This one actually crossed my mind last night- finally gave WW2 Online a try, and part of the "frontline" is located relatively close to Nijmegen.

Got me thinking- other than Market Garden, were there any other significant operations in the area of the MG corridor?

I haven't been reading much of late (I've got plenty to do now! ), so I've forgotten some things... but what happened in the time following MG? I'm pretty sure the lines quieted down for a while, but...

Did anything happen in the area earlier- in the continental campaigns in '40?

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Seriously, all today is missing is free cotton candy and the annual Bay State Hooker Parade to make it any better.

This is actually an interesting point and I'll quickly admit that my knowledge is sadly lacking.

I think that the answer is 'nothing major of strategic significance' but veterans who were there might not think that !

Although bridges were blown in 1940, I don't think that a great deal of fighting took place.

Post Market - Garden , the Allies attempted to push Eastward through Overloon and The Maas Salient. This was anything but glorious ; the muddy conditions led to a slugging match almost reminiscent of WW1. There was also considerable action around the German border town of Cleve. Among the German defenders around Overloon were Fallschirmjaeger, so opposition was fierce.

There is ( of course ! ) a book, 'The Forgotten Battle' by Altes & Veld (1995) which covers the fighting in some detail.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Excellent info!

With my return to WW2 readings and whatnot, I'm sort of giving myself some "reading assignemts", and since Market Garden has always been an operation that fascinated me a great deal (as with many WW2 buffs!), some MG reading is at the top of the list.

Including- the long overdue finishing of It Never Snows in September. I know, horrible- I've had the book for years now, and just never finished reading.

I figured that nothing too significant happened in the area in '40, as the Germans steamrolled through many of these areas.

But the aftermath of MG struck me as something that would be interesting, with the Germans coming out of MG in decent fighting shape, and the allies coming out... well, somewhat "stalled".

See if I can dig up any intersting tidbits in my library or the net about the fighting in the areas you mention!

[img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img]

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Seriously, all today is missing is free cotton candy and the annual Bay State Hooker Parade to make it any better.

Try reading "The Race for the Rhine Bridges" by McKee (Stein and Day, 1971)

This book details the three battles for the Rhine bridges in 1940, 1944 and 1945 making interesting comparisons of the campaigns and strategies for taking those bridges. It is also less Market Garden orientated and more focused on the bridges themselves.

So much has been written about MG as if it was the only event of that period- totally isolated from events elsewhere. But those 86,100 men who escaped the Breskens pocket certainly helped to upset the timetable of XXX Corps. Horrocks didn't know about the escape of the German army through Flushing because he was not privy to ULTRA. But Eisenhower knew, as did Montgomery and Ramsay, also Simmonds - who had a masterful plan to bag them as they got out of Walcheren. But Simmonds was too junior as was Horrocks.

Eisenhower, as land force commander must surely take the blame for the failure of MG.

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If dogs don't go to heaven, I'd like to go where they go.

From Perry Peirik´s "From Leningrad to Berlin"

The SS regiment "Der Führer" successfully broke through the front line at the Ijssel and went on to take Arnhem with little difficulty.After Renkum,though,the going got tougher, the fight at Grebbe continued for some days but eventually ended in defeat for the Dutch-described from the Dutch point of view by E.H. Bongers
( Grebbelinie 1940 ), the Military history Section of the Land Forces Corps ( Mei 1940, De Strijd op Nederlands grondgebied-May 1940 , the stuggle on Dutch territory ) and in the eye-witness reports of Aarts and Pols ( De Greb ).

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