Tonie Holt - Major and Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide to Operation Market Garden. Leopoldsburg-Eindhoven-Nijmegen-Arnhem-Oosterbeek

For Diana

By the same authors:

Biography
Violets From Oversea: 25 Poets of the First World War, Reprinted as Poets of the Great War, 1999
My Boy Jack?: The Search for Kiplings Only Son
In Search of the Better Ole: The Life, Works and Collectables of Bruce Bairnsfather
Picture Postcard Artists: Landscapes, Animals and Characters
Mitary History
Till the Boys Come Home: the Picture Postcards of the First World War
Ill Be Seeing You: the Picture Postcards of World War II
Germany Awake! The Rise of National Socialism
illustrated by Contemporary Postcards
Battlefield Guide Books
Holts Battlefield Guidebooks: Normandy-Overlord/Market-Garden/Somme/Ypres
Visitors Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches
Battlefields of the First World War: A Travellers Guide
Major & Mrs Holts Concise Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient
Major & Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide to the Somme + Battle Map
Major & Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient/Passchendaele + Battle Map
Major & Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide to Gallipoli + Battle Map
Major & Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide to MARKET-GARDEN (Arnhem) + Battle Map
Major & Mrs Holts Definitive Battlefield Guide to the D-Day Normandy Landing Beaches
Major & Mrs Holts Concise, Illustrated Battlefield Guide to the Western Front - North
Major & Mrs Holts Concise, Illustrated Battlefield Guide to the Western Front - South
Major & Mrs Holts Pocket Guide to Ypres and Passchendaele
Major & Mrs Holts Pocket Guide to The Somme 1916/1918
Major & Mrs Holts Pocket Battlefield Guide to D-Day Normandy Landing Beaches
Battlefield Maps
Major & Mrs Holts Battle Maps: The Somme/The Ypres Salient/Normandy/Gallipoli/Market-Garden (Arnhem)
General
Picture Postcards of the Golden Age: A Collectors Guide
The Best of Fragments from France by Capt Bruce Bairnsfather (Editors)
Stanley Gibbons Postcard Catalogue: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987

First published in 2001, 2nd Edition 2005, this Updated Edition 2012, printed by
Reprinted by LEO COOPER an imprint of
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street, Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Tonie and Valmai Holt, 2001, 2005, 2013

ISBN: 978 1 84884 570 1
PAPERBACK ISBN: 978 1 78159 378 3
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47382 943 5
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47382 681 6
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47382 637 3

The right of Tonie and Valmai Holt to be identified as Authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in India
by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd

Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,
Pen & Sword Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime, Wharncliffe Transport,
Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, Remember When,
The Praetorian Press, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

R espected military authors Tonie and Valmai Holt are generally acknowledged as the founders of the modern battlefield tour and have established a sound reputation for the depth of their research.

In the early 1970s they started running battlefield tours and in the 1980s they took over the running of the Royal British Legion Pilgrimages and updated them to a modern format until these were returned in-house following the re-introduction of Government grants. Later they became Military Consultants to the City of Portsmouth (at which time they suggested the building of a D-Day Museum), British Airways and Book Club Associates. In 1984 they were very involved in the creation and organisation of the first of the major Normandy re-unions and their company conducted reunion tours for many Regimental Association Groups. Eventually Major and Mrs Holts Battlefield Tours covered battlefields as far apart as Viet Nam, the Falkland Islands, Egypt, Gallipoli, North Africa, America, India, Russia, South Africa and most of near-Europe, including the English Civil War. They sold that company in the 1990s.

Their Major & Mrs Holts Battlefield Guides series comprises without doubt the leading guide books describing the most visited battlefields of the First and Second World Wars. They have a unique combination of male and female viewpoints and can draw upon over 40 years military and travel knowledge and experience gained in personally conducting thousands of people around the areas they have written about.

Valmai Holt took a BA(Hons) in French and Spanish and taught History. Tonie Holt took a BSc(Eng) and is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and of the Army Staff College at Camberley. They are both Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts and Science and have made frequent appearances on the lecture circuit, radio and television.

In December 2003 the Holts sponsored and unveiled a memorial to Capt Bruce Bairnsfather (the subject of their biography, In Search of the Better Ole) at St Yvon near Plugstreet Wood.

In 2007 an updated edition of their biography of John Kipling, My Boy Jack?, was published to coincide with the ITV drama, My Boy Jack, starring Daniel Radcliffe and they acted as Consultants for the IWM Exhibition of the same name.

In 2008 they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary and in 2009, the 50th Anniversary year of the death of the cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather, they updated their 1978 published collection of 140 of his most enduring cartoons, The Best of Fragments from France, together with tribute cartoons by some of the worlds leading cartoonists, donated by them for a Charity Auction for Help for Heroes. All the authors royalties from the sale of the book go to the Charity.

For more information and latest news

VISIT THEIR WEBSITE: www.guide-books.co.uk

The authors at the Soissons Memorial.

UPDATE TO THE 2013 EDITION

Please read this section first

Introduction

Since we wrote the first edition of this Guide Book to OPERATION MARKET-GARDEN in 2001 no other guide book covering the entire Corridor from Leopoldsburg to Arnhem-Oosterbeek and the full compass of the Operation has been published. Indeed this Guide remains the only one that does provide that coverage.

At the time of the Guides publication The Guards Magazine was kind enough to describe it as, Absolutely indispensable for those who visit the areas to study the battles of 1944.

Since its publication, however, there have been major changes along the five itineraries and the on the ground contributions of some of our knowledgeable and enthusiastic Dutch friends have been invaluable in compiling this Update (they are listed under ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS below). They epitomise the generous spirit in which Dutch men, women and - especially pleasing children, welcome the sadly dwindling band of Market-Garden Veterans who still come to attend the September commemorations of the Operation. They work hard to keep the memory alive of those who fought here for all our freedoms.