Battlefield 2015 - Arnhem & The Rhine Crossings

[Antoni Chmielowski]

Nice pictures, it looks like it was an interesting tour.

Born in - and living in Arnhem, it can still be difficult to grasp the significance the name "Arnhem" still has to so many, even though I'm a wargamer. The name of the city has become a legend of sorts, a legend that those who didn't experience the war will never truly understand but which we are proud of, that is: the legend of the men who tried to liberate us in September 1944 and sadly failed with many giving their lives for our freedom.

When it comes to the view, the view from the Westerbouwing might be fairly similar to the view at the time although municipal "trees obstructing visibility" laws are less strict now than they were at the time so there might be more trees. In 1944, the Netherlands was very much a country where nature was tamed to suit our needs or to suit our concept of what was right and orderly, hence the comments of Allied troops that they felt like they were walking around in a large garden.

Virtually all of the buildings on the southern bank of the Rhine at Arnhem were built after the war, but the bridge itself is as far as I know in more or less the same place and surroundings as it was in 1944 (that is: the buildings are different, but the landscape itself and the Rhine quayside at Arnhem are similar to identical).

Recently, the city of Nijmegen has "jumped" across the Waal and the towns of Oosterhout and Lent are slowly being absorbed by the city. The lay of the land has also been changed around the road bridge, so that area is different from 1944.



The purple-ish areas indicate the Waal river and its normal overflow areas, the blue-ish areas indicate areas that have been inundated and were still farmland in 1944. The road and rail bridges are also longer than they were in 1944 in total span to cover the newly inundated areas. There is also a new bridge across the Waal, named "De Oversteek" or "The Crossing" (in honour of the Airborne troops that crossed the river and captured the Waal road bridge) that wasn't there in 1944.

There's also a new bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem between the railbridge and the John Frost bridge, as well as another bridge further to the east.

Thanks ComradeP for the map and explanation.

It was an excellent tour which did not just concentrate on Arnhem/Oostebeek, indeed it covered Nijmegen and the invasion into the Rhineland.

What also helped was the most excellent guide, whose knowledge was encyclopedic !

[Contra]

Thanks Toni for the photos and ComradP for the very interesting information.