-Production of "Waal River Crossing: 1944" has been made possible by... Additional support was provided by... ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -An entire airborne army, British and American, was dropped into Holland just ahead of General Montgomery's steadily advancing British Army.

-How do you explain a situation like this to somebody who'd never seen it?

-Greatest prize of the airborne operation was the huge bridge over the Lower Rhine at Nijmegen.

-They were very much convinced that this is a suicide mission.

-It's a sheer miracle that they made it across.

-The airborne attack is aimed at the rivers of the Netherlands that form a natural protective front for the weakest part of fortress Germany.

-The casualties we had and the brutality of it... -The crossing of the Waal is one of the most dramatic moments for the US and World War II.

-The Lord was looking after me.

I didn't look after myself.

-Here, airborne infantrymen are engaged in securing important bridges and flanking the northern anchor of the Siegfried Line.

-The Waal River, to me, stands out because of its daring and courage.

-The airborne troops quickly consolidate their initial objectives.

♪♪ ♪♪ -In September 1944, British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery designated it as Operation Market Garden -- a highly ambitious plan that, if successful, could end the war in Europe by that upcoming Christmas.

Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower took a risk and approved Montgomery's idea.

-Montgomery sells Eisenhower on the concept of Market Garden.

-The 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions would parachute into occupied Holland.

They would be joined by the British 1st Airborne Division and supported by the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade.

-Paratroopers are like the -- one of the new weapons in World War II, made possible obviously by the rise of aviation.

So the commanders are going to use paratroopers when they want to seize some sort of key objective, take it quickly, and hold on.

♪♪ -Operation Market Garden targeted three main bridges and several smaller spans in the Netherlands.

Capturing these key crossings would allow the Allies to bypass Germany's heavily fortified Siegfried Line.

Success would pave the way into Germany's industrial Ruhr Valley by fall 1944.

There would then be a chance to move to Berlin and end the war in Europe.

For Operation Market Garden to succeed, all three central highway spans had to be captured intact so troops and tanks could advance along the designated route from Holland into Germany.

-Paratroopers were very versatile in World War II.

They were trained to fight behind enemy lines, to adapt to any mission that you need them to do.

Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the ranking British commander, what he wants to do is land three airborne divisions behind German lines to capture some of the key bridges in the Netherlands, the largest bridges at towns called Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Arnhem.

Arnhem is the ultimate objective because that's the bridge over the Rhine.

And so the idea is get across the Rhine River, outflank a belt of defenses on the German western border called the Siegfried Line -- bunkers, you know, fortifications and the like, mines and whatnot.

Outflank that from the north, and then make a dash on the North German Plain towards Berlin and win the war.

Montgomery and others think it's very possible in the wake of the massive German defeat in Normandy and elsewhere in France that Germany is on the verge of collapse.

So Montgomery hoped that Market Garden would hasten the demise of Germany for these airborne drops, and then you'd have armor divisions come and link up with the paratroopers, get across the bridges, go and go wild in northern Germany.

Other thing too, is that the Germans had begun to unleash a new aerial campaign against Britain with V-2 rockets -- very, very cutting edge technology, and those things are really deadly.

[ Tank rumbling ] -Allied progress in Europe was stopped to support Montgomery's plan.

Ending the war in late 1944 was a risky gamble.

In England, Bill Hannigan, an 82nd Airborne veteran of D-Day and Normandy, received a briefing on Market Garden and the jump into the German-occupied Netherlands.

-We were, uh, bivouacked in a little town outside of a little town of Leicester, England.

We were told we were going to jump in there, and then they had the ground made up on the table with trees and bushes and -- and, uh, where were we going in, what time of day.

[ Engines rumbling ] [ Propellers whirring ] -Operation Market Garden was launched from Great Britain on September 17, 1944.

Over 1,500 transport aircraft and 500 gliders carrying paratroopers participated.

The jump for the 101st, 82nd, British 1st Airborne, and 1st Polish Brigade would be larger than even D-Day.

35,000 airborne soldiers were to be dropped over three days into occupied Holland, each with a specific objective as a part of Montgomery's plan.

First Lieutenant Ed Sims of the 82nd Airborne, a veteran of previous campaigns in Sicily and Italy, and his paratroopers immediately faced difficulties during their daylight drop near the city of Grave, Holland.

-I lost half of my platoon going in Holland.

The plane -- My plane was the only plane shot down going into Holland of the whole division.

[ Explosion in distance ] We lost the pilot, the co-pilot, and most of my men.

-The airborne troops quickly consolidate their initial objective.

-Paratroopers were trained in World War II to what was called "roll up the stick."

So that meant that everybody on a plane, um, is trying to -- to rally at more or less the same place if they can.

So there's usually about 14 to 18 paratroopers aboard a plane in World War II, and that was generally called a stick.

-Bill Hannigan's stick also landed outside the town of Grave.

