82nd Airborne's Most Successful Market Garden Action? Grave Bridge with James Holland & Al Murray

[@MichaelJansen-y5i]

Thanks for this video.. i love it . I live 5 minutes away and love to dig up the past . My friend found the clip of one of the handgrenades who were thrown in the bunker closest to the bridge .

[@Lee.Enfield-303]

We are privileged to watch you both retelling these stories with your passion and exuberance. If I was passing you on a bike like some of the locals and understood English, I'd offer you copious refreshments(beer, loosens the tongue) to hear more of your knowledge of these actions.

[@conallmclaughlin4545]

Brilliant series so far, these longer ones are amazing!

[@WW2WalkingTheGround]

Glad you like them!

[@NickGillings-vf3ye]

Brilliant as always ! I’ve followed your podcast since I saw it live at Chalk Valley back in 2018 , absolutely fantastic . Your two recent series on D-Day and Market Garden are peerless and this youtube channel just whets the appetite for me and my group of workmates ( known as Cheesy Company ) to revisit the battlegrounds of North West Europe again for the first time in over ten years ! Keep it up chaps , good show !

[@davidsullivan7743]

Really enjoying these videos, it is brilliant to see it explained on the actual ground. Plus, I've just finished your new book, and I can honestly say it's the best history I've read on Arnhem. I've read Cornelius Ryan's and Antony Beevor's books, but yours captures the chaos & confusion experienced by the troops on the ground like no other

[@corychecketts]

Two of the best blokes on KZbin.

[@realwealthproperties5671]

Just finished watching this one for the second time. Just absolutely love your videos! You guys are the best!

[@bliss661]

I'm really enjoying this series, the descriptions of what happened during the engagements is fascinating.

[@thewoodster8607]

Are there two more accessible historians? I don't think so. Your podcast has led me here and I'm loving it! You simply cannot beat walking the ground.

[@MossleyJardinier]

It's interesting to hear about the importance of roads and bridges in this landscape. My grandad was in the Pioneer Corps, on D-Day his company was attached to the First Canadian Army and landed on Mike Sector of Juno Beach. From September, they were in Belgium, from October the Netherlands. From Ostend and Tilburg through Grave, s'Hertogenbosch and Nijmegen, if there were bridges to be built, or roads to be widened, they were there. They worked on the Bailey Bridge across the Rhine to Emmerich. They were there from Normandy to the Rhine. I like to think that my grandad helped defeat Fascism with a spade, shovel, pickaxe and lump hammer.

[@Nat-uk2gi]

Great video well done

[@WW2WalkingTheGround]

Thanks 👍

[@seanbradley2134]

Unmissable gents, really enjoyed it as usual. It’s a bit of a showcase for the US airborne troops; extremely brave lads, and highly effective too

[@OldWolflad]

indeed, the 82nd and 101st AB were absolutely top notch. I say that as a Brit. It was just that their also-excellent Commanders made some impacting decisions, or alternatively at least appeared to have lacked communication with their regimental command. I dislike the fact that Gavin initially fully accepted personal responsibility for deprioritising the Nijmegen Bridge (in the official post-war US enquiry - i.e. "It was my personal decision ratified by my commander"), then several years later tried to excuse it by saying it was a joint decision, then approx 30 years later in line with many of his colleagues, blamed Browning (whom at the time of the op he praised) and the British for everything. Can't believe much of what he says consequently about the op - lacks any credibility. Yet he was undoubtedly a fine commander.

[@PaulDouglasDouglas97]

Really enjoyed the video mate can't wait for the next one

[@TheCheshireWanderer]

The video was posted 29 minutes ago. You really enjoyed a 19 odd minute video 25 minutes ago 😂😂

[@BernardBakker]

16:38 , for those who couldn't quite follow Al's perfect pronunciation of the Dutch language. In 2004 the bridge was renamed to "John S. Thompson Bridge" in honor of the heroic action of Thompson and his men in 1944. And one more small correction. What James and Al call a power station / power house, is in reality a pumping station, it is still used to keep the surrounding land dry.

[@bananabrooks3836]

Yes thanks for clarification.

[@TomMullen-hn7wc]

Love it. These two guys are awesome!

[@john07973]

Very informative. Thanks 👍

[@TheCheshireWanderer]

Hände hoching 😂😂 brilliant! Keep them coming!

[@TomAce88]

Fantastic only just seen this channel i love it!

[@WW2WalkingTheGround]

Welcome aboard!

[@AndrewHyams]

the gimbal has added so much to the production value 👍👍👍

[@Coolerman565]

Great detailed account of the 82nd attack, i visited that place some years ago very interesting.

