The entrance to Fort Hof van Holland, Nijmegen

This small fort, reached by a wooden drawbridge, stands on the north bank of the River Waal. It is square and is one of a number of border fortifications built by the Dutch before the turn of the century. In some contemporary accounts of the Operation Market Garden fighting it is wrongly named as the Lent Fort'. The Germans had mounted 20mm cannons on and around the walls. During their magnificent assault crossing from the south bank on 20th September 1944, the American 504 PIR charged from the river with fixed bayonets but with instructions to bypass the fort. However, Company H of the Regiment led by Sergeant Leroy Richmond, decided to silence the cannons. Some men swam the moat, others went over the drawbridge and through this tunnel into the centre of the fort where the Germans surrendered

20mm Accounts Bayonets Bypass Cannons Charged Decided Drawbridge Failed Fixed Fortifications However Instructions Lent Leroy Magnificent Moat Nijmegen Reached Richmond Silence Surrendered Swam Waal Wrongly

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