Operation Market Garden — Map

The plan: an airborne carpet across the Netherlands, with XXX Corps driving up a single road over it. Three divisions would seize the bridges — the U.S. 101st Airborne around Son and Veghel, the U.S. 82nd at Grave and Nijmegen, and the British 1st Airborne at Arnhem, sixty-four miles up the road.

The drops on 17 September 1944 were the most accurate of the war. The Son bridge was blown before the 101st reached it. Nijmegen's bridge held until the 82nd crossed the Waal in canvas boats on 20 September. Two SS panzer divisions were refitting outside Arnhem.

The British held the north end of the Arnhem bridge for four days. On the night of 25 September the survivors were ferried back across the Rhine — roughly a quarter of those who had landed. Drawn as a period-style campaign map.

The eye runs straight up the blue line — Son, Veghel, Grave, Nijmegen, Arnhem — the corridor the whole plan hung on. Where the line breaks into dashes above the Waal, the advance stops. Red arrows press in from both flanks, and II SS Panzer Corps sits in the top corner where nobody expected it. Parchment tones, a cartouche and a compass rose: the calm draftsmanship makes the gap at the top of the map read louder.