[@davemac1197]

2:06 - oops! - the 504th actually missed Normandy because they were recovering from Anzio at the time. Their place in Normandy was taken by the 507th, which along with the 508th were both new regiments, and the 507th later became an organic part of 17th Airborne Division for the Rhine crossing in 1945. For MARKET, the 504th and the 505th were the most experienced regiments in the 82nd, while the 508th was on its second operation. 4:10 - "this isn't a front line" - the Maas was an outpost line to a main line in this area established along the Maas-Waal canal. Most of the German troops in the 82nd's area was along the line of the canal, while only forward platoons from an army Flak security unit, an SS anti-tank training unit, and some paratroopers from the Hermann Göring training regiment were situated here. There was a Dutch SS battalion in Grave itself, withdrawn from the battles in Belgium, but after sending a couple of vehicles up the road during Thompson's seizure of the bridge and getting shot up, they decided to withdraw from the town later that night and the 2/504th Battalion occupied the town without any trouble. Al might appreciate the name of the village the local Dutch people reported the SS battalion withdrew to - "Beers". 6:15 - "special drop zone" - James is actually pointing to where Thompson's stick landed, which was north of the main Easy Company drop zone behind his left arm about 2 km away, because Thompson saw houses below him (the hamlet of Velp) when the green light came on and waited to pass them before jumping. This meant his stick landed closer to the bridge than intended, but he decided to attack the bridge with just his half-platoon alone. The rest of the Company established a roadblock at De Elft on the main road south of Grave.

[@iannewman9311]

Thanks Dave - interesting additional detail.

[@davemac1197]

@@iannewman9311 - I never know how much detail people would be interested in, so it was just some brief comments. From my research notes I have this much, based on German records and 82nd Airborne G-2 (Intel) records on prisoner identifications taken during the operation: Overasselt (northern end of Maasbrug): 1 Zug - Flak-Kompanie Neiderlande (9 or 10./Sicherungs-Regiment 26) - 30 men from the III.(Fla-Abteilung) of Sicherungs-Regiment 26, formerly 3./Landesschützen-Bataillon ‘Niederlande’ and paybooks or dog tags still reflected these old names on PWs taken at the Maasbrug. Some evidence the battalion used half-track Flakwagens, some armoured and some open, based on numerous reports from the 82nd Airborne around the Nijmegen area. The battalion was the assigned security unit for Nijmegen and was manned by WW1 veterans too old for frontline service. The 2cm Flak guns could be dismounted from the SdKfz 10 half-track cargo bed and placed on Flak towers, such as the bunkers at Grave. 1 Zug - Kompanie Böhme (21.Unteroffizier-Lehr-Kommando or NCO training company of the Fallschirm-Panzer-Ersatz-und-Ausbildungs-Regiment ‘Hermann Göring’) - the remainder were camped behind the canal in the Jonkersbos as reserve on the Maas-Waal canal defence line. After withdrawing from the Maasbrug at Overasselt, they rejoined the rest of the Kompanie which reinforced the canal bridge at Honinghutje (Bridge 10 target for the 82nd Airborne), and after that was captured on D+1 then further withdrew into Nijmegen where the Kompanie made a stand at the Villa Belvoir overlooking Hunner Park on the approached to the highway bridge. About 60 men managed to escape the fall of the bridge and cross the Waal further east along with the same number of survivors from SS-Bataillon Euling (10.SS-Panzer-Division). 1 Zug - 2./SS-Panzerjäger-Ausbildungs-und-Ersatz-Abteilung 2 2 x 5cm PaK 38 and 1 x 7.5cm Pak 40 from 2.Kompanie of SS-Sturmbannführer Johann Eigler’s SS-Panzerjäger-Ausbildungs-und-Ersatz-Abteilung 2 from Hilversum, identified by PWs after the Maasbrug at Overasselt was taken by the 504th PIR on 17 September. The rest of the 2.Kompanie was likely deployed at the bridges along the Maas-Waal canal MLR based on Allied defence overprint maps. Grave: I./SS-Grenadier-Regiment 1 ‘Landstorm Nederland’ - withdrawn from the Albert canal at Hasselt in Belgium, and after the airborne landings made a token counter-attack or reconnaissance at the Maasbrug in the direction of Nijmegen before evacuating Grave in direction of Beers on night of 17/18 September. The unit crossed the Maas somewhere to the south and joined the remainder of the regiment and other Dutch SS units as Kampfgruppe Rauter in the Veluwe region north of Arnhem after MARKET GARDEN.

[@iannewman9311]

@@davemac1197 I enjoyed the detail and the polite correction re 504/507th. That Al and James remember everything they do when walking around without notes is impressive. To have other folks who can cover and fill in gaps makes it doubly enjoyable.

[@davemac1197]

@@iannewman9311 - the gaps are the most difficult thing - the Grave Maasbrug defences have foxed me for many years, couldn't find a Luftwaffe Flak unit responsible for example, and now I understand why - it was an obscure Reserve Army unit. The breakthrough was recently purchasing the 82nd Airborne G-2 (Intel) and G-3 (Ops) Section documents from PaperlessArchives online for a modest fee - you get 9333 pages of the raw data in the form of handwritten notes and typed reports from the Division's service in North Africa to Germany. The hard part is trawling through the data to find the nuggets of information, translating them into German to identify the right units, and then it's a case of researching the units from books and online sources. I haven't walked the ground, but it's surprising what you can do with Google Maps now, and I can say most of the trees in the area were not there in 1944, so the bunkers would have had clear fields of fire. Most major river bridges in the Netherlands were built in the 1930s (rail bridges in the 1880s) to replace vehicle ferries (there was a disused ferry site at Grave), so this section of the highway was new and any tree plantings would be immature in 1944 or not yet even planted before the war started.

