Market-Garden question

[bardosy]

What happend to the bridges (nijmegen's railroad and highway bridges and arnhem's highway bridge) after the rivercrossing of Waal (at Nijmegen)?

Witch Nijmegen's bridges captured by the allies? Both?

Any side destroyed the Arnhem's (big) bridge after the success rivercrossing at Nijmegen? And if not, why XXX corps didn't capture Arnhem after the evacuate of paras?

[Andreas]

The Germans tried to destroy the Nijmegen bridges by use of frogmen (?), floating mines, and aircraft, with no success, AFAIK. They also tried a fairly hefty attack in late January, IIRC, towards the bridge, which was stopped in Zetten by a battalion of 49th West Riding Infantry Division.

Not sure who blew up the Arnhem road bridge, my guess is that it was the Germans. The 'Island', as the Pommies called it, was a scene of mostly low-intensity fighting throughout the winter. Much of it was flooded by breaches in the dams of the Rhine.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by bardosy:

What happend to the bridges (nijmegen's railroad and highway bridges and arnhem's highway bridge) after the rivercrossing of Waal (at Nijmegen)?

Witch Nijmegen's bridges captured by the allies? Both?

Any side destroyed the Arnhem's (big) bridge after the success rivercrossing at Nijmegen? And if not, why XXX corps didn't capture Arnhem after the evacuate of paras?

Both bridges at Nijmegen were captured. The Canadians took over the area around Nijemegen beginning in November 1944; the US airborne troops were withdrawn, and the Canadians were recovering from the mauling they took in the Scheldt Estuary. They went into winter positions around Nijmegen and stayed there until the beginning of February. There were no new large operations in the Nijmegen Salient during this time, with the exception of Kaplesche Veer in early 1945.

Arnhem was liberated by the British in April 1945 IIRC (one Canadian regiment was just recently given a Battle Honour for their participation in ARNHEM 1945, about 50 years after the fact; they were a machine gun company attached to a Canadian armoured division). That's about 7 months after the battle there during Market Garden. There were other priorities; the winter stalemate in the Nijmegen Salient, and then after that the fighting in the Rhineland and the operations and crossings down south - VERITABLE, GRENADE, VARSITY

[JeF]

Hi,

The Arnhem Rail Bridge was blown by the Germans on 17th Sept 1944.

According to my Airborne Assault manual, the Arnhem Road Bridge was destroyed by Allied bombers on October 7th. During the battle for Arnhem it was of vital importance for the Germans as well. Orders were given not to destroy it. I guess the bridge served to reinforce German positions south of Arnhem and could be used for any sort of counter-attack.

Nowadays, the reconstructed bridge is named after John Frost, commander of the 2nd Para Bn, who seized the "bridge too far" and resisted three days against overwhelming odds.

And if you are interrested in more details, check those impressive web sites :

- The Battle of Arnhem Archive

- Operation Market-Garden

- Battle of Arnhem 1944

Cheers,

JeF.

[bardosy]

Thank you boys!

You could help me!

Thanx again...

[Tank Ace]

The reason XXX corps did not try to make just "one bloody mile" and rescue the besieged paratroops has never been clear to me, Im reading A BRIDGE TOO FAR now but im only in the beginning. From what I have seen of maps the only bridge that could be used was the Arnhem bridge, but Frost's men weren't there anymore and the Ferry and pontoon bridge were both destroyed, there was no way they could even attempt rescue the paratroops. this is just my judgement.