The 82nd Airborne swiftly secured the city of Grave and a massive bridge crossing the Meuse River, the longest bridge in the Market Garden area.

Three days after securing Grave, Hannigan and the 504th shifted their focus to their primary target -- two vital bridges over the Waal River in Nijmegen.

One was a towering railway bridge, the other the last highway bridge before Arnhem and an entry into Germany.

The 101st Airborne's target was a bridge at Son, near the Wilhelmina Canal outside Eindhoven.

British paratroopers had landed near Arnhem to secure the vital highway crossing.

All the bridges from Son to Arnhem covered about 30 miles of Dutch territory.

British tanks had to drive approximately 60 miles from the start line to reach Arnhem.

Along the way, numerous bridges had to be secured in succession, so Allied tanks and troops could eventually cross the Rhine River.

Arnhem was the final goal -- the entrance into Germany's industrial heartland.

If the Allies captured the Arnhem bridge, troops would cross the Rhine River in September 1944 and secure a route toward Berlin.

-We were just outside of Nijmegen and we cleaned out the troops there.

We took the town and started to spread out and company, a company getting more land, killing more Germans, driving them back.

-The Germans didn't give up easily and the town of Nijmegen got quite a beating before we took it.

-When Germany is losing the war and they're pushed back to their own fatherland when they're fighting on their home turf, again, I think they'll try to do anything to keep us out.

-The bridge at Nijmegen was one of the important bridges in the operation.

It crosses the fast flowing Waal River.

It's one of the biggest bridges.

And it's the last bridge on the way to Arnhem.

♪♪ The Germans were well dug in here.

They had antitank guns, 88 smaller pieces.

They had artillery that they could call in from the far side and a hodgepodge of different tanks.

♪♪ That is the road to Arnhem.

This is barely ten miles to get your last objective, get to the bridge at Arnhem.

The original bridge was built here by the Netherlands by the Dutch in 1936.

But then when the Germans invaded, we destroyed it and the bridge collapsed into the water.

The Germans rebuilt it and reopened it somewhere in late '43, early '44.

And that's the bridge that we still see to this day.

♪♪ -Two days after Operation Market Garden began on September 19th.

American 82nd Airborne General James Gavin met with his British counterpart, General Frederick Browning.

Market Garden was already in deep trouble.

On the first day, the main bridge at Son, over the Wilhelmina Canal near Eindhoven, was blown up by the Germans.

Just before the American 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrived to secure it.

Meanwhile, at Arnhem, British troops faced unexpected German SS soldiers and tanks, despite Dutch resistance reports warning them of the threat.

In Arnhem, only a small group had managed to secure the main bridge over the Lower Rhine River.

The Germans were inflicting heavy casualties on the British paratroopers.

-British 1st Airborne Division is a full airborne, paratrooper and glider division, and most all of them are on the ground by, you know, September 19th and 20th.

That's 10,000 plus soldiers, something like that.

Now there's two pockets of them in the Arnhem area.

There's a battalion and that's, you know, 500 some-odd soldiers who are actually in Arnhem itself, right downtown at the Arnhem bridge over the Rhine River.

The ultimate objective of the whole operation, because you're trying to breach the Rhine.

Now, they have been fighting in this pocket and they're fighting desperately, and they've suffered massive casualties by this point in time.

♪♪ -Elements of the 82nd Airborne arrived in Nijmegen on the first day of Operation Market Garden.

When they entered the city, they faced heavy German resistance.

The Waal Highway bridge is roughly ten miles from where the British were fighting hard to hold Arnhem.

These two vital bridges were almost within sight of each other.

On the morning of September 20th, the 82nd Airborne's 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment needed to secure their objectives quickly.

Doing so would allow British troops to move on to Arnhem to rescue their 1st Airborne Division.

The initial step was to secure the Waal River bridges immediately.

The 504th and other soldiers from the 82nd had to secure the Waal bridges, so British tanks and troops could reach Arnhem and rescue the British 1st Airborne Division from destruction.

Both ends of the main highway bridge over the Waal River would now be attacked simultaneously by the 82nd Airborne.

Those already fighting in Nijmegen city center with the British, were battling their way to the city side of the bridge.

General James Gavin's division was about to try something unusual for paratroopers -- crossing a wide, swift river in broad daylight in plain view of German forces.

The changed mission had become an almost impossible task, especially when the paratroopers arrived on the south side of the Waal River and saw what they were facing.

-You've got some shelter on the American controlled side of the river.

There's like this embankment.

Okay.

So the paratroopers have convened there, waiting for the word to go.

-When the men first set eyes on the river, they were absolutely dismayed.

-I do remember looking across that river and saying, "If we get across the goddamn river.

And then what do we see?

No place to hide."

♪♪ -The Waal River was like a medieval moat.

And if you could get across it, you might survive for a little while until you encountered the enemy who was firing back at you with MG 42s and everything you could imagine.

Artillery fire coming down.

Um.

