Arnhem before and after the battle

[The_MadMan]

Here are some scans I made out of a book which shows the devastation of Arnhem during 1944 / 1945.

First lets start with an areal photo of Arnhem as it was in 1940:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/arnhem1940.jpg

A sign put up by the Allies:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/hollandremember.jpg

City Centre

Market and Eusebius church in 1940:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/markt1940.jpg

1945:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/markt1945.jpg

Palace of Justice on the market, one of the columns you see on the right is now in the centre of the Airbornesquare.
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/paleisvanjustitie1945.jpg

Area west of the Market (Langstraat):
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/langstraat1945.jpg

The John Frostbridge in 1940:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/frostbrug1940.jpg

In 1945:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/frostbrug1945.jpg

1946 during the rebuilding:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/frostbrug1946.jpg

Eusebiusbinnensingel 1940, these houses were occupied by John Frost and his men:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/eusebiusbinnensingel1940.jpg

1945, the ruins in the centre is where they made their last stand:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/eusebiusbinnensingel1945.jpg

On the eastern side of the northern approach was the Van Limburg Stirum school, or the "Red School" which was defended by a group of Enigeers.
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/valimburgstirumschool1945.jpg

Rijnkade, the bridge is just to the right:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/rijnkade1940.jpg

After the battle:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/rijnkade1945.jpg

Rijnkade, photo was taken from the ruins of the Frostbridge. The remains of the houses in front where occupied by John Frost and his men:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/rijnkade1945_2.jpg

Same spot but a bit more to the right:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/strijdgebied1945.jpg

German trences on the Rijnkade:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/rijnkadeloopgraaf1945.jpg

Very close the the John Frostbridge was the tram garage:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/tramremise1940.jpg

Not much left of it in 1945:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/tramremise1945.jpg

Barracs on the Willemsplein in 1940:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/willemskazerne1940.jpg

Before the start of Market Garden the barracs were bombed by the RAF, this is the result:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/willemskazerne1945.jpg

Rest of Arnhem

Utrechtse weg in 1945, near where the Para's where finally stopped in their final push towards the bridge on tueday september 19th.
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/utrechtseweg1945.jpg

Alexanderstraat, in this street Gen. Urqhuart had to leave Brig. Lathburry behind since he was wounded. Soon after that he hid himself in a house on the nearby Zwarteweg.
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/alexanderstraat1945.jpg

Not too far from the Alexanderstraat is the Heyenoordseweg, as you can see there is not much left of it.
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/heijenoordseweg1945.jpg

Some fieldgraves on the Amsterdamseweg:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/Amsterdamseweg.jpg

After the battle was over the Germans ordered everybody out of Arnhem / Oosterbeek and started looting:

These pictures were taken by the dutch underground, if they were caught they would be shot on the spot.
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/plunderen_1.jpg

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/plunderen_2.jpg

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/plunderen_3.jpg

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/plunderen_4.jpg

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/plunderen_5.jpg

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/plunderen_6.jpg

If this wasn't bad enough they also started blowing up and burning down buildings.

This was the phone operators were stationed:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/velperplein1940.jpg

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/velperplein1945.jpg

Diaconesse hospital, in the 1940s the most modern hospital in the Netherlands:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/diaconessezh1940.jpg

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/diaconessezh1945.jpg

Café Royal on the Willemsplein. Burned to the gound by the Germans, in the front of the picture you see what was once a tram.

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/caferoyal1945.jpg

The Burgemeestersplein:
http://cdv.nieuwint.net/arnhem4045/burgemeestersplein1945.jpg

[Musashi]

Thank you for these photos woot

[kayaker]

Fantastic post! Very informative. Great piece of Dutch history. Send to all family members.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/RyanWoods/P3240189.jpg

The Pillar on the Airborne Square: terrible photo nothing in focus.

Hotel "De Wereld " in Wageningen. We all know what happened here:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/RyanWoods/P7130087.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/RyanWoods/P7130084.jpg

[Bobitron]

Wow, great pictures. I love the comparative shots. Thank you very much.

[1Cie GevGn]

Good post!

[CG51]

Yes, very good! Thank you!

[The_MadMan]

Since I was bored I also edited two aerial photo's:

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/aanvalsroute.jpg

At number 1 is the Alexanderstraat and at 2 is the Heijenoordseweg (see pictures above).

The pink, blue and red lines are the planned routes of attack for the 1st airborne division:

The pink dots are part of the so called Leopard route for 1st batallion under Lieutenant-Colonel Dobie which would follow the Amsterdamse weg into Arnhem. Dobie never made it that far.

The blue dots are part of the Tiger route which was to be taken by Lt Col Fitsch's 3rd Battalion. He stopped for the night in Oosterbeek on the 17th of September and was forced to use the Lion route afterwards.

The red dots are part of the Lion route taken by Lt Col John Frost's 2nd battalion.

The Lion route was eventually taken by all airborne forces on the 18th and 19th of September into Arnhem although none of them made it to the bridge. It was also the way back into Oosterbeek after their attempts to reach the bridge failed.

The black and yellow dots mark the German blocking line under Spindler from the 9th SS Panzer division (Frundsberg).

Area around the John Frost bridge:

http://cdv.nieuwint.net/verdedigingfrostbrug.jpg

The light-blue dots represent the route taken by Frost towards the bridge, the red dots are the perimeter which he formed around it. The yellow arrows are the German attacs which almost all came from those two roads.

The number 1 is the Eusebiusbinnensingel, the 2 is the location of the Van Limburg Stirumschool (or "Red school"), the 3 is the area you can see in the Rijnkade photo's which were taken from the ruins of the Frostbridge. 4 marks the Market square.

[SuperShot5000]

Great post, The_MadMan.

That city got real f*cked up.

[The_MadMan]

Great post, The_MadMan.

That city got real f*cked up.

Yeah... :(