On 17 September 1944 Operation Market Garden was launched. On the first day alone, around 8,000 paratroopers were dropped over Groesbeek with orders to seize the region and the bridges over the river Waal. Here, in the Dutch-German border region, is where the front line was. When the Operation failed in Arnhem, the Allied forces were unable to continue their advance north and had to stay in the Nijmegen area for months before advancing into Germany as part of the Rhineland Offensive in February 1945.The route through the Groesbeek landing area takes walkers past farms that provided cover when this area was the front line, and across hills that were of great strategic importance during Operation Market Garden and Operation Veritable. Walkers will find different reminders of the war here: a plaque commemorating a fallen US military aircraft, a column marking the spot where Operation Veritable started, but also the Foxhill ice cream farm, which has adopted the American spelling of Voxhill. The walk ends at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, which is a point where walkers can reflect and commemorate the liberators.The route is easy to get to by bus from Nijmegen and convenient to combine with other routes or with a visit to Groesbeek’s Freedom Museum, where you can learn even more about this area’s World War II history.

The Netherlands

View over the Zevenheuvelenweg and the Groesbeek hills.

The Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek. 

Thousands of paratroopers are dropped over Groesbeek. 

Drawing made by the British war correspondent Captain Bryan de Grineau. Seen from the Groesbeek hills in the direction of Cleves and Kranenburg with in between the low lying farmland where the gliders are still standing, that landed here on 17 and 18 September 1944. 

Groesbeek Landing Area

December 1944: Nijmegen and the area south of the river Waal had been liberated and the German border was now the front line. Most local residents had already been evacuated by then. The area had become home to soldiers, whose days consisted of waiting for orders, walking rounds, and defending the front line against German attacks. On the front line, soldiers alternated between waiting and fighting. For days on end, nothing would happen and then suddenly they would be locked in another life-or-death battle.Beyond the rolling hills between Groesbeek and Wyler, you can see Germany, making it the perfect spot for reconnaissance missions. At the time, there were only a few farms that blocked the view and provided cover, including the Lammers family farm at Waldgraaf 12. On a quiet December day, German soldiers suddenly attacked the farm. As the shells hit, the Canadian soldiers patrolling the area only just managed to retreat to safety. The attack was not without casualties, however. As it gave them a good vantage point over the hills towards Groesbeek, the German soldiers took the farm and defended it.Since the Canadians now knew what they were up against, they regrouped and reconquered the K-House, as they called the farm, and they managed to hold on to it this time.This building is not the only one with a World War II story. A few houses down, at Waldgraaf 8, a US military transport aircraft crashed. After dropping fifteen paratroopers, the Dakota was hit over the Maas-Waal canal and came under fire a second time shortly after that. Today, a plaque recalls the story of the plane and the five crew members who lost their lives in the crash.Canadian soldiers in the Rijk van Nijmegen During Operation Market Garden, the Rijk van Nijmegen was liberated by the Allies. Yet the region was not safe: the region became frontline territory. In November 1944, the British and American soldiers stationed here were deployed elsewhere and the Canadians took over. Their task was to protect the bridges, the city and the region from German attacks and defend the front.

De Waldgraaf

17th September 1944 saw the start of Operation Market Garden and, with it, the Battle of Arnhem. The Allies lost this battle, but the area around the city of Nijmegen was liberated, and the struggle for the city itself was won on 20th September 1944. However, for six long months, Nijmegen and the surrounding area subsequently found itself on the frontline and under continuous attack from German bombs and grenades.Likewise, despite having been liberated on 17th September 1944, the area around Groesbeek soon became the target of terrible attacks from Kleve and the German Reischswald.&nbsp;Throughout the autumn of 1944, a total of 30,000 people were evacuated from Groesbeek and the surrounding villages. A farm in no man's land is a story about what happened at Groenendaal Farm on Wylerbaan Road.During the long winter of 1944-1945, the frontline barely moved from its position between the Maas and Rhine rivers, extending from Mook, through Groesbeek and Wyler on to Erlecom. Then finally, on 8th February 1945, Operation Veritable made a dramatic push that would ultimately result in the liberation of The Netherlands and western Europe. The mammoth Rineland Offensive had begun, and it started in Nijmegen.