It's a scary place.

-First Lieutenant James "Maggie" MeGelles, also a veteran of the 82nd Airborne's previous fights in Sicily and Italy, recognized danger when he saw it and the Waal River was trouble.

-Where we're standing was a high dike, and we were behind it, and we were concealed from the river and from the enemy on the other side.

Guys gathered in little groups.

Their best friends, three or four together or four or five, and discussed it.

And I quote some of them saying, "This is a suicide mission.

We're not gonna make it."

Others had different feelings.

They came, came and talked to me and said, "This is the day I'm going to get it.

I have a strong feeling," had a premonition.

And everybody viewed it that way.

We weren't bemoaning our luck to say, "Well, why is it us?

Why aren't the British doing it?

Look at all the soldiers they got.

Why didn't somebody else do it?"

That wasn't it at all.

Our number was called.

We -- that was it, you do it.

when we stood behind this dike in a concealed position, the British Lancaster bombers flew overhead and came over and bombed this whole area.

Dropped bombs.

In advance of our crossing the river.

To soften them up.

-You have one officer who says, you know, "I'm gonna be dead."

And he takes his prized lighter and his prized pack of cigarettes, and he flings it aside as if he doesn't need that anymore.

-We then realized that the opposition was pretty heavy, and began to, we began to speculate, "Well, how many guys are over there?"

We didn't know, but we knew it was a sizable number.

We knew we weren't surprising anybody.

That we knew.

And so when guys got together in groups, they felt, well, this is it, guys, you know?

I told my buddy Rivers, "Look," I says, "Rivers, if you make it across and I don't, go to Wisconsin and -- see my mother and tell her what happened."

He said, "Maggie, I'll do the same if you do this, do that for me as well.

Go to Massachusetts.

Chicopee Falls."

I said, "Okay, it's a deal."

[ Water gently lapping ] I didn't think any of us would make it across that river to that, to the opposite dike where the Germans were dug in with machine guns.

We might have got across the river, but whether we could navigate that open terrain and route the Germans and capture the bridges, I didn't think any of us would make it.

-That open terrain will need to be addressed later.

The main issue for the 504th was that they lacked boats to cross the Waal River.

The British offered to supply the boats, but it would take valuable time to deliver them to the American paratroopers waiting by the dike on the Allied side of the river.

The Germans were shocked and in awe of what the 82nd Airborne Paratroopers were attempting.

It was going to be as easy as shooting ducks in a barrel, since the defenders were well equipped.

-There's a real problem getting the boats up there.

And the main -- there's several reasons for this.

The Allies controlled this narrow roadside corridor.

The Americans came to call it Hell's Highway.

So if you can imagine this, this kind of two lane highway stretching from the Belgian border, snaking through all these little Dutch towns, some, you know, 40 plus miles all the way up to Nijmegen.

The Germans are attacking that road from either direction.

-The men arrived at about 2:00, so one hour before the crossing, and the boats arrive roughly at the same time.

-General James Gavin, who commands the 82nd Airborne Division, has basically a battalion at his disposal for this crossing.

Okay, so that's the 3rd Battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

That's roughly about 400 to 600 soldiers, something like that.

And they're going to be augmented by engineers from the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion.

The purpose of the engineers there is to get the boats working and to kind of help crew the boats across the river.

So you'd have like a couple of engineers, ideally, a couple or three of them in a boat, and then you'd have maybe like 12 to 16 infantrymen, paratroopers who are going to go across as well.

They start off expecting they're going to have 33 boats.

One of the trucks gets hit and boats are destroyed, so they end up with 26 boats.

-I waited in anticipation.

Let's see what these boats look like.

Well, when they came there and we saw it, then we knew that we were in for a pretty tough job.

And that's when we realized that -- that it wasn't going to be humanly possible for us to cross in what they had just given us.

-So the boats that they were using were British assault boats.

They'd never seen them, they never practiced with them, and they were brought in in the nick of time.

And as the men were offloading them, they realized that they were very flimsy things.

A plywood bottom, a wooden rim, and in between was just canvas and nothing more.

-When the boats do arrive, they're kind of shocked at the sort of decrepit nature of these boats, because they expected something more substantial.

So that dents the morale a little bit.

-We lost our minds.

You can't get across in that heavy fire in those little boats.

But we, you know, you do it anyway.

-Our best remaining option is to put paratroopers aboard these very rickety boats and have them cross the Waal River in broad daylight, straight into the German defenses, overwhelm them, capture two key bridges that then tanks and other vehicles could cross to get up to Arnhem.

That's the basic concept.

They never would have imagined doing this, you know, before the operation.

It's just one of those things they come up with in the course of events.

-The boats were British engineering boats that were on the move since D-Day, so not all of them were complete.

They lacked paddles.

So instead of having eight pedals for every boat, some only came with two.

-There were wooden bottom boats, light wood, and each of the boats were supposed to have, what, four or five oars and stuff like that to get across.

