The Netherlands
Bookmark
Share
Directions
There used to be a ship bridge on this spot. This bridge was still used during the war and became one of the targets of the British airborne troops during Operation Market Garden. Unfortunately for the British, the middle section of this bridge had been removed and they could not use this bridge.
In 1944, a pontoon bridge was located here. Since the beginning of the 17th century, this had been Arnhem's only fixed connection with the south bank of the Rhine. After the opening of the road bridge in 1935, the pontoon bridge remained intact, and during the years of the German occupation, it was an important connection with the south bank again for a long time, because the road bridge had been demolished in 1940 and was not repaired again until 1943.
For operation Market Garden, the Allied planners had identified three bridges in the environment as targets: the railway bridge at Oosterbeek, the road bridge in Arnhem (now: the John Frost Bridge), and the pontoon bridge. The task to take the pontoon bridge was given to a B Company under major Crawley of the British 2nd Parachute Battalion of lieutenant colonel Frost.
After the landing on Renkum Heath, Crawley's unit, together with the rest of the second battalion and other units that had joined them, marched towards Arnhem via Oosterbeek-Laag. A little past the railway bridge, the column was attacked by Germans coming from the direction of Arnhem and partly entrenched at Oosterbeek-Laag station. B Company got engaged in the fighting and lost some of its men.
Due to the long march and the fighting at Oosterbeek-Laag station, B Company marched into Arnhem after dark, and tried to find its way to the pontoon bridge in pitch-black dark. They did not arrive there until after two o'clock at night, and occupied buildings east of the bridge (where the access to the Nelson Mandela Bridge is situated today). When they arrived there, they met a number of British engineers who had already discovered that the Germans had removed the middle section from the pontoon bridge and moored it at the south bank. They were looking for boats to make the crossing, but either they were unable to find them, or the boats appeared to have been punctured.
Now that the pontoon bridge had proven unusable for the British and there was nothing they could do about that, Crawley's group and the British engineers moved on to the road bridge the next morning, to reinforce lieutenant colonel Frost's group there. The pontoon bridge was to play no further part in the Battle of Arnhem.