LEOPOLDSBURG

OPERATION MARKET-GARDEN 1944

Many people have seen the movie A Bridge Too Far and in it is a scene where in a local cinema General Brian Horrocks, played by Edward Fox, briefs his ground forces of XXX Corps about Operation Market Garden.

That briefing took place in the cinema in Leopoldsburg on the Belgian/Dutch border.

Though the cinema no longer exists there is much to see in Leopoldsburg including the Market Garden Museum run by the army, the Sherman tank at the station, the Belgian and British War Cemeteries, the Resistance Memorial and Cemetery and the beginning of the Corridor road along which the tanks were to roll while the airborne forces captured the bridges ahead of them.

The first itinerary in our guide book, Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide Operation Market-Garden/Arnhem, starts at Leopoldsburg and runs up the Corridor to Eindhoven, crossing the Schelde-Maas canal at what was known as Joe's Bridge, and takes about 6 hours.

The book has a pull out map covering the whole battlefield