Colorizations By Users

Fallschirmjäger at Oosterbeek col.

Bundesarchiv - colorized by Schuultz

Fallschirmjäger scan the horizon for Allied troops near Oosterbeek.

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The infamous Battle of Arnhem, fought around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze, Driel was the focal point of the Allied Operation Market Garden, fought between the 17th - 26th September, 1944.

The Allied plan was to head north through the Dutch Gelderland, thereby bypassing the German Siegfied line defenses and opening the route to the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland.

To achieve this, Allied paratroopers were to capture the supposedly poorly defended bridges of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and, most importantly, Arnhem.

However, Allied intelligence was fatally wrong. The area was not only defended by poorly trained reservists, but some of the most elite Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units Germany could muster were present to refit and recuperate.

The British troopers soon saw themselves cut off by professional and experienced Germans with little hope of the Allied spearhead breaking through to them in time. Some of the Brits fought until they ran out of food and ammo and then some, but eventually they were all captured or killed.

In the face of these defeats, the Operation was aborted and by the 26th September the remaining troopers had retreated.

Colorized by Schuultz