-You had the impression, if you were an average paratrooper that there were going to be powered boats.

They're not.

So how do you power 'em?

There's a couple of paddles in each boat, so who can maneuver a paddle?

Just a couple of us on the boat.

So people are using rifle butts and whatever.

-The boats were manned by engineers, 307 Airborne Engineers, C company.

And they were the ones who were going to row the boats across and more importantly, back to get the next wave.

[ Gentle lapping ] -There were no oars, no means of propulsion, no means of steering, except in the back.

There was a little rudder kind of thing like that you, that you might find like down in the bayous where they navigate around trees.

-So the British boats arrived on the far side of the power station that used to be on that side.

Then they moved the boats to the power station.

But it was only then that they found out that there's a chain link fence all around the power station.

So one of the Sherman tanks ran into them to clear a path, and then they found on this side there's more fences.

So they used a Gammon grenade, and then they pushed the fence down.

The men then continued down with the boats, but they were now all close together instead of spread out.

And they put the boats in the water.

And then some guys jumped in immediately, not realizing that the water at the beginning is not very deep.

So the boat was merely stuck.

So people had to get out, push the boats in, jump in further.

So there's all these difficulties.

♪♪ The boats enter the water behind me on that side, underneath the power lines, and from there they started to sail into the current.

And it's a strong current, September.

A lot of rain had fallen during the summer, so there's a strong current coming down from Germany, and that pushes the boat further to the west.

-The first option, when they come up with this plan to cross the river is hopefully to cross at night, but this was just simply not feasible.

And the main reason is they could not get the boats up to the crossing site in Nijmegen on the Waal River in time to do this at night.

General James Gavin, if he were here today, he'd probably tell us this was my last option.

This is the last card I could play, and I know it was really flawed, but this is what had to be done.

-They had to get to Arnhem as quickly as possible, and to do that, they had to secure the bridge.

And to do that they needed to cross the river.

[ Gunfire ] -As paratroopers from the 504th started crossing the Waal in British canvas boats, they received fire support from other 82nd units and British tanks outside Nijmegen.

-You've got some level of smoke and dust giving you a little bit of, um, you know, a little bit of, um, concealment as you go across the river.

You also have an entire battalion of paratroopers who are laying down cover fire for you, and then you've got other paratroopers fighting in the city diverting German reinforcements.

You've got some artillery here and there, but in the end, it's going to come down to these guys making themselves vulnerable, going across the river.

-So the men would depart from the area of the power station that has long since disappeared.

But the power lines are still there and they mark the point where they crossed.

-Germans are fortified on that side and they have automatic weapons.

They have dug in positions.

On your right, the Germans control a railroad bridge, and they have guns mounted on that bridge.

So you've got a lot of fire coming at you, really, from what's called your flank.

-The men then continue down with the boats.

But they were now all close together instead of spread out, and they put the boats in the water.

-When we got the word to go at 3:00 and it was form of a whistle, a whistle was blown.

We were behind this dike and we charged over the top carrying these flimsy canvas boats, and charged down this embankment and set our boats in the water.

And at that time, we came within view of the enemy that were dug in over there on the other side, along -- along another big dike that went all the way to the bridge.

They were dug in there with machine guns, and behind them is a fort hidden by trees, an old medieval fort where they had heavy weapons, artillery, 88s, flak wagons, and all the rest, and mortars.

And when we charged down here and try to put our boat in the water, It was hard going because the water in some places there were stones, it was tricky.

Guys were falling down.

We were getting caught in mud.

We're trying to get in this boat and jump in the boat.

Guys were jumping in and falling out.

It was really pandemonium.

-The Germans were very much surprised by the fact that there was a daylight crossing.

Who would do this?

Why would you take the risk and not wait a couple of hours until darkness?

When the Germans saw the 82nd Airborne crossing the river, they immediately started to deploy their forces.

Men were sent out to the railway bridge and immediately opened fire on the men in the boats.

They also called in heavy artillery which were firing from further away, and these caused massive geysers of water that would blow up boats entirely if they were unlucky enough to be in the path.

-For 82nd paratrooper John Schultz, the Waal crossing was his first experience with heavy combat and overwhelming fear.

-We were exposed to fire from the moment we went through that fence.

-The first paratrooper to be killed -- during the Waal crossing was actually killed right here, when he comes out of this building and a German sniper hits him and he is killed.

The men start taking casualties from the moment they put the boats into the water.

-You couldn't stop to help them.

You're trying to get out of the fire that's there.

-There was a hell on earth.

If you could draw it up, that was it.

-Major Julian Cook commanded the Waal River crossing by the paratroopers of the 3rd Battalion, 504th.

-Julian Cook is sort of the main character.

He is the battalion commander who has to basically carry this out.

And this is just an incredible leadership proposition.

He's new to the unit, so he didn't think he quite had the respect of his guys yet.