[@agrberry]

Beat me to the punch. The only members of the 504th who actually jumped in Normandy were security volunteers for the 507th and 508th Pathfinder teams, the rest had to hang back. Gavin was desperate to use them in Normandy, but met Tucker when the Regiment arrived in England two months after the rest of the Division and saw first hand that they wouldn't be ready in time. By all accounts the 504th were lusting for blood by the time MG came around.

[@Harmon1ca]

“What are you doing, Sweetheart?” “Busy watching one of my how-to videos, Honey.” “That’s nice, enjoy!”

[@marcusrozenperk]

Holland is the western part with Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. Grave is as much in Holland as Edinburgh is in England..

[@AlbertZonneveld]

Holland is a historical name for the county of Holland which was one of the 7 provinces that formed the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands which eventually became The Netherlands. The current provinces of North Holland and South Holland contain most of the land of the former county. But since Holland is an historic name associated with forming the Netherlands it is a commonly used synonym for the Netherlands and not and existing country like Scotland is in the United Kingdom. So your explanation is irrelevant. As is whatever I just said.

[@MerkkledingSchreeuwdArmoede]

@@AlbertZonneveld Completely agree with you, I have a pre-war product that has the engraving "made in Holland - Maastricht" of all places. The issue with the Netherlands being called Holland is a modern one.

[@jacobrichter9429]

Great stuff 👍

[@Centurion101B3C]

Hm, The primary ordered objective to Gavin was the Nijmegen Waal bridge. The Grave bridge was important as well, but strictly lower priority than the city bridge. Gavin failed at the primary objective and did not secure the Nijmegen bridge until 3 (Three Whole!!!!) days later. By then it was too late for Market Garden to fully succeed.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

True but British 1st Airborne had already failed in Arnhem as well. Never captured the bridge and failed to capture enough of Arnhem in order to establish proper bridgehead over the Rhine. All 3 Airborne divisions failed in their primary objectives.

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

@@lyndoncmp5751 How come they didn't send a force to take the Southern end in the night?

[@Pseudonym-aka-alias]

Al and James excellent explanation of the urgency shown by the 504th to take their end of the Grave bridge👍. The mind boggles as to why the same urgency didn’t happen at the Nijmegen bridge……just saying💁‍♂️.

[@jesseratcliff3508]

😂

[@nickdanger3802]

or Arnhem rail bridge

[@Pseudonym-aka-alias]

@@nickdanger3802 the Nijmegen bridge wasn't attempted on the first day?.

[@nickdanger3802]

@@Pseudonym-aka-alias the Heights had to be cleared first because Browning used 38 of 1st AB's gliders, capacity about 1,000 infantrymen, to lift his not field trained or experienced HQ to Nijmegen on day one. Arnhem LZ Z was 4 miles/6km from the rail bridge, 1st AB did not reach it until 4 hours after landing giving Germans time to destroy it. Urquhart had no AB experience and elected to land his HQ and anti-tank guns and tow vehicles on LZ Z in addition to the "special jeeps" which had to pried out of gliders that had experienced "hard landings".

[@Pseudonym-aka-alias]

@nickdanger3802 yes, but to compromise the taking of the bridge on the first day led to the bridge being reinforced by the Germans, and subsequently the 82nd having to make the river assault, which needn't have been necessary.

[@hamsteronthepaintingtable6465]

Fabulous walking the ground 👍

[@johnpeeters2131]

just two remarks: the 'power house' is a pumping station (gemaal in Dutch) to pump water into the river. And the pillbox faces the bridge because it was made to face Germany before the invasion in 1940.

[@jodu626]

I see ww2 walking the ground and i click on it. That’s my style sir!

[@Bite_Me_MF]

“By god look at Alistair dragging his feet….. at the double Mr Holland!”

[@blue2sco]

In doing so, you lost the King's Colour. You shamed us Sir, you disgraced us Sir!

[@carltontweedle5724]

More I love this longer videos.

[@jackbarnhill9354]

“We’re All American and proud to be, for we are soldiers of liberty. Some ride their gliders to the enemy, others are sky paratroopers.” Some of what I remember from the division song from my days as a 82d paratrooper.

[@WW2WalkingTheGround]

Brilliant! Thank for you sharing that. And thanks for watching.

[@mikeleake9488]

I cycled under the bridge this summer! Where the first drone shot is and where Jim and Al were talking

[@walkingandadventures6114]

More of these, great, reminds me of War walks with Richard Holmes’s….

[@eldesso]

Loving this channel, excellent supplement to the pod.

[@herosstratos]

0:27 Grave is a city in the province of North Brabant in the Kingdom of Netherlands. The John S. Thompsonbrug is a bridge over the Maas River between Grave (North Brabant) and Nederasselt (municipality of Heumen in the province of Gelderland).

