World War II · Film · 1977
A Bridge Too Far
Paratroopers drop to seize a chain of Dutch bridges while British tanks race up a single road to reach them, in a bold plan to end the war by Christmas 1944.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 6 places.
Stop 1: Joe's Bridge, Neerpelt
General Horrocks briefs his officers, and the Irish Guards lead XXX Corps' tanks up the highway into the Netherlands.
Stop 2: Son bridge
The 101st Airborne reaches the canal bridge at Son just as the Germans blow it, and the advance waits on a replacement bridge.
Stop 3: Arnhem road bridge
Key location
Colonel Frost's battalion seizes the north end of the bridge and holds it against panzers, waiting for tanks that never arrive.
Stop 4: Nijmegen, Waal crossing
Major Cook's paratroopers paddle across the wide Waal in flimsy canvas boats under fire to take the bridge from the far side.
Stop 5: Driel
General Sosabowski's Polish paratroopers finally drop south of the Rhine, too late and on the wrong bank to break through.
Stop 6: Oosterbeek perimeter
General Urquhart's shrinking division holds out around its hotel headquarters until the survivors must slip back across the river.
What really happened
Operation Market Garden, launched on 17 September 1944, was Field Marshal Montgomery's plan to land three and a half airborne divisions to capture bridges from the Belgian border to Arnhem while XXX Corps drove north along one highway to link them up and outflank the Siegfried Line. It was the largest airborne operation attempted to that point.
The Americans took their bridges at Son and, after a daring river crossing, Nijmegen, but the British 1st Airborne Division landed too far from Arnhem and ran into two SS panzer divisions refitting nearby. Only one battalion reached the bridge; after nine days about 2,400 men were evacuated across the Rhine, and most of the rest were killed or captured. The film follows Cornelius Ryan's 1974 book closely.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- A Bridge Too Far
- Directed by
- Richard Attenborough
- Countries
- United Kingdom, United States
- Languages
- English, German, Dutch
- Released
- 1977
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Combat
- True story
