An American paratrooper on watch on the bridge. A trench in the foreground. Just visible by the sand dune, George Koskimaki with his SCR-300 radio. Koskimaki was General Taylor’s radio operator and sat outside for a better signal reception. 

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Brigadier General Gerald Higgins (left) was the Assistant Division Commander of the 101st Airborne Division. General Miles Dempsey (right), commander of the British Second Army. Dempsey visited US headquarters on 23-24 September 1944.

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On 20 September 1944, the headquarters of the 101st Airborne Division moved from Son to Henkenshage Castle in Sint-Oedenrode. On 24 September, General Horrocks, the commander of the British XXX Corps, was told here that he could make one last attempt to reach the British forces north of the Rhine. If this attempt failed, Operation Market Garden would fail.Meanwhile, German troops had breached the corridor at Koevering (between Veghel and Sint-Oedenrode). The Allied advance had come to a halt. Residents of Sint-Oedenrode still remember General Horrocks swearing and yelling in the market. He did not reach his own headquarters in Nijmegen again until the following morning. The last attempt to reach the British and Polish troops at Oosterbeek was unsuccessful. As discussed in Henkenshage, Operation Market Garden was stopped.

Schloss Henkenshage

Laan van Henkeshage 3 5492 BH, Sint-Oedenrode

Photos