is based on the article Operation Market Garden published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
