We were supposed to have taken Eindhoven by 8 p.m. to assist the British in their breakthrough. Colonel Sink considered the possibility of making a night attack but decided it would be too risky when he heard a report that a German regiment had occupied the town. He hoped the blown bridge at Zon would not cause the operation to fail.

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Sink’s fears were unnecessary. The British had run into heavy resistance and had moved only halfway to Eindhoven in the first day’s fighting. They stopped for the night to the south of the town. After the most perfect drop in history, the division had succeeded in seizing all its immediate objectives along the road. The blown bridge at Zon would delay the capture of Eindhoven, but it did not hold up the overall operation.

It rained during the night, but the second day of the operation dawned clear. Soon the two American divisions were embroiled in what General Taylor characterized as Indian fighting. The 14,000 U.S. paratroopers had to control over 40 miles of Hell’s Highway, which meant a constant scurrying from one threatened sector to another. At sunrise, Colonel Sink gave marching orders for the 506th. If you see any Germans, just let them filter through. We’ve got to get to Eindhoven this morning, and we can’t waste time killing Germans.

The 3rd Battalion led the way, and 600 yards beyond the line of departure the battalion encountered rifle and machine-gun fire. For about two miles, the 3rd Battalion butted its way through, either driving the enemy back with gunfire or eliminating them where they were. When it reached Eindhoven, the battalion came under direct fