Historic Replicas

Operation Market Garden began as scheduled on September 17th, 1944.  The airborne force consisted of the American 82nd and 101st airborne divisions and the British 1st airborne division, and was later supplemented by the Polish 1st Parachute Brigade.  Thousands of troops dropped into the sky over Holland and hurried towards their targets.  The Americans had to secure a series of bridges along highway 69, clearing the way for the British 30th Corps on the ground to proceed to the Dutch city of Arnhem on the Rhine River.  Arnhem was on the border with Germany and considered an ideal staging area for the final Allied advance into Germany.  The British paratroopers had the extremely dangerous task of eliminating the WWII German helmet troops in Arnhem and holding out against a siege, WWII guns blazing, until the ground forces could arrive.   The plan was risky; success depended on the ground forces’ ability to make their way swiftly through Holland and relieve the valiant airborne troops.  American Field Marshall Montgomery claimed he could reach Arnhem by land in two days, and British General Browning famously replied that while his paratroopers could hold out four, he believed they might have gone “a bridge too far.”   As it turned out, he was all too right.  In a classic intelligence blunder, the Allies had drastically underestimated the number of German troops in the area, and Operation Market Garden would ultimately prove impossible.