The original road bridge over the River Rhine, Arnhem
This is the view of the Arnhem bridge taken from the top of the Eusebius church three years after the former was opened. Between 1939 and 1950 it was blown and re-built several times. The view shows the buildings much as they would have been during the fighting of September 1944. The view is from the Arnhem side of the river. Some 500 men of 2nd Parachute Battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost reached the bridge about 2000 hours on 17 September, the first day of the Operation. They and others as they arrived occupied the houses that abutted the bridge ramps, their top floors level with, or higher, than the roadway. Against armoured cars, half-tracks, tanks and the SS 10th Panzer Division (Colonel Heinz Harmel) they held the Arnhem end until around 0500 hours on Thursday when the remnants of the Battalion scattered, a final attempt to rally a force at what had been Frost's HQ being unsuccessful
