Today, we take a look at the events that transpired on the second day of Operation Market Garden - September 18th.  Stay tuned with us all week as we detail the history of Market Garden and release exclusive brand new screens from Hell's Highway each day.

 

The following information is quoted from an article written by Retired Colonel William Wilson that originally appeared in the September 1994 issue of World War II.  Thanks to Colonel John Antal, US Army Ret. (our military and authenticity advisor) for making this information available.

 

 

^{September 18, 1944 Eindhoven.  British Cruiser Tank MKV111 Cromwell and its crew.  The driver is on the extreme right with his goggles on.}

 

Eindhoven Liberated: 

"It rained during the night, but the second day of the operation dawned clear. ...

The 3rd Battalion led the way, and 600 yards beyond the line of departure the
battalion encountered rifle and machine-gun fire. For about two miles, the 3rd
Battalion butted its way through, either driving the enemy back with gunfire or
eliminating them where they were. When it reached Eindhoven, the battalion
came under direct fire from two 88s and mortars positioned in the main street,
effectively stopping all movement. Colonel Sink flanked the guns from the left
with the 2nd Battalion. A Dutchman joined the Americans and promised to lead
them to the 88mm battery. Then a Dutch woman signaled from a window that
some Germans were approaching. Eventually, with the help of the Dutch citizens,
the guns were knocked out. In the process, the troopers took 31 prisoners, killed
13 Germans and suffered only two casualties.

Suddenly, the German resistance stopped -- or at least it seemed so to me.

Eindhoven was free, the first Dutch city to be liberated. Joyfully, its inhabitants
crowded around the paratroopers and orange streamers appeared everywhere.
The 506th Parachute Regiment made contact with the British XXX Corps at
noon. The British were told to move their Bailey bridge unit to the head of the
column because of the destruction of the Zon bridge. They were still five miles
south of Eindhoven. At that time, the 506th held the center of town and was
sitting on the four bridges over the Dommel River. The Germans had stopped
fighting in order to withdraw and avoid the night bombing of the city. It was a sad
ending to a glorious day. The enemy bombers, unhampered by anti-aircraft fire,
leisurely circled and bombed the central part of the city indiscriminately. We
pulled women and children from their blazing homes and tried to remove the
dying from the rubble. Eindhoven, a city of 130,000 suffered more than 1,000
civilian casualties that night, including 200 dead."

 

 

 

^{Eindhoven liberated September 18, 1944}

 

 Timeline of September 18, 1944:

 

• With the onset of fog it is already afternoon before reinforcements
  and supplies arrive.

• 88 mm. guns stopped the complete XXX corps for several hours.

• Near Arnhem, British para's are advancing to try to reinforce troops
  at the bridge, but they only get as far as the western edge of the
  city.

• The 101st, faced with the loss of the bridge at Son, attempted to
  take the similar bridge a few kilometers away at Best. However, they
  found their approach heavily blocked, and eventually gave up. Other
  units continued moving to the south and eventually reached the
  northern end of Eindhoven. At about noon they were met by recce
  units from 30 Corps. At 16:00 hrs, they made radio contact with the
  main force to the south and told them about the Son bridge, asking
  for a Bailey bridge to be brought forward.

• Eindhoven is being liberated by the 101st Airborne Division. The first
  radio contact between the Americans and a patrol of the Guards
  Armored Division is made at 11.15hrs and they make physical contact
  in Woensel at about 12.15hrs. In the late afternoon, the army arrives
  in the southern outskirts of Eindhoven.

• Lt. Col. Cole was killed during the fights for the bridge in Best.

• On the 19th, the fights were in the close vicinity of the Son bridge.
  Joe Mann, with both upper limbs being in arm slings, was sheltering in
  a trench together with six other wounded men, when a German hand
  grenade landed close to him. Being unable to use his arms because of
  the wound dressings, he shouted "Grenade!"; lay back to take the main
  force of the explosion with his body and a few moments later was
  dead. Although a few of his comrades received shrapnel wounds, he
  had saved their lives. For this courageous deed, Joe Mann was
  posthumously awarded the highest American order, "The
  Congressional Medal of Honor". In the woods at the Boslaan Zuid, in
  the immediate vicinity of the bridge where his heroic act took place, a
  memorial stone was unveiled in 1984 by Joe's sister.

• The main body of XXX Corps soon arrived in Eindhoven, and by that
  night were camped out south of Son while they waited for the Royal
  Engineers to erect the new bridge.  At about 21.00hrs the British Royal Engineers start building a Bailey bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal in Son. Thus ended Day 2, with the operation already 36 hours behind schedule and both primary bridges still in German control.