Operation Market Garden – XXX Corps delayed at Achterste Brug
Exploring ‘Hell’s Highway’
September 2025, Hell’s Highway, south of Eindhoven, Netherlands. I am exploring Hell’s Highway in the vicinity of Achterste Bridge with author Jack Didden.
The plan for Operation MARKET GARDEN was for three Allied airborne divisions to seize the bridges around Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, while British XXX Corps raced along what became known as ‘Hell’s Highway’ from Joe’s Bridge on the Belgian border to Arnhem on the Rhine River. A distance of about 100km (62 miles)
For this battlefield exploration, we linked up with the guy who literally wrote the book! Jack Didden, along with co-author Maarten Swarts, is the author of ‘Autumn Gale’ and ‘Kampfgruppe Walther and Panzerbrigade 107‘, covering the German attempts to cut the highway.
From Joe’s Bridge to Achterste Bridge
We explored Joe’s Bridge at Lommel, Belgium. The bridge was seized on 10 September 1944 by the Irish Guards under their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Joe Vandeleur (played by Michael Caine in ‘A Bridge Too Far’). We explored the start line of the XXX Corps advance on the Belgian-Dutch border, and the major contact at Achterste Bridge, where the Irish Guards lost eight tanks (this action is also depicted in A Bridge Too Far).
It was a great privilege to walk the ground on these battlefields with perhaps the world’s foremost expert on the events!!
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