Market Garden – 2nd Army’s battles on the flanks of XXX Corps

At 14:00 on September 17, 1944, the artillery of XXX army corps commenced the preparatory bombardment on German positions south of Valkenswaard. Half an hour later, 20,000 vehicles start moving towards Arnhem on just one provincial road. Shortly before, the American 101st and 82nd Airborne Division and British 1st Airborne Division had landed in the vicinity of Son, Veghel, Grave, Groesbeek and Renkum. The airborne divisions had to capture the bridges between Eindhoven and Arnhem to allow the advance of British XXX Corps and get across the Rhine. East and west of XXX Corps, British VIII Corps and XII Corps also attacked to protect the flanks of 2nd Army’s advance.

This special tour takes you from the British bridgehead across the Leopold Canal at Neerpelt to Eindhoven. You will follow the operations by British XXX Corps to link up with the 101st Airborne Division, and also attacks on its flanks by the other two corps. Attacks that went extremely slow and with great difficulty, giving Germans the opportunity to cut off The Corridor to the north over and over again, soon to be called Hell’s Highway by the Americans.