A farm in No man's land

By the end of 1944, the south of The Netherlands had been liberated as far as the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine), Waal, Lek, Merwede and Maas rivers. The only way the British-Canadian army could invade Germany without having to cross one of these rivers, was through the countryside between the Maas and Rhine rivers known as the Kingdom of Nijmegen (Rijk van Nijmegen). So the British-Canadian army, led by Field Marshal Montgomery and General Crerar, planned a large-scale operation to seize the left bank of the River Rhine. This was to be the British and Canadian troops' largest operation since Normandy, on the smallest of battlefields.At the beginning of February 1945, almost half a million soldiers, more than 1000 guns and 34,000 vehicles lined the ten-kilometre-long front, ready for battle. Montgomery hoped to reach the Rhine quickly, relying on the cold of winter to have hardened the ground under foot. They started their attack with heavy artillery fire, stunning their opponents. But to their dismay, the frosts had gone and the operation turned into an enormous mud bath. During the first days de British struggled even more against landmines and mud, than the german defense.

Operation Veritable

Operation Veritable started on 8 February 1945. The operation was intended to be one of two pincers aimed at encircling the entrenched German forces. In this scenario British and Canadian forces would constitute the northern pincer of the attack, while U.S. forces would come up from the south to close the trap (Operation Grenade). The German army managed to prevent encirclement by destroying dams in the river Roer (not to be confused with the Ruhr river on the other side of the Rhine) which led to massive flooding; at some points the river was almost two kilometers wide. This flood forced the U.S. soldiers to postpone their assault. The Canadian and British forces had to go it alone. From the outset of the offensive, bad weather complicated Allied operations. General Horrocks, commanding the British forces, later said of the battle: “What was so maddening was that the whole thing could have been so easy if only the frost had continued”. A thaw turned the previously frozen ground into a quagmire, a situation that was aggravated by continuous rain and the fact that the German army had breached the banks of the Rhine. The Allies advanced slowly and were unable to fully exploit their superiority in numbers and equipment. On 23 February the water had retreated sufficiently to allow the U.S. forces to finally cross the Roer and fulfill their mission. In the words of the Allied Supreme Commander general Dwight D. Eisenhower: Operation Veritable “was some of the fiercest fighting of the whole war […] a bitter slugging match” between Allied and German forces. <iframe class="ql-video" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SB-UpjtgkHw?showinfo=0"></iframe>

Operation Veritable was part of an Allied pincer-movement aiming to clear the area between the Roer and Rhine rivers of German forces. British and Canadian units attacked from the north, while the Americans closed the trap from the south. By destroying dams in the Roer, the Germans tried to hamper the operation.

Operation Veritable started on 8 February 1945. The operation was intended to be one of two pincers aimed at encircling the entrenched German forces. In this scenario British and Canadian forces would constitute the northern pincer of the attack, while U.S. forces would come up from the south to close the trap (Operation Grenade). The German army managed to prevent encirclement by destroying dams in the river Roer (not to be confused with the Ruhr river on the other side of the Rhine) which led to massive flooding; at some points the river was almost two kilometers wide. This flood forced the U.S. soldiers to postpone their assault.

The Canadian and British forces had to go it alone. From the outset of the offensive, bad weather complicated Allied operations. General Horrocks, commanding the British forces, later said of the battle: “What was so maddening was that the whole thing could have been so easy if only the frost had continued”. A thaw turned the previously frozen ground into a quagmire, a situation that was aggravated by continuous rain and the fact that the German army had breached the banks of the Rhine. The Allies advanced slowly and were unable to fully exploit their superiority in numbers and equipment. On 23 February the water had retreated sufficiently to allow the U.S. forces to finally cross the Roer and fulfill their mission. In the words of the Allied Supreme Commander general Dwight D. Eisenhower: Operation Veritable “was some of the fiercest fighting of the whole war […] a bitter slugging match” between Allied and German forces.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB-UpjtgkHw[/embed]

