26th September 1944

On this date Operation Market Garden officially ended. The withdrawal of the 1st British Airborne Division and the few Poles who had reached the perimeter continued until the Tuesday morning. Daylight made it impossible for the remaining soldiers to cross the river in full sight of the Germans. Urquhart's Division was almost annihilated. Of the original 10,000 men who arrived at the Arnhem sector during Operation Market Garden only about 2,000 reached the village of Driel. The rest were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. For the British soldiers, Arnhem was a second Dunkirk. Casualties were even higher than the British had suffered on D-Day, the invasion of Normandy. The Americans had fewer casualties. In the Nijmegen sector, Gavin's 82nd 'All American' lost about 1,500 men. Taylor's 101st 'Screaming Eagles' lost about 2,100 men in the Eindhoven sector. All together (including casualties from XXX Corps, VIII Corps, XII Corps, British and American air crew) the number of casualties was 17,200.

The worst part was that Arnhem was never reached despite all the men who gave their lives to hold the bridge or the 'perimeter', referred to by the Germans as Der Hexenkessel (the witches' cauldron). Montgomery still called Market Garden 90% successful and said:

"In my -prejudiced- view, if the operation had been properly backed from its inception, and given the aircraft, ground forces, and administrative resources necessary for the job, it would have succeeded in spite of my mistakes, or the adverse weather, or the presence of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps in the Arnhem area. I remain Market Garden's unrepentant advocate."

Looking at the number of captured bridges Montgomery's statement that Market Garden was 90% successful was correct, but from a military point of view it was anything but true. The 80 kilometer corridor which was held had no, or at best, little strategic value.

Market Garden wasn't a total failure. The corridor served as sally point for further assaults on the Germans and eventually led to the liberation of southern part of the Netherlands. The Dutch will always remember September 1944 and the soldiers who died for the liberation of Holland.