-We didn't like the guy at first 'cause he's a West Pointer.

And you know, his sense of discipline was a little different than ours in the battlefield.

And he went in the first wave with the two companies.

Then we gained respect for him and he for us.

-He jokes with his men that he's going to go across the river like Washington, across the Delaware.

You know, standing on the prow kind of thing, saying onward, onward.

-I thought right away of George Washington crossing the Delaware.

I swear to God, that's what was going through my head.

I could see him standing there.

-The boats began to go in all different directions, and we had no really way to control them.

We had no means to propel them.

I used the butt of my Thompson submachine gun as a paddle, trying to gain some propulsion so we could move -- move the boats there.

-Something kicks in when you're -- when you're under a big strain like that, there's something kicks in that gives you the incentive to go ahead to finish what the hell you're doing.

-The Germans responded, as they always did, with ferocity and with determination, and they needed to make sure that this crossing would not be successful.

-I never was exposed to fire like that 'cause they had artillery, they had tanks, they had everything.

They were throwing everything they had at us.

-There's another really interesting guy named Delbert Kuehl, and he's the chaplain.

He doesn't have to go, but he's going to go be right there, front and center.

He thinks it's very important for morale.

And he was really a courageous guy.

Anyway, he and cook both pray in their own ways as they're going across.

Cook was a devout Catholic and he kept saying, "Hail Mary, full of grace."

He said that over and over and over again.

Delbert Kuehl was like saying, you know, saying his own prayers, too, as a Protestant chaplain.

-There was praying.

Guys were praying out loud.

I was praying also, quietly.

-Hail Mary, full of grace.

Hail Mary, full of grace.

It's a method to get into the rhythm of rowing in unison, which proved to be very difficult.

These men had never done that in the past, especially not in these British boats.

So boats were going around in circles, some boats were coming back.

Some boats would go in figure of eights.

The Germans now opened fire on the men in the water.

-We were going on adrenaline, running on adrenaline.

We were being shot at.

The water out here was bubbling like hail was falling in it like a hailstorm.

There was small arms fire coming from across from that dike, from outposts between us and that dike and from the bridges over there.

There were people strapped in the bridges, snipers, all with long range weapons, all firing at us out here.

And when that happened, and the bullets began to come in and guys were being hit and lead was, was over our head and all around, we're frantically paddling, trying to navigate this river to get to the other side.

-The 82nd faced heavy German fire as they crossed the Waal River.

It was coming from three sides.

Germans were shooting at them from the railroad bridge and from behind the dike on the north side of the Waal River, as well as from the Fortress Hof van Holland.

The 504th paratroopers were struggling with the rapidly flowing, deep Waal River.

-It was about running like it is now.

-The Waal River is one of Europe's largest and most heavily developed river systems.

It has a very swift current, anywhere from three to five miles an hour.

That might not sound much, but man, when you get in the river you could get swept away very, very easily.

The river is deep enough that it's a drowning hazard.

And of course it's Holland, so they've used these rivers as water systems and as canals and dikes.

In other words, there's a lot of high ground overlooking the crossing area.

And of course, that gives a defender great advantages.

-The only thing is to get across that river and get out of that boat.

And they were fanatic about it.

And guys are getting hit and they're falling in the river and it's on and you're accepting that.

You're driven by rage.

There's nothing greater than rage.

And the desire for revenge, drives you.

-While elements of the 504th crossed the Waal, other 82nd paratroopers, supported by British tankers continued their fierce fight against German forces in the Dutch city of Nijmegen.

-Urban combat is raging, and that's part of this operation, too.

-Allied troops on the southern bank of the Waal kept providing fire support for the 82nd paratroopers, crossing the river in their fragile canvas boats.

-They put up smoke, but it didn't blow it right away.

So we were pretty easy targets for the Germans at that time.

[ Explosion, rapid gunfire ] And we got some support from the American and some British troops on the other side, firing across and landing ahead.

All those of us who are using our hand.

And I had a B.A.R.

and that was too heavy for me to do that with, so I used my hands.

The Lord was looking after me.

-The Waal crossing is done in its entirety by the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 307th Airborne Engineers.

That's over the course of about an hour.

We tend to focus on the first ones that go across at 3:03 p.m.

on September 20th, and that's Julian Cook and the 3rd Battalion, and then the engineers who are with them.

The engineers, by the way, their job once you go across is not to stay there.

It's to come back with the boats and risk going again across the river and somehow paddle back on their own and go back and get other guys to keep shuttling.

So some of them make multiple trips.

-So 26 boats set out to the, uh, to the north bank.

Of these, about 14 made it across, and of those 14, only ten were able to get back to the south bank in order to fill up with the next wave.

When the boats reached the north side of the Vaal River, This is only stage one.

When they get to the far side, it's floodplains.

It's grassland.

Usually the cows or the sheep would -- would graze there during the summer months.

So it's uneven terrain.

