An Classic Account of the Batlle for Arnhem

In April, 2025 I toured the battlefields of Operation MARKET GARDEN, the September 1944 airborne invasion of the Netherlands. I crossed some of the famous bridges, visited war memorials and museums, and walked the ground where British, American, Polish, and Dutch Resistance fighters attempted to secure three critical river crossings; an attempt that proved to be “A Bridge Too Far” (the title of Cornelius Ryan’s 1974 book, and the 1977 Richard Attenborough film based on it.) My understanding of this complex battle was greatly enhanced by reading this book.

A Street in Arnhem focuses on events along the Utrechtseweg, the major east-west road that runs from Oosterbeek through Arnhem. It was one of three main avenues of approach that led from the landing zones of the British 1st Airborne Division to the key rail and road bridges over the broad Lower Rhine (Nederrijn in Dutch). The book relies heavily on firsthand accounts by Allied and German veterans and Dutch civilians who witnessed the battle.

Arnhem suffered extensive destruction during the battle and subsequent bombardments, so many of the locations described in the book have changed in the last eight decades, but the basic geography is still there. The people of the Netherlands took the fallen, and the survivors of the battle, (mostly gone now) into their hearts. The Arnhem road bridge now bears the name of John Frost (1912-1993) who led the epic four-day stand of the 2nd Parachute Battalion around the northern end of the bridge against troops of the II SS-Panzerkorps.

The book includes 33 monochrome photographs, and several clear maps. The maps are so small that readers may need a magnifying lens to view them. Readers with an interest in this battle will find A Street in Arnhem to be a gripping and informative account.

The author, Robert Kershaw, describes himself as a “military author and battlefield tour guide” (https://robertjkershaw.com/). He joined the UK Parachute Regiment in 1973 and served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and the first Gulf War. He has written twelve books of military history and has contributed to The Times, the Daily Telegraph, and the Sunday Telegraph.

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Our Reviewer: Mike Markowitz is an historian and wargame designer. He writes a monthly column for CoinWeek.Com and is a member of the ADBC (Association of Dedicated Byzantine Collectors). His previous reviews in modern history include To Train the Fleet for War: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems, 1923-1940, Comrades Betrayed: Jewish World War I Veterans under Hitler, Rome – City in Terror: The Nazi Occupation 1943–44, A Raid on the Red Sea: The Israeli Capture of the Karine A, Strike from the Sea: The Development and Deployment of Strategic Cruise Missiles since 1934, 100 Greatest Battles, Battle for the Island Kingdom, Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, From Ironclads to Dreadnoughts: The Development of the German Battleship, 1864-1918, Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City, The Demon of Unrest, Next War: Reimagining How We Fight, Habsburg Sons: Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Hitler's Atomic Bomb, The Dark Path: The Structure of War and the Rise of the West, The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War, Operation Title: Sink the Tirpitz, and A Light in the Northern Sea.

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Note: A Street in Arnhem is also available in paperback.

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