Freedom Trail Arnhem

The Battle of Arnhem was part of Operation Market Garden. With this, the Allies wanted to conquer the bridges over a number of Dutch waterways.
This allowed them to break through from the Belgian border to the north and then to the east into Germany. In this way they wanted to try to end World War II before the end of the year.
In September 1944, almost twelve thousand British and Polish airborne troops landed at Renkum, Wolfheze, Driel and Ede. They then fought there and in Arnhem, Oosterbeek and the surrounding area against units deployed by the Germans. The 1st British Airborne Division (1st British Airborne Division) had the task of capturing the Rhine Bridge near Arnhem. No more than 750 of them managed to reach the bridge on Sunday 17 September.
The order of the main force was to hold this bridge for two days, until the intended reinforcement of the ground army from the south had reached them. But the German resistance was much stronger than expected and the ground army foundered earlier. The result was heavy fighting on the advance route from Oosterbeek, towards the bridge in Arnhem.
On Thursday morning, September 21, 1944, the lightly armed troops at the road bridge (commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Frost, commander of the 2nd Parachute Battalion) had to stop fighting against the ever-increasing German superiority. During this heavy fighting, the area in the immediate vicinity of the road bridge was almost completely destroyed.
The allied soldiers who fought in Arnhem wore an emblem with a winged horse and rider on their upper arms. That mythological figure, the Pegasus, was the symbol of the 1st British Airborne Division. This symbol is applied to the special Freedom Trail Arnhem tiles, which are placed at 35 locations. These are connected by a ribbon of plain tiles. The route has a total length of about 8 km.