Not very undulating, it's very straight.

And then you run all the way till you get to the dikes.

There might be a couple of ditches running through there.

Those would usually have barbed wires around it, but that's, um, that's the terrain.

-The paratroopers crossing the Waal still face the challenge of a wide open floodplain to reach the Germans on the dike.

-At that point, we then had to navigate from 500 to 800 yards to where the Germans were entrenched with machine guns.

[ Waves gently lapping ] -Then when we got over to the riverbank and threw hand grenades across over to the Germans on the other side, they picked them up and threw them back.

-And we had no cover.

There weren't any buildings.

There was no natural cover.

There was nothing.

And the Germans could lay down machine gun fire unobstructed in clear fields of fire.

And they were just laying it down on us.

-Heavy fire was also coming from an old stone fort on the north side of the Waal River, near the railroad bridge.

It was tearing apart both boats and the flesh of the 82nd paratroopers.

Some of the men from the 504th headed that way.

Other 82nd paratroopers were heading toward different objectives, such as the railway bridge over the Waal.

German troops were positioned on the rail crossing and firing at the paratroopers.

-The main enemy guns were located on the fortress, Fort Hof van Holland, and on the railway bridge.

The Germans used those 20mm anti-aircraft gun normally to defend against low-flying Allied planes, but now they deemed it possible to use them on the men crossing in boats as well.

-There's many instances of paratroopers who are so fired up at that point, and so angry too, that they're just killing people mercilessly who are begging for their lives.

It is an absolute kill or be killed kind of environment.

If you get to the opposite side and you get a chance to get some payback, you're going to do it.

And these are aggressive soldiers anyway.

That's war.

That's the reality of war.

-So after landing on the north shore, they immediately started to go for the dike.

-Well, we're standing on a -- what was a dike without these improved roads on it, and it sloped up and it came up about 15 feet or so.

And it's similar to the dike that was on the other side of the river.

The only thing was the Germans, in anticipation of our attempting to cross, cross at this point, had brought in reinforcements and automatic weapons, and they covered this whole area.

And we had to overcome this position in order for us to get to the bridges.

And the Germans were determined here to stop us.

-Once the men reached the dike, they were able to get their hands on some of the Germans that were there, and there were very few prisoners of war taken.

-We were cussing and swearing, and we had no place to take cover, and the machine guns were firing away at us and so on.

And we had a number of men that were killed that made it across the river, but didn't make it across this open area.

-As Maggie pointed out.

It's kill or be killed.

-The Germans were pulled back behind the dike.

So this was the first cover that they had because it slopes up gently.

It's where the wounded were put down.

And Delbert Kuehl, the Protestant chaplain, He started to provide first aid there.

After securing the dike, The next objective was the old fortress, Fortress Hof van Holland.

There were Germans with machine guns and anti-aircraft guns on the fortress, and a very nasty surprise was to find the Germans on the railway bridge, who were firing at them from the flank.

Something they never anticipated.

-I met Megellas and he was going toward this fort that was over to the left with the men that he had.

-There wasn't any unit integrity at all and, uh, when we got here.

-My job was to take the railroad bridge.

-They had snipers.

A lot of them were strapped in there.

-I turned right with my men and went towards the bridge.

-We was trying to get up to get in a position to put some fire on that bridge.

We went up the other side, to the right.

-We took out the machine gun fronts and people in the -- in the -- in the dugout areas.

And then we swung south and took the bridgehead.

-After leaving the dike embankment, Maggie Megellas first headed toward nearby Fort Hof van Holland.

-The old medieval fort with a moat and water around it and everything that the Germans had used and were occupying it.

We hadn't been briefed about it, and it was nobody was really very much aware of it.

And we headed for there, and the entrance was around behind, and the, uh, there was a moat and a drawbridge and a moat around the water.

And the Germans were in there, and they had these weapons, and they were firing from outside this fort.

One of my men that was with me is Sergeant Leroy Richmond.

He took off his jacket and his gear, and he jumped in the water and he swam that moat.

He swam that and he went up.

He started climbing up that -- started climbing up that fort.

And, uh, when he got up near the top, he looked down in there and he began to wave at us.

Look, you got to go around the back end of it to get into this place.

-They then try to enter the fortress, but they get very little return fire.

So they deem the fortress to be neutralized and they continue on towards the railway bridge.

-My MOS, military occupational specialty, and that of the men who fought with me, was simply stated -- killing Germans.

Nothing more, nothing less.

-The railway and highway bridges both targets, are approximately 2,500 feet apart.

The rail span had to be secured first because German troops on the railway bridge were firing at the approaching 82nd paratroopers, blocking their advance to the highway bridge.

The 504th paratroopers were outgunned and outmanned as they approached the railway bridge, but they kept moving forward.

-About 19 men made it to the north side of the railway bridge, and they were facing hundreds of Germans who were coming from the city and crossed the bridge towards them.

