DOOMED RAID INTENDED TO END SECOND WORLD WAR
THE doomed Arnhem raid was part of Operation Market Garden, the single largest airborne operation in history.
Launched in September 1944, as the Allies battled eastward through France and the Low Countries, the operation was intended to bring an early end to the Second World War.
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s plan was to take control of a succession of major bridges in Holland, behind enemy lines, to enable Allied troops to advance swiftly along a narrow corridor from Eindhoven through to Nijmegen and, ultimately, Arnhem, from where the plan was to advance into northern Germany.
Lightly-armed paratroopers were given the task of capturing each bridge and holding it until heavy armour arrived along the road, one bridge at a time. The British 1st Airborne Division had to capture the final bridge, at Arnhem. The drop began on September 17, 1944.
The British troops at Arnhem were dropped some distance from the bridge due to fears it was surrounded by anti-aircraft guns.
About 500 made it to the bridge and captured the north end, despite heavier than expected resistance.
They held it for several days, against an SS Panzer Corps, unexpectedly in the area on rest and recuperation, before on September 25 the order was given to withdraw.
Almost 9,000 men took part in the Arnhem landings. About 1,200 were killed and 5,900 captured.
The Battle of Arnhem was immortalised in the epic 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, based on the book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan.
The star-studded film, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, tells the story of the failure of the operation.