[@Mennoborgersr]

Good video, but also from me a correction. You are calling it Holland but that is not Holland but Gelderland, also part of the Netherlands

[@dankorolyk5917]

Brilliantly done episode guys as always

[@WW2WalkingTheGround]

Thank you!

[@notreallydavid]

'It's a quiet Sunday...' - a Placido Domingo, even

[@ivodassen87]

Small nitpick, even though its sounded very assured, you were not in Holland.. Holland refers to two provinces in the west of the Netherlands. Its a bit like referring to England as the whole of the UK. Sorry for the nitpick, awesome content!

[@davidrendall7195]

0:51 - Grave was the vital umbilical cord - Yes and No. It was a vital bridge (they all were) and its capture would be the most efficient for XXX Corps, but there was a second bridge a few miles up river at Mook. This was admittedly a railway bridge so sub-par for taking vehicles over, but still usable and still inside the 82nd's area of responsibility. It was within sight of their drop zones and day two resupply zones. B Company 505th PIR was assigned to capture the Mook railway bridge, at the same time as the 504th were taking Grave. It was blown up as they approached it. Grave and Mook however were both bridges made up of numerous short spans between elevated support piers. This meant even if one or two spans were dropped by explosives, bailey bridges could still be built to cross the gaps between piers. Grave and Mook could be (and Mook eventually was) replaced by bailey bridge. The railway and road bridges at Nijmegen however couldn't. They were suspension bridges, way too high over far too long a gap to be bridged by XXX Corps engineering teams. (my great uncle Lt.Col William Conran RE was staff officer sappers at XXX Corps HQ for Market Garden. So it would be the road and rail bridges at Nijmegen that were the most important of Market Garden, if they were blown up, there was absolutely no way of getting through to 1st Airborne. All other bridges could be made good in short order, they could not. There were three short bridges over the Maas/Waal canal just after Grave, all were bridgeable by bailey, but at least one had to be captured intact for the Grave bridge to be of any use - two were blown up the face of the 504th PIR, but one was captured intact. So of seven bridges the 82nd were given to capture on Day+1, they captured two, three were blown up and two were still in enemy hands until day+4. It really was all about bridges. As a young officer a group of us cycled XXX Corps route and came to the conclusion all the airborne leaders became obsessed with second and third day problems - artillery, enemy tanks, drop zones and subsequent lifts - they forgot they were Commandos and ignored the bridges. And after all that effort, there was still no quick right turn into the Ruhr. After Arnhem there were still the major rivers of: Ijssel, Lippe, Emscher and Ruhr, plus several canals and smaller tributaries to cross before you go the industrial Ruhr basin, so at least another half a dozen more bridges before that area was secured. Nothing quick about that.

[@davemac1197]

With all due respect to your great uncle, the Waal and the Rijn could, and were, bridged with Bailey bridges in WW2. At Nijmegen a Barge Bailey bridge was built by 8 GHQ between the highway and rail bridges as an insurance against total loss - the rail bridge had a pier demolished successfully by Kriegsmarine frogmen and an aerial bomb blew a hole in the highway bridge deck, which was easily spanned by sections of Bailey bridge. Two floating Bailey bridges at Arnhem called HARRY and CRERAR were built by 20th and 23rd Field Companies Royal Canadian Engineers after liberation in 1945, next to the piers of the highway bridge demolished on 7 October 1944 after MARKET GARDEN. They were used until the highway bridge was rebuilt a second time and reopened in 1950. During MARKET GARDEN, there were contingencies to build replacement brdges on all the water courses involved, from the canal zone under the responsibility of the Gurds Armoured Division Royal Engineers, the Maas under HQ 11 AGRE (Army Group Royal Engineers), Maas-Waal canal and river Waal under HQ 1 Canadian AGRE, and the Rijn under HQ 10 AGRE. If these were not required, the bridging material could be used to bridge the Ijssel if required at Deventer, Zutphen, Doesburg, and Westervoort. There was never an intention to quickly advance to the Ruhr in MARKET GARDEN. Thisis a misunderstanding of the briefing scene in the film A Bridge Too Far. MARKET GARDEN was to terminate for the Guards at Nunspeet on the Zuider Zee (Ijsselmeer) coast, and on the river Ijssel with forward brigade bridgeheads established by 43rd (Wessex) and 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Divisions to provide a start line for further 2nd Army operations into Germany. Eisenhower wanted a pincer on the Ruhr, but that could not begin until US 1st Army had establshed their own Rhine crossing between Bonn and Cologne, and the port of Antwerp opened for shipping to provide the necessary logistics for both armies. Sources: The Long Road Back to Arnhem - The 23rd Field Company RCE in the Netherlands and Germany 1944 and 1945, John Sliz (2019) Special Bridging Force - Engineers Under XXX Corps in Operation Market Garden, John Sliz (2021)

[@davidrendall7195]