They called on them to surrender, but there was not an adequate answer, not quickly enough, and the men decided to open fire.

This is wholesale slaughter, and more than 260 dead bodies were found on the bridge itself.

-Everybody was amazed at what we did there, and I said, "Hell, I'm not amazed at what they do.

I'm amazed that they didn't do more than this because hell, they were mad."

-I think Julian Cook described the mindset best.

He said -- This is what he thought in the course of the day on September 20th.

He was saying that, "We're being asked to make an Omaha Beach assault all by ourselves."

And that's how he saw it.

-While Julian Cook's paratroopers fought at the rail bridge, fighting in the city of Nijmegen itself continued, much of it being hand-to-hand.

The city was ablaze.

[ Flames crackling ] 82nd soldiers, including those from the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, along with additional British troops, fought hard to eliminate any Germans who might launch a counterattack on the bridges over the Waal River.

-In the city of Nijmegen, the Germans were under relentless attack as well.

The second Battalion of the 505th, together with the Grenadier Guards, constantly attacked the Germans, probing for a way into their defensive system.

And they broke into the German trenches and were able to open up the bridge.

-Meanwhile, ten miles away in Arnhem, the British 1st Airborne was struggling to hold their position at the bridge against relentless German assaults.

[ Rapid gunfire ] [ Machine gunfire ] The British paratroopers were praying that the 82nd Airborne Division would secure the Waal River bridge.

That would allow British tanks and troops to move forward to Arnhem to rescue their fellow British soldiers.

-You've had about two and a half days of incredibly violent fighting go on in the Arnhem area, where the 1st Airborne Division is, the British 1st Airborne Division.

So they are starting to be cut off, and it's about 11 miles or so to the nearest friendly Allied soldiers for them.

-However, the British troops scheduled to head for Arnhem were still engaged in fighting in Nijmegen itself.

The main road bridge over the Waal River needed to be secured by the American 82nd Airborne soon.

That was about to happen thanks to the paratroopers of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

-In Nijmegen the Germans were defending the southern approaches.

They had been building up their defenses for the better part of two days, when they came under attack by the 505th and the Grenadier Guards.

There were still Germans fighting in the city of Nijmegen, and it wasn't until well past midnight that finally the last resistance had been overcome and the approaches were fully in the hands of the allies.

The Germans ferociously defended their positions and were very difficult to dislodge, so even though the bridge had been captured earlier, the Germans still kept up a pretty heavy fight at the bridge itself.

[ Waves lapping ] The Americans who had just crossed the river would be approaching the bridge beyond those houses that you now see on the far shore.

But that's where they would have met the British tanks who were racing down across the bridge to meet up with them.

♪♪ -In the early evening of September 20, 1944, the highway bridge over the Waal River was nearly in the hands of the 82nd Airborne.

The crossing of the Waal River, the capture of Fort Hof van Holland, and the securing of the railway and road bridges had taken a heavy toll on the men of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division.

-It's a long fight that goes on several hours, almost into the night, but by the time we're done, you're talking about a 40 to 60% casualty rate out of, what, 500 soldiers, something like that, that's going across.

So it's, uh, you know, if you're unscathed, at the end of the day as one of these guys, you've been pretty lucky.

-On this side of the bridge, it's mostly the Germans who are here, and they are now under attack.

The British and the American paratroopers, they work together, this is a combined assault, and they push the Germans into an ever smaller perimeter, and that paves the way for the tanks to get across the -- the main road down towards the bridge itself.

So this is really where the Germans are.

-I think it's also still important to remember that there's still some pretty high speed German units and commanders in place, especially in Market Garden, Waffen-SS units, Armoured units, regular infantry formations and all that.

They're very, very good soldiers.

But I do think the Americans have a qualitative advantage at this point.

♪♪ -The combined American and British assault secured the Waal River bridge.

It cost the 504th and 307th Airborne Engineers 48 dead and 70 wounded.

German casualties totaled several hundred, with estimates of 500 killed and 200 taken prisoner.

British tanks from the Guards Armoured Division could now be sent to Arnhem to rescue the bloodied British 1st Airborne Division.

-Four tanks were sent across and these were tanks from the Grenadier Guards of the British Guards Armoured Division, and they were convinced that this was a suicide mission just as much as it was for the men in the boats earlier.

They were convinced that the moment they were in the center of the bridge itself, the Germans would destroy it, and they would tumble and fall into the Vaal River.

They checked the bridge for explosives, but surprisingly, amazingly, they made it across.

♪♪ -That's when I realized the British weren't coming across that damn bridge after we took it out.

-When I made it to the north side of the bridge, they halted.

The paratroopers were very much disappointed by the fact that no one went to Arnhem immediately.

And when I say disappointed, that's an understatement.

But their orders was to defend the bridge from German counterattacks.

-The fact is, they never, The British never took advantage of it.

♪♪ -The big question at the end of this operation is why didn't the Germans destroy the bridge?