In the Canadian War Cemetery, lie 2617 members of the Commonwealth armed forces killed during the Second World War. This is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the Netherlands. Of special note is that, with the exception of just one, all Canadians who lost their lives during Operation Veritable were buried, or in many cases re-buried, here. The one exception is a Canadian soldier who lies in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany.Many of the dead were brought here from Germany, because General Crerar, commander of Canadian forces in Europe, gave the order that no Canadian dead should be buried in German soil. The Allied personnel who lie buried in the Canadian war Cemetery are of the following nationalities: Canada (2339), United Kingdom (267) Belgium (3), Australia (2), Poland (2), New Zealand (1), The Netherlands (1), Russia (1), and Yugoslavia (1). Inside the entrance to the cemetery stands a monument, a memorial wall bearing the names of military personnel missing in action. This monument commemorates a total of 1047 missing men: 942 British, 102 Canadians, 2 South Africans, and one British airman. In front of the graves stands the 'Stone of Remembrance', bearing the text: 'THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE'. <iframe class="ql-video" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jEVdb9PRero?showinfo=0"></iframe>

In the Canadian War Cemetery, lie 2617 members of the Commonwealth armed forces killed during the Second World War. This is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the Netherlands. Of special note is that, with the exception of just one, all Canadians who lost their lives during Operation Veritable were buried, or in many cases re-buried, here. The one exception is a Canadian soldier who lies in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany. Many of the dead were brought here from Germany, because General Crerar, commander of Canadian forces in Europe, gave the order that no Canadian dead should be buried in German soil.
The Allied personnel who lie buried in the Canadian war Cemetery are of the following nationalities: Canada (2339), United Kingdom (267) Belgium (3), Australia (2), Poland (2), New Zealand (1), The Netherlands (1), Russia (1), and Yugoslavia (1).

Inside the entrance to the cemetery stands a monument, a memorial wall bearing the names of military personnel missing in action. This monument commemorates a total of 1047 missing men: 942 British, 102 Canadians, 2 South Africans, and one British airman. In front of the graves stands the 'Stone of Remembrance', bearing the text:

'THEIR NAME LIVETH
FOR EVERMORE'.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s4VQxrWJJU[/embed]

Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek

It is a tourist attraction for young and old, from home and abroad. The visitors experience the fascinating Story of War and Freedom without Borders in both the Netherlands and Germany, Europe and beyond. There is never one story. A multifaceted image of the Second World War is created through various perspectives, in the context of the history of the 20th century and current events. The visitor is challenged to think critically about freedom then and now, full of experiences, interactivity and museum masterpieces. The sustainable building itself, the 12-meter high Dome, is also an attraction and has a strong resemblance to an enormous parachute. From the terrace you have a panoramic view of the historic landscape. <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1s4VQxrWJJU?showinfo=0" frameborder="0" class="ql-video"></iframe>

The Freedom Museum is located in the beautiful green and hilly landscape of Groesbeek. The museum is close to Germany and right in the area of two of the most important operations on the Western Front during WW2: Market Garden and Veritable. It is a tourist attraction for young and old, from home and abroad. The visitors experience the fascinating Story of War and Freedom without Borders in both the Netherlands and Germany, Europe and beyond. There is never one story. A multifaceted image of the Second World War is created through various perspectives, in the context of the history of the 20th century and current events. The visitor is challenged to think critically about freedom then and now, full of experiences, interactivity and museum masterpieces.

The sustainable building itself, the 12-meter high Dome, is also an attraction and has a strong resemblance to an enormous parachute. From the terrace you have a panoramic view of the historic landscape.

<img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16662" src="https://europeremembers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/LOGO-Vrijheidsmuseum-FC-300x85.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="85" />

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s4VQxrWJJU[/embed]

Groesbeek Landing Area

Photos

Sites and stories along the route

De Waldgraaf

A farm in No man's land

Operation Veritable

Operation Veritable

Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek

Freedom Museum Groesbeek