Exercise Report: Market Garden 2019
Seventy-five years after the event, Operation Market Garden is still a focal point of remembrance for today’s airborne operations specialists. Kees Otten and Wim Das report from the Netherlands, while Joe Campion takes to the air with today’s paratrooper transports.
A spectacular aerial view of four Hercules over the city of Arnhem. Nearest the camera is Belgian Air Component C-130H CH-11 of the 20th Squadron/15th Wing, based at Melsbroek. All photos Joe Campion unless stated
Considering the age of the last surviving veterans, this year’s 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden was almost certainly the last to be marked on such a large scale. Alongside events on land to commemorate the Allied offensive to free Arnhem from German occupation in 1944, Operation Market Garden 2019 (OMG2019) included the mass dropping of thousands of paratroopers at several landing zones around the Dutch province of Brabant.