@@davemac1197 Not sure what you're disagreeing with or pointing out? I said the Waal and Rhine bridges couldn't be bridged and barges and ferries aren't bridges. They are crossings but sub optimal to maintaining any kind of advance, even in my day NATO never supplied more than a brigade across a major river by ferry, certainly not something the size of XXX Corps. The limiting factor is access, ad hoc barges and ferries lack the purpose built approaches that bridges do. The purpose built ferry at Driel being the exception that proves the rule. This massively disrupts what you can shift across the river, cauterises your MSRs (main supply routes) which massively limits what you can move forward and sustain on the far bank. You've got to find side roads leading to a bodged loading / unloading dockside that will accept your barge / ferry, and then repeat the same on the far side (if it exists). This is a slow and ponderous effort. If you end up having to use riverbank or any kind of cross country (which you would have to at both locations), you will quickly face erosion and mud. You also have to face strong currents on such large rivers, floaty things need power and security to resist this which is another problem to solve. And then your moving maybe two loaded trucks, one tank or a company of men across with each shuttle. All very sub optimal, but yes there are many ways to cross a river temporarily - infantry foot bridge, canvas boat, requisitioned barge, ford, ferry, DUKW, pontoon, but my point stands - the bridges at Nijmegen were by dint of their elevation and gap, unable to be bridged. So their loss would have put a greater dent in XXX Corps ability to advance than Grave or Mook. Bridging them may well have taken another 16 hours like Son, but once up logistics could roll with impunity. The Rhine was later crossed by pontoon bridges in many places in early 1945, one of them over 1,000ft in length in just 18 hours - a fantastic engineering achievement but it could only take a handful of vehicles at a time and was destroyed by the weight of traffic within 10 days. As I said sub-optimal for long term planning, soldiers hate being cut off on the wrong side of a river with no MSR. But yes something could have crossed the Waal and Rhine if the bridges were down. Uncle Bill was the staff officer responsible for planning the forward movement of bridging equipment and road repair, he was always of the opinion the operation had to go ahead as an advance to the Waal was vital to protect Antwerp and the routes for the battle of the Scheldt. I remember him showing me on the map I had made. He drove his bladed hand up the road from Belgium to Arnhem so the back of his hand was up against the Western Wall - once he'd done that, he drove his fingers down the rivers and roads to the coast, so as to grab the whole feature while the back of his hand was still keeping Germans out of Noord Brabant. Operation Market Garden was vital and achieved much. He also demonstrated the planning necessary to get the expected number of sand bags, manpower, shelter, food, water, shovels, vehicles and aggregate into the right place in the line of march so they could swing into action to shore up a road without too much delay. One of a million staff jobs to keep things going. They had prefabricated dozens of Bailey parts and secured them to all manner of vehicle going forward with orders to dump them in fields by the bridges, they expected them to be attacked or shelled after capture, the job didn't finish with the first crossing. He suggested they expected to lose at least one if not two of the bridgeable bridges up to Nijmegen, and planned on that assumption to make the three / four day limit. Remember even with the Son bridge down, the Guards Division arrived in Nijmegen at the beginning of day three - only a few hours behind schedule, having made up most of the 24hours lost at Son. If the Wallbrug and town had been in Allied hands then, they could have rolled across and been in Elst at least by the end of day three. The bridging planning was pretty good. So there were workable plans to maintain the momentum of advance all the way to the Waalbrug (the railway bridge would be very hard to cross for trucks and tanks). But if the Waalbrug went down the options to advance were very limited and certainly they wouldn't make Arnhem with the whole of XXX Corps, definitely not exploit past Arnhem to the Zuider Zee even if Arnhem had been captured. They might have put an infantry division over with a pontoon or ferry, but it would just be a rescue mission for 1st Airborne. The offensive would end at Nijmegen if that bridge was lost, which was still 90% of the purpose anyway, Arnhem (and the Zuider Zee) was always a cherry on top - But Monty had to put his right flank up against the western wall before turning left and advancing into the Rhine, Maas, Schedlt delta. That objective (opening up Antwerp) was the only reason Ike gave Monty the resources. I have made the point about 'get the war over by Christmas' and the 'quick right turn to the Ruhr' being post-event headlines and historical drama many times. Uncle Bill and Brian Urquhart my other great uncle at Market Garden both pointed out the inaccuracies in the film (majors don't argue with Lt.Generals Brian told me, he briefed the Chief of Staff and Brigade Majors, not Browning.) Separately they said that if it was only a quick right turn from Arnhem to the Ruhr, it was only a quick left turn from the Ruhr to Arnhem - and the Ruhr had to be where Germany had the most resources to throw at an offensive. The Ijssel was vital to the defence of our advance into Holland. They also pointed out that if 2nd Army made central Holland, they would grab Rotterdam and Amsterdam which were far easier to get working than Antwerp, which being almost 60km inland surrounded by tidal flats, islands and delta navigation hazards, all fortified - was a horrible proposition Monty wanted to avoid at all costs. Monty knew his history, two British armies have come a cropper in that Delta. Horrible place to do war. Eisenhower, Ramsay and Tedder didn't know that ground, but it haunts every student of British Staff College.

