508th PIR Memorial, Sions Hof Hotel, Berg en Dal
During Operation Market Garden in September 1944 this area was taken by the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US 82nd Airborne Division. The figure on the wall is a Memorial to that Division. The hotel had been used for almost four years by the Germans as an HQ and then as a parachute training school. They also used the Klooster Nebo, the large Catholic Seminary across the road, both of which were taken over by the advancing Allies war correspondents and photographers who arrived by glider. Guards Armoured Division Officers moved into the hotel, to be followed by 82nd Airborne staff. Here the Dutch liaison officer, Captain Harry Bestebreurtje, made contact between the Allied Forces and the local forces and sent a patrol into Nijmegen to recce the situation near the Waal bridge whose capture was vital if the Operation was to succeed. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands lunched here during September
