NEW About the tour: Ultimate Arnhem

Day 1

Local departure by coach or Door-to-Door service, then to our hotel in Belgium for an overnight stay.

Day 2 - The Ground Assault

We begin our journey in Belgium, tracing the advance of the tanks and infantry of the British 30 Corps in September 1944. At Leopoldsburg, where General Horrocks briefed his officers before Market Garden, famously depicted by Edward Fox in ‘A Bridge Too Far’, we visit the Sherman Firefly tank on display and pay our respects at Leopoldsburg War Cemetery.

At Lommel, we honour the Polish contribution at their moving cemetery. From here, we stand at the very starting point of Operation Market Garden, Joe’s Bridge on the Dutch border, where the Irish Guards Battlegroup began their advance.

After lunch, we continue to the Ysselsteyn German Cemetery, the largest in the Netherlands, where over 31,000 German soldiers are buried, including many from the fighting during Market Garden.

We conclude the day at the Overloon War Museum, home to one of the finest collections of tanks and wartime artefacts in Europe, before travelling to our hotel in the Arnhem area, where we will be based for the next five nights.

Included meals: Breakfast

Polish War Cemetery (7)

Day 3 - American Airborne – Battle for the Bridges

Today we travel to Eindhoven to follow the story of the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions as they dropped into the Netherlands. We begin at Son Bridge before moving to Eerde Windmill, where the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) fought bitterly, marked today by memorials on the battlefield.

After lunch, we pay our respects at Uden War Cemetery, final resting place of men from British 30 Corps who fought alongside the Americans. At Grave, we see the bridge taken intact by the 504th PIR and visit the memorials and nearby pre-war bunkers, now preserved as a small museum.

Arriving in Nijmegen, we explore the Visitor Centre, retrace the dramatic Waal Crossing led by Major Julian Cook and his men, supported by the Guards Armoured Division, and stand beneath the vast Nijmegen Road bridge while visiting the memorials to this epic assault.

We end the day at Groesbeek War Cemetery, where we also visit the Groesbeek Memorial to the British and Commonwealth Missing of Arnhem.

Included meals: Breakfast

Grave Bridge (7)

Day 4 - 1st Airborne Drop Zones – Arnhem Bridge

We begin the day on the Drop Zones and Landing Zones west of Arnhem, where the British 1st Airborne Division came in on 17th September 1944.

At Wolfheze we visit the remarkable private Glider Museum before walking to the Recce Squadron’s ambush site near the Culvert, the tunnel beneath the railway line that became a focal point in the fighting.

After lunch, we continue to the Hartenstein Hotel, the 1st Airborne Division’s headquarters in 1944 and now a superb museum. From here we trace key moments of the battle: the spot where Brigadier Gerald Lathbury was wounded, the terraced house where General Roy Urquhart hid, and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, where wounded from both sides were treated.

Entering Arnhem itself, we examine the route of the 1st Airborne advance before walking the ground at the iconic Arnhem Bridge. Here, a small Airborne force held out for three days and four nights in one of the most famous actions of the campaign.

Included meals: Breakfast

Arnhem Bridge (7)

Day 5 - The Oosterbeek Perimeter

Today we follow the story of the men of the 1st Airborne Division as they were forced back from Arnhem into the Oosterbeek Perimeter.

We begin with two short and easy battlefield walks: first from ‘Casualty Crossroads,’ where the front line ran and medical facilities were hastily set up, continuing past the White House, defended by the 7th King’s Own Scottish Borderers, and ending at ‘Hackett’s Hollow,’ where Brigadier Shan Hackett’s men fought their way out under heavy fire.

After lunch, we visit Oosterbeek Church, at the centre of Major Richard Lonsdale’s defensive positions and where he delivered his famous speech to inspire his exhausted troops. From here we trace the evacuation route to the Lower Rhine, stopping at the Kate ter Horst House, used as a Dressing Station during the battle. We also examine two Victoria Cross actions: Major Robert Cain, who stalked German armour with his PIAT, and Sergeant John Baskeyfield of the South Staffordshire Regiment, who with his fellow gunners fought German tanks with 6-pounders.

We close the day at Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, where so many of those who fought in these actions now lie, and discuss the continued recovery of the dead on the Arnhem battlefield.

Included meals: Breakfast

Kate ter Horst’s House (5)

Day 6 - Arnhem Evacuation – The Island

We begin this morning on the positions of the Border Regiment within the Oosterbeek Perimeter before moving to the commanding Westerbouwing Heights.

From here, we take the foot ferry across the Lower Rhine, following close to the route of the 1944 evacuation.

On the far bank our coach collects us, and we visit the Polish Airborne Memorials at Driel and the Engineers Memorial, dedicated to the British and Canadian sappers who ferried men across the river under fire.

After lunch, we turn to the aftermath of the Battle of Arnhem on ‘The Island’ between Nijmegen and the Lower Rhine. Here we see the Wiltshire Memorial at De Laar Farm, the Easy Company Memorial to the ‘Band of Brothers,’ Schoonderlogt Farm, where Richard Winters was famously photographed, and the Crossroads battlefield, where men of the 506th PIR fought in October 1944.

We conclude the day by examining the post-Arnhem evacuations across the Lower Rhine, Pegasus I and Pegasus II, visiting the memorial at Randwijk where these daring operations took place.

Included meals: Breakfast

De Laar Farm (7)

Day 7

Return home.

Included meals: Breakfast