[@davemac1197]

@@davidrendall7195 - my understanding from the photos in the book references are that they used Rhine barges instead of pontoons and this enabled them to construct Class 70 floating Bailey bridges instead of Class 40 with the RE pontoons. It's just a difference in the support for the Bailey equipment. The two bridges at Arnhem (HARRY and CRERAR) are at a high level and appear to be supported by multiple trestles, because the banks of the river are at a high level, but the bridges are described as "floating", so the trestles must be resting on barges or pontoons (the angle of the photogragh doesn't show what they are resting on). The Nijmegen Bailey bridge was low level, using as it did the old ferry ramps on each side of the river, and clearly the decking truss supports are resting directly on top of the Rhine barges, and this bridge is described in the text as a "barge bridge."

[@davidrendall7195]

@@davemac1197 I admit to not being a bridging expert and haven't read that book you referenced, which sounds very interesting. I took you to mean a barge ferry, never heard of a barge bridge, because the pontoons were barges, not to say that's not what they called it. Dodgy business using open topped barges, must have had a lot of people on bilge pumping duty. Pontoons are sealed airtight units so rain, choppy waters and the elements cannot get in and destabilise them. That a bridge (pontoon, ferry or otherwise), was built at Nijmegen doesn't mean they could have maintained the momentum of XXX Corps advance with one. Uncle Bill said the Waalbrug was the key, everything else was solvable, he may've meant within the timescale of getting to Arnhem and onto the Zuider Zee. It's been a while and he's no longer around to confirm. Like many I was surrounded by veterans of WW1 and WW2 when I was young, spent hours talking to them (their children hadn't bothered) and to my shame I never wrote it all down. Bill had many a great story from Dunkirk and Malaysia after the war, he retired as a full colonel in 1966. Brian was a fascinating character, I only met him a few times, but he was quite the internationalist zealot, an idealist at heart.

[@davemac1197]

@@davidrendall7195 - I was making a distinction between the pontoons built for purpose and used by the Royal Engineers to construct their pontoon Bailey bridges, from the civilian Rhine barges used for the floating "barge bridge" at Nijmegen. The barges have hatches covering their cargo holds and the bridging seems to be laid over the deck hatches of the barges. I believe using the barges takes the load capacity from the Class 40 of the pontoon bridges up to Class 70 - equivalent to the classification of the steel and concrete Waalbrug. The Germans wanted to construct a barge bridge to get their heavier tanks across the Pannerden canal (the canalised section of the Rijn at the Pannerden ferry), but were unable to obtain the barges and ferrying operations were continually harrassed by Allied aircraft, hence the importance of reopening the Arnhem bridge. There were also ship bridges (Dutch "schip brug"), which were civilian constructions, of which Arnhem had one half a mile to the west of the highway bridge dating back to 1603 and reintroduced while the Rijnbrug demolished by the Dutch army in 1940 was rebuilt by August 1944, and there was also a ship bridge at Doesburg across the Ijssel. Both ship bridges were destroyed by the Germans during the airborne attack and II.SS-Panzerkorps headquarters at Doetinchem had to use the bridge at Zutphen to get to Arnhem and open a command post at the Hotel Beekhuizen outside Velp. The what-ifs can always be argued, but the fatal compromises made to the operation were in MARKET with the deletion of proposed drop zones for the 101st between Aalst and Son, enabling the bridges at Aalst-Eindhoven-Son to be seized quickly and a linkup with 101st Airborne on D-Day (Aalst is only 4 km north of Valkenswaard, where the Guards stopped with an hour of daylight remaining), and the lack of a coup de main operation on the Nijmegen bridge deleted by Brereton and Willams, and an alternative suggested drop of a battalion there discarded by Gavin. Had the ground advance to Arnhem by XXX Corps been feasible within 24 hours with Browning's original "airborne carpet" concept, then any delay by a blown major bridge would only add about 24 hours - same as the delay caused at Aalst by a battery of 8.8cm Flak guns and some SP guns and less than the 36 hours required to take the Nijmegen bridges from the Germans. We now know that neither the Arnhem or Nijmegen highway bridges were prepared for demolition on 17 September, so the Grave bridge was the only major road bridge potentially detonated, and the reason it wasn't was a faulty fuse at the north end, so a man was sent to Nijmegen to get a replacement and meanwhile the bridge fell into American hands. The Maasbrug at Grave was also a multi-span bridge constructed over a weir on the river, so the loss of a demolished span might be more quickly replaced, depending on the damage, than having to build a floating Bailey bridge over the river from scratch, say at the old Grave ferry site ramps. The Grave bridge was on the German outpost line to the main line of resistance along the Maas-Waal canal, so the bridge demolition at Grave was intended only as a delaying tactic to any enemy advance, but Model refused to sanction the demolition of the Arnhem and Nijmegen bridges because he wanted them for his planned counter-offensive to retake Antwerp in October. The partial success of MARKET GARDEN in driving as far north as Nijmegen forced Model to re-arrange his counter-offensive to a wider envelopment through the Ardennes in December instead.

