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4 MERCIAN Exercise Eagle Study 15 to 20 February 2017
Operation Market Garden, Arnhem
Sgt MA Killeen
It has been almost forty years since my Father took me to watch “A Bridge too Far” in the SKC Cinema, Fallingbostel in West Germany as it was then. Was the film a
true reflection of the events that happened in September 1944? The operation was a combination of poor planning and bad luck from the Allies with the Germans having
just parked a crack SS unit in the area.
The lightly armed Allied troops then ended up surrounded by overwhelming enemy forces and of the 10,000 men who landed at Arnhem, just under 2,400 would make it out again after a vicious nine-day battle. The rest were killed or taken prisoner.
To undertake a battlefield study of the operation and retrace the boots on the ground from start to finish during those days of 17 to 26 September 1944, was
a fantastic opportunity. There was initially some individual preparation and research for the 25 selected personnel to complete. The reading list kindly given by the XO Major Peter Shergold was extensive, so it was not just a case of watching the movie to be fully up to speed. One of the key aspects of the Battlefield Study we were to undertake was to look at the historical tactical context and moral components.
On the 15th February 2017 after the passport checks, we departed for Harwich and the Hook Van Holland. The journey
to Holland went without a hitch; however, the RAO Major Samantha Brettell will be
required to re-sit her MATT 5 map reading due to ‘Sat Nav issues’. Furthermore, we had to make frequent rest room stops from the Hook to Arnhem to accommodate the Adjutant, Captain Tom
allies which led to the 1st British Airborne Division, holding the furthest bridge on the corridor at Arnhem, then being effectively destroyed. Although large areas of Holland
Onion’s “Delhi belly”. Remarkably, we arrived on schedule in Arnhem.
‘Although large areas of Holland were liberated, the operation was a failure’
were liberated, the operation was a failure, failing to achieve the strategic breakthrough into Germany that was hoped for.
Following this we moved to Landing Zones “S” and “Y”. We
On day two after
our ferry crossing brief
on the Strategic and
Operational Context of
Operation Market
Garden, we headed out to Arnhem Bridge; here we discussed the failure to advance within the time frames planned by the
broke down into groups and examined the landing zones of both the South Stafford’s and the Kings Own Scots Borderers. We
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