In 2019, there were a number of important World-War II anniversaries, now being 75 years after the Allies began to liberate north-west Europe ending German occupation. One of these was in The Netherlands,commemoratingOperation Market Garden.
After the D-Day landing in France in June 1944, allied troops moved inland, increasingly, liberating more French areas. In September that year, allied troops entered Belgium and a plan was made to speed up the advance before onset of winter. This was to move further north in The Netherlands and cross some rivers to the east, so as to bypass the major German defences (the ‘Siegfriedline’)and so into the heart of Germany.
Resplendent with its D-Day stripes, Douglas C-47 Dakota awaits paratroopers to embark
To secure vital bridges over Dutch rivers, about 35,000allied paratroopers were airdropped in Holland on 17 September 1944, of which some 11,000 were in the Arnhem region (mostly the 6th British Airborne Division). On the first day, some hundreds of Dakotas and Horsa gliders airdropped the paratroopers and light equipment including jeeps plus other supplies. The allied forces were mainly British but also included American and Polish troops, the airborne troops tasked to take control of the bridges rapidly and secure their positions until bulk of the ground forces, moving from Belgium and south of The Netherlands, linked up with them in a few days.
However, the airborne troops faced immense resistance from German troops, who were in much larger numbers than expected. The paratroopers, with their light equipment, could not carry out their original tasks against the heavily armed German forces and finally,just a small number were able to reach the bridge at Arnhem, but could not hold their positions and in less than a day, had to withdraw, giving back the Germans control over the bridge. Allied airborne troops were separated from each other and isolated by the German forces. By 24 September, the Operation was terminated but about 2000 trapped troops were evacuated to safety.
Operation Market Garden had failed and was thereafter referred to as “a bridge too far”. Of some 11000 paratroopers involved, only 2300 returned to the UK,1500 were killed in action and others wounded or taken prisoner of war by the Germans. The Netherlands itself had to wait for final liberation until the next year in early May 1945.
Falcon Leap metamorphoses into Market Garden
Paratroopers boarding a number of C-130 Hercules, all engines running
Paratroopers and their Hercules
75thanniversary of Operation Market Garden was commemorated in September 2019 in the Arnhem region, with a mass paratrooper force of about 1100 men from international forces, including several veterans as also Prince Charles and Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands being in attendance. Build up of this impressive demonstrationhad begun two weeks earlier, with preparations for the Dutch autumn exercise Falcon Leap. This annual exercise is on various aspects of air-borne operations including offensive air assault. Headquarters of operations was the Royal Netherlands Air Force base Eindhoven, location of the military transport and tanker aircraft including the C-130 Hercules and KDC-10. Participants included C-130s from the Royal Air Force, USAF, US Marine Corps, The Royal Netherlands Air Force, the Italian Air Force, a Casa C-295 from Poland while Germany provided a C-160 Transall and 2 smaller special duty C-145s. The last two were used for para –tandem- jumping of several WW II veterans as well as some special guests.
On main day of the memorial, 21 September 2019, the aircraft flew in three waves, airdropping some 1100 paratroopers in front of some 100,000 spectators gathered for the event. The aircraft flew in two formations, the first at 1100 feet flight level and the second at 1300 feet.
The Exercise was a massive logistic operational challenge, with hosting of the aircraft, their crew and some 1100 paratroopers, for which the large Eindhoven air base maintenance (KDC-10) hangar was used. Majority of the para drops were with the static line –automatic opening - parachutes at 1100 and 1300 feet. The other para droppings were free fall from 9500 feet, executed for the special guests and VIPs using smaller C-145 aircraft, even as Polish paratroopers performed free fall para drops from C-295 aircraft.
The British Army’s “Red Devil” parachute team participated but certainly the most poignant was the tandem jump by a 98 year-old veteran of the Operation Market Garden.
Text and photos by Peter ten Berg