[@jimbo8deuce]

The 504th did not participate in Normandy as they were shot to shit by friendly fire during Operation Husky in Sicily. Further, General Gavin's most trusted unit was the 505th PIR, which he previously commanded. - "Some Airborne Guy" per Al Murray

[@davemac1197]

They missed Normandy because they were detached for Anzio, not Sicily.

[@paramarky]

I wonder how much this mission would be talked about if it had been (totally) successful?

[@edwardargles9329]

Love this - will tell as many as I can to watch it and increase numbers so it continues - cheers guys

[@vicf5726]

I reckon, that a ditch you can jump across, a culvert, is an manmade overspill, so might be 2" deep in dry weather but a raging torrent after rain, rivers need swimsuits or boats... does this resolve the ditch/culvert/river, issue?

[@jeroenwubbels7824]

Always think about boyz of 82nd when i cycle on that path ( read Gavin's book, some colourfull ppl in the 82nd, Col Rueben Tucker 504 perhaps the most 504's exploits are worth a couple of movies

[@stephensaulters2161]

Between Walking the Ground and We Have Ways I listen to Al and Jim more than my wife at this point 😂

[@ryanharris4964]

😂😂😂great comment ….true though 😂

[@simonelsey]

was that original paint schema for the bunker 17.41 its like dazzle paint scheme very interesting

[@jamesross1799]

I think it was probably just plain concrete but it looks like a dazzle battle ship .

[@BernardBakker]

The bunker is painted in this way to camouflage the loopholes.

[@DCS_World_Japan]

I'm always curious about James' jackets; if they're originals or reproductions, and which reproduction because they always look fantastic. Oh, and on culvert vs. ditch, we should get Roel Konijnendijk in on this haha.

[@SuperDarkSamurai1]

"How Dutch do you want your Holland" lol XD

[@BernardBakker]

I was expecting James to wear wooden shoes and eating a a stroopwafel in the next shot. That is how Dutch I like Holland!

[@ronswanson8155]

Thought you’d gone AWOL chaps, don’t leave it so long next time!

[@rjansen6874]

Some of the damage on the bunkers is from the battle on the 10th of may 1940

[@dob5tep544]

At last! I was getting withdraw symptoms

[@afvasmr8035]

It’s should be renamed the James Holland show with special guest Al Murray who is aloud to say yes yeah and not a lot more

[@CiaranInIreland]

You need to listen to their podcast. Al Murray knows a lot more than you think.

[@afvasmr8035]

I know I’ve read his book very knowledgeable and entertaining too

[@garymiller_85]

tbh, he's the same when they have guests on We Have Ways, sometimes just want him to close his mouth and let the guest or Al speak!

[@afvasmr8035]

@@garymiller_85 100% spot on

[@somoyanto4354]

The 20mm flak was placed on top of the bunker (kazemat) beside the road. Not the bunker in the open field.

[@gerhardris]

Some nitpickings: Grave isn't in Holland but in the Netherlands province of Brabant. Glasgow isn't England. The Grave bridge is half the length of the Moerdijk bridges the German Falshirmjager took in may 1940. The powerhouse is a pomping station to keep dry feet. Anyway a brilliant feat of arms by the US paratroopers.

[@jamesstewart553]

You two are a bloody scream , love the humour you bring and how you give good solid information so informally, great stuff gentlemen.

[@pinchus34]

Thank goodness you're back. You've been missed!

[@nicktrueman224]

Wouldn't gliders be risky on wet ground?

[@davemac1197]

The ground is only too wet in the Winter months. In the Summer going into the Autumn, the river flood plains are suitable for small numbers of gliders to land near the bridges and dawn coup de main raids at the Arnhem-Nijmegen-Grave bridges were planned for operation COMET, which was only cancelled at the last minute as troops were loading their aircraft. The proposed upgrade operation provisionally called SIXTEEN (COMET had been provisional operation FIFTEEN) also carried over the same glider raids, but with the addition of the US Airborne divisions the planning was turned over to the USAAF officers in charge of 1st Allied Airborne Army, and Brereton and Williams' decision to fly all flights in daylight with landings in the middle of the day made the coup de main raids too risky, and they were not in the final MARKET plan. Both Brereton and Wiiliams, appointed by Eisenhower when 1st AAA was formed in August 1944, were under pressure to address the navigation and drop accuracy issues that plagued the Sicily and Normandy operations, and instead of more training for the US Troop Carrier Squadrons, their solution was all daylight flights. This also squeezed out the proposed double airlifts for D-Day, which would be perfectly feasible if they had been prepared to fly the outbound leg of the first lift and return leg of the second lift at night. Urquhart's solution for a replacement coup de main raid on the Arnhem bridge was to use his reconnaissance Squadron. Browning wanted Gavin to drop a battalion on the northern end of the Nijmegen bridge, but after toying with the idea he decided to discard it because of his experience in Sicily with a scattered drop, which disorganised the division for days. Only the highly experienced Colonel Tucker of the 504th PIR insisted on a special drop zone south of the Grave bridge, to seize it quickly from both ends, and he got it.

