Liberation Route Marker 114

LIBERATION ROUTE MARKER 114 - THE BRIDGE OF YOUR LIFE

Conquering the Bridge at Son was the task of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. After the bridge was conquered, the regiment would push on to Eindhoven, which had to be captured at the end of the first day.

When the men arrived at the bridge, however, it was blown up by the German guards who then quickly got out of their feet. The commander of the 1st battalion, Major LaPrade, did not hesitate for a moment and dived into the channel and swam to the other side, immediately followed by a number of other men. They found a rowing boat and soon enough soldiers were transferred to form a line of defense. The jumped-in engineers of the 326th Airborne Engineers immediately went to work to create a footbridge. They used shelves and other building material that was hidden from the Germans by the locals and now came in handy. When the rickety footbridge was finished, the whole regiment crossed the canal almost one by one and headed for Eindhoven. However, it was already so late that Colonel Sink, the commander of the 506th, postponed the attack on Eindhoven until it became light again.

On September 18, the engineers were busy all day to clear up the remains of the old bridge so that the British could start immediately to build a Bailey bridge. This is a bridge that can be built from standard components in a short time. Around 19:00 the British main force of the XXX Corps arrived at the bridge and not much later the first trucks with the bridge sections arrived. Work continued throughout the night and at 6:15 a.m. on September 19, the bridge was ready and the first vehicles, the 2nd Household Cavalry on the way to Nijmegen, were immediately followed by the tanks of the Irish Guards.

That same evening, five or six Panther tanks from the German Panzer Brigade 107 attacked the bridge and managed to push through a narrow path along the canal up to 50 meters from the bridge. A 57-mm anti-tank cannon from B-Battery of the 81st AA / AT battalion was pulled behind a jeep from a landing area just in time and hit the front Panther. This caught fire and blocked the way for the other tanks, which had to go back again. The bridge has been saved.

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Source

• Text: Joris Nieuwint, The Battlefield Explorer
• Photos: Jeroen Koppes
• 81st Airborne AAAT During Market Garden – Narrative from 28-09-1944.
• MARGRY, K., De bevrijding van Eindhoven, 1992.
• SLIZ, J., Bridging the Club Route.