Well, we don't know.

We think they really tried.

That the commanding officer of the German 10th SS Division, who was present here, gave the order at the last second to blow the bridge.

But when they pushed down the plunger, nothing happened.

Could this be a Dutchman who cut the cables?

Could it have been an artillery round?

Could it have been someone who tripped over and felled one of the wires?

We'll never know.

♪♪ -And we started to cross at 3:00.

And by 7:00 at night we controlled both bridges.

It was an epic battle.

-With all objectives finally accomplished, British forces en route to Arnhem faced another problem.

The German counterattacks in Nijmegen had depleted their forces.

There were few actual British fighting men left to send with the tanks to Arnhem to rescue the British 1st Airborne Division.

The British paratroopers at the Arnhem bridge were by now decimated and barely holding on against strong German troops.

-The British, who had been helping the 82nd Airborne capture the bridge at Nijmegen, were dispersed all through the city.

There were two very strong German counter-attacks coming, and that also siphoned off any of the reinforcements that were available.

So these four tanks were the only tanks who were able to get across the bridge and halt there.

There were no other forces available to go to Arnhem.

-Within about a two, two and a half day period, Market Garden kind of transitions from this idea of a big coup de main operation, you know, big airborne and armor operation to win the war into a kind of glorified rescue operation of the Americans trying to get to the -- the cut off British troops up at Arnhem.

So in that sense, it's really tragic.

It's also predicated on the hope that the Germans don't have much fight left in them, and unfortunately, they do.

♪♪ -With Nijmegen finally freed from German counterattacks, paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division took a moment to reflect on their eventful day.

-I don't know how anybody lived through that.

♪♪ So we spent the rest of the night roasting them out and chasing them out of the town.

And we happened to get in and found a bar, and it was, uh, there was a keg, a keg of beer on a tap.

We got drunk.

It was -- And when one barrel went dry, they hooked up another barrel.

But we have four hours as they had.

And the next morning?

Well, what the hell?

That was it.

That was that.

The -- The Krauts got the hell out of there then.

Then they were pushed out.

I kept seeing all them faces.

[ Inhales shakily ] [ Clears throat ] ♪♪ I still do.

♪♪ Of all them guys, like, the kid that was killed sitting next to me in a boat trying to get across that river.

♪♪ Dixon, his name was.

Then when we went and got back to England, I went and I looked up that girl he was getting married too.

And I looked at her, looked her up and told her what happened to him.

And she was -- It kind of went on from there.

But I just happened to be with her, you know, when it happened.

-Those of us who made it through, all feel wonderful about it.

We got through.

And those of us who didn't, you know.

You know, you -- you think about them strongly.

♪♪ -In the early evening of September 20, 1944, the British tank crews heading to Arnhem to rescue the 1st British Airborne Division came to a complete stop outside the main highway bridge in Nijmegen.

Only a handful of British tanks had made it across and fighting was still raging in Nijmegen.

The British tanks lacked infantry support.

The road to Arnhem, only ten miles away, was too dangerous to navigate at night with limited troops.

That evening, the British would lose control of the last bridge that the Allies needed to get across the Lower Rhine River and enter Northern Germany, and there would be no heroic rescue of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem.

British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Operation Market Garden was over by September 26th, just nine days into the battle.

World War II in Europe would not end by Christmas 1944.

-Market Garden fails because it's a zero-defect operation.

And what I mean by that is if anything goes wrong, everything goes wrong.

♪♪ -Crossing the river, this wide, fast-flowing river, in broad daylight in flimsy canvas boats under murderous German fire, surely ranks as one of the most heroic operations during the Second World War.

♪♪ -I asked one German, uh, you know, who spoke English, and I asked him, "Why, when you knew you were done, did you keep fighting so furiously?"

He said, "We're like a family."

He said, "For four years, four and a half years, five, we had nobody but the rest of the squad.

That was our family then."

And that's why they did that.

It made sense to me.

♪♪ -Eisenhower had very few public comments about Market Garden.

It's basically going to cost him everything in terms of any momentum he would have on other fronts.

Unfortunately, the Waal crossing doesn't have a great impact on the overall war as a whole.

You know, yeah, you take the bridges, these guys pull off this incredible feat, but they don't save the British 1st Airborne Division at, uh, at Arnhem.

And of course, Market Garden fails.

So that's really the sad element of this is this incredible valor ultimately doesn't lead to the larger strategic outcome that we want.

It's, of course, other elements and other subsequent battles or whatever that are going to win the war for the Allies.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Operation Market Garden proved to be a bridge too far.

Just don't tell that to the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division, who courageously crossed the Waal River on September 20, 1944.

One of the most heroic missions of World War II, a miraculous footnote in an overall plan that ultimately failed.

World War II in Europe did not end until May 1945.♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Production of "Waal River Crossing: 1944" has been made possible by... Additional support was provided by... ♪♪ ♪♪