Historical Overview Almost everyone has heard of “The Bridge Too Far ” and Operation Market Garden. Anyone with an interest in the

battle will have their own favourite theories about what went wrong, and how the battle could have been won by the Allies. Any serious student of the battle with have read Robert Kershaw’s fascinating book “It Never Snows In September”. One of the key themes in the book is an insight into quite how close to success the Allies actually were. How, time after time, the German positions at Arnhem were precariously close to giving way, and then just in time, reinforcements would arrive. This scenario focuses on one element of the bitter fighting that took place on day 3 of the Battle of Arnhem- a pivotal day for the 1st Airborne Division. Whilst Frost was isolated and fighting for survival at the bridge, Tuesday 19th September saw the last realistic opportunities for the rest of the Division to break through German blocking lines and to reinforce the defenders at the bridge. The Opening Stages of Operation Market Garden Operation Market Garden, was a massive operation undertaken by the Allies to try and restore momentum to the breakout from France, using their vast Airborne resources to outflank the Siegfried Line and force a Rhine crossing in Holland. But strategic errors had already been made that were to come back to haunt the operation. The failure to secure the Scheldt estuary allowed tens of thousands from the German 15t