[@nicktrueman224]

@davemac1197 I will read your msg but thanks for answering

[@crusignatioutremer791]

I noticed you didn't blame Gavin for the failure of Market Garden in this video. You did so in another. And Al, ref to off camera comment heard on Market Garden news coverage a few weeks back: The paratroop exits are timed, not to prevent one from getting kicked in the face (Dakotas in 44 jumped out left side, Varsity in 45 with the C-46 allowed exit from both sides. Brits had some belly exit aircraft from my understanding as well), but to provide chute separation, to prevent a lower chute from collapsing a higher chute, starting a dangerous verticle leap frog type event. ~former 82nd Abn Infantryman.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

Gavin wasn't to blame for Market Garden not fully succeeding. Brereton, Williams and Hollinghurst were. All air forces commanders. Primarily, Brereton was to blame with his overly cautious and fatal decisions.

[@JassNL]

On behave of the Hollanders, you are in The Netherlands. Carry on!

[@TimmieVD]

There's a small error in this video. The bunker on the southside of the bridge is not covering the approach to the south, it's covering the bridge. The bunker was built by the Dutch army in the 30's to anticipate a German attack from the east. That's why the bunker is facing east.

[@vandenberg298]

Grave was not the longest, the Moerdijkbridge was 500 meter longer. The Germans captured this bridge in 1940 with the fallschirmjagers. Also the bridges at Nijmegen and Arhem are longer.

[@N-JKoordt]

"You can see how it all unfolds". Yeah - and we would be able to see it too, if the camera wasn't focused on these two guys all the time.

[@LordLaDiDa]

When you came over to the Netherlands for a theater tour?

[@Michel-r6m]

Just before Mont St. Michel in France there such a view as well, very Dutch 😅

[@TheSmeagul]

504 was NOT in Normandy!

[@VRSVLVS]

You guys aren't in Holland. You guys are in North Brabant.

[@nickvanachthoven7252]

ah yes, the Holland of *checks map* Noord Brabant.

[@exharkhun5605]

If you're supposed to be in absolutely Dutch Holland those rookie C-47 pilots have scattered your drop again because you're in North Brabant. That's the DMZ between Holland and Belgium. Friendly people, but they can't pronounce a real "G" or an "R" worth a damn between the whole lot of 'em.

[@MegaRebel100]

The terrain in holland is diffult , waterways , locks , dijks and so on .. Monty /de guingand under estamid that , so market garden could not be a succes ... bottlreneck ???? nijmegen

[@Ribeirasacra]

You are not in Holland. It is Nederland (Netherlands) 😉 13:25 That is not a power house. The Gemaal Van Sasse is a pumping station and pumps water into the Maas

[@ericUtr]

You were not in Holland, Al. You were in Brabant, part of the netherlands, just like Holland. This series is fun to watch, admittedly, but their banter is just littered with inaccuracies. ALso, Omaha has two 88's ;)

[@iptych]

Arnhem is in Gelderland, as is Nijmegen. Glad you weren’t part of the navigation team!

[@OldWolflad]

Yes I was surprised with the fact they questioned 30 Corps start at 2pm on the 17th, staggered they didn't even acknowledge Brereton's stipulation about H hour (1300 hours - when airborne troops would land) and Z hour (for 30 Corps not less than an hour after), nor the fact that Horrocks would need also to be sure the operation had in fact commenced, bearing in mind the previously cancelled ops with troops even sat on gliders. Not sure James is as well furnished about the op as one would expect. In fairness, I'm not sure MG is his speciality.

[@stanmil5495]

True however the britsish have always called the the netherlands as a whole holland

[@ericUtr]

@@iptych That side of the Grave bridge is in Brabant.....

[@gorbalsboy]

Hmm, he specialises in the operational level(battalion actions) ​@@OldWolflad

[@Jack-yi9uu]

It is not that difficult: Holland historically is only 2 provinces of the now 12 ( 11 in 1944). Zuid Holland and Noord Holland. The entire country is called the Netherlands. You are not in Holland now. It may not be a big deal for you, but when you talk history, location matters.

[@MiguelGLD]

"We are definitely in Holland here." LOL no you're not😅 This is the Netherlands, not Holland. Or Brabant or Gelderland. A small mistake in an otherwise brilliant series💪🏻👌🏻💛

[@darthcheese7971]

For most of the UK the Netherlands are Holland and Holland is the Netherlands. Most will just call the country Holland. Even though as you point out it is incorrect

[@OldWolflad]

@@darthcheese7971 It is easy to make this mistake - especially as I think Dutch football fans chant 'Holland' - I stand openly to be corrected and to learn (:-

[@lostinspace013]

Guys, this was stupid plan. Period.

[@ColinH1973]

About time Holland got a new jacket wiv some of his money.

[@damiantuttle1348]

Ummmm....I like Al but this other fella seems rather too 'turned on' and excited for my liking. We need to be a little more mindful of what actually happens in combat ..its not toy soldiers.

[@claudiaxander]

Joy!