CHAPTER ONE

JOE’S BRIDGE

The Irish Guards seize a vital bridge

After D Day, the Allies initially made slow progress in terms of captured terrain, with the SHAEF planners’ expectations not being met. However, by mid August, after some hard fighting the Germans collapsed into defeat. The Normandy Campaign was won and the German defeat, when it came, was as complete as was Montgomery’s victory over his many critics. The remnants of the German Seventh Army streamed eastwards. The Germans attempted to halt the Allies on the Seine (reached fifteen days ahead of Montgomery’s pre-D-Day prediction) and, subsequently, on the River Somme. However, the Allied armoured divisions’ momentum was such that each obstacle was ‘bounced’ and the advance continued, at rates of up to fifty miles a day. The contrast between the hard slogging of the Normandy battles and the swift advances served only to sharpen in the minds of both commanders and front-line soldiers, the prospect that the war was almost over.

As the British armoured divisions swept across northern France and Belgium, Allied commanders, attempted to convince Eisenhower that their approach to Germany offered the best way to victory. However, the further the widely scattered units moved from their logistic base in Normandy the harder it was to sustain such spectacular advances. At the same time, as they approached the Reich, German resistance perceptibly stiffened, with northern Belgium’s numerous waterways providing many defensive opportunities

Brussels fell to the Guards Armoured Division without a serious fight on 3 September 1944. A day later, the vital port of Antwerp fell into the hands of 11th Armoured Division with its facilities intact. However, in the euphoria, the commanders of the thinly spread troops overlooked the clearance of the sixty mile Scheldt Estuary that gave access to Antwerp. This omission also provided an escape route for the outflanked Germans who were ‘trapped’ along the Channel coast. As we shall see, the escape of these troops was to have a profound effect on the outcome of Operation MARKET GARDEN. Meanwhile, the advance of the Guards continued eastwards, albeit more slowly than before.