The Airborne March

The first Saturday in September each year sees the Airborne March in Holland. The march is in commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem of September 1944.

In 2005 the 59th edition was held with 33,136 participants from over 16 different countries. The March is intended to honour the 1,700 British and Polish soldiers and airmen who lost their lives during the Battle of Arnhem and are buried at the Airborne Cemetery at Oosterbeek.

The revenues of the Airborne March are used to enable veterans and next of kin with poor means, to come over to The Netherlands and attend the annual Airborne-commemorations in and around Arnhem.

The Airborne March started in 1947 and is organised every year by the Dutch Police Sport Association. Start and finish are at the sports park Hartenstein in Oosterbeek, just beyond the Airborne Museum which was formerly the Hartenstein Hotel, which was used as Divisional H.Q. at the time of the battle.













The march is also meant to remind one and all, especially the post-war generations, of the sacrifices man was ready to make for the restoration of democracy.







A photograph taken during the 1954 march.






With distances of 10, 15, 25 and 40 kilometres, it is an "all-age"-march

The routes are laid out through the several villages of the municipality of Renkum in the Netherlands, along the battlefields and drop zones of the operation Market Garden of September 1944. I have two reasons for being interested in this, firstly my Uncle John was at Arnhem as part of Market Garden and he only escaped capture by being hidden by a Dutch family in their kitchen. Secondly my friend Sheryl attends the march every year, she began attending when she was 13 and it is something she looks forward to throughout the summer (so good luck Squirrel!).

Operation Market Garden

Market Garden was one of the boldest plans of World War Two. Thirty thousand British and American airborne troops were to be flown behind enemy lines to capture the eight bridges that spanned the network of canals and rivers on the Dutch/German border.

At the same time, British tanks and infantry were to push up a narrow road leading from the Allied front line to these key bridges. They would relieve the airborne troops, and then cross the intact bridges.




The area involved in the plan.



The plan was conceived by General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British forces in Europe. The glittering triumph of the D-Day landings in France had become bogged down in the slow and costly progress through the Normandy fields and hedgerows, which the Germans defended with skill and tenacity

On Sunday 17 September, 500 gliders and 1,500 aircraft flew over the men of 30th British Corps, whose job was to follow beneath them in their tanks and trucks. As the aircraft flew over, the Allied guns began a huge barrage to hit the Germans guarding the road ahead. The weather that day was beautiful, with a cloudless blue sky and a warming autumn sun. American and British gliders and parachutists drifted down on target, gathered up their equipment and began to move towards the bridges they had to take. The road up which 30th Corps would have to travel to reach the bridges was narrow, just wide enough for two vehicles to pass. It was defended by small groups of determined German infantry.

As the 30th Corp tanks approached, they picked off the leading nine vehicles, bringing the whole column to a standstill. It was 40 minutes before they moved again. The Germans were quick to organise against the airborne troops.

The British paratroopers began their advance towards Arnhem, and were soon under attack. They quickly found that their radios didn't work properly. It was impossible to co-ordinate the attack properly, because no one could communicate. However, one British battalion did find a way through the German perimeter around Arnhem, and by 8pm on the first day, they had captured the northern end of the road bridge across the Rhine. The Americans had also reached their objectives. But most of the bridges had been blown up before they could be captured.

At the end of the first day, 30th Corp had advanced only seven miles from their start line, and had not reached the first in the sequence of bridges. Meanwhile the Germans were reinforcing, and their tanks were moving into Arnhem ready to take on the lightly armed British paratroopers.

On 18 September, the second day, 30th Corp began to make the progress expected of them. Their tanks covered 20 miles in a few hours, hooking up with the Americans at one of the intact bridges near Grave. On the third day they reached Nijmegen, where the Americans were still fighting in the streets in their efforts to reach the bridge across the might River Waal.

Once they had taken Nijmegen bridge, only Arnhem would be left, and the north end at least was still in British hands. It seemed that Operation Market Garden might succeed.

But they could not get across the bridge. General Horrocks, 30th Corps commander, ordered American troops to attack across the River Waal, so that they could capture the German end.

The attack was enormously costly. Half of the company was killed or wounded on the crossing. The survivors reached the far bank, and from there successfully stormed the Nijmegen bridge. At last the route to Arnhem was in Allied hands. However, it was too late for the British parachute battalion at the north end of the bridge. The Germans had moved their tanks into the town, and one by one they were demolishing the houses in which the British were fighting.

By now the paratroops had few anti-tank weapons, they had no food, and, crucially, they had little ammunition left. The Allied troops were forced to abandon their positions near the bridge, and to try and fight their way out. Three miles from Arnhem British paratroops were holding a pocket of land at the village of Oosterberck. By now 30th Corps, commanded by General Horrocks, was on the other side of the river from the airborne troops. They could not, however, cross.

German artillery controlled the river. Horrocks decided to evacuate the British survivors; only some 2,500 eventually made the crossing. The Parachute division had left behind nearly 1,500 dead, and more than 6,500 prisoners, many badly wounded.

Operation Market Garden had failed. It would be another four months before the Allies crossed the Rhine again and captured the German industrial heartland. The war dragged on, costing the lives of many thousands of civilians and servicemen