Historic Replicas

After perusing the World War II replicas websites, and watching the epic A Bridge Too Far, I decided to take a closer look at the monumental, yet at times overlooked Operation Market Garden.  In the fall of 1944, the Germans had suffered a string of defeats at Normandy on D-Day and across France that summer, retreating to Eastern France towards the German border.  American General and future President Dwight Eisenhower felt the time was right to launch a full-scale invasion of Northern Germany, laying waste to the region’s industrial centers before pushing on to Berlin.  The most effective way was to go through German-occupied Holland and cross the Rhine, a river on German-Dutch border.  The Allies had a mighty task ahead of them; they had to control Holland’s Highway 69 (tragically nicknamed “Hell’s Highway” in the aftermath), and three major bridges along the route, to move troops and equipment.  The bridges were the tricky part, since the Germans could blow them up if they figured out what was going on, and halt the invasion for weeks.  Speed and surprise were essential, and the Allied generals reasoned that paratroopers were the answer. Market Garden was born, a joint collaboration of American, British, Polish, and Canadian troops that poured into Holland by land and air.  The WWII paratroopers are the really amazing part; over 34,600 men were dropped into enemy territory, the largest airborne offensive in human history.  The stage was set for one of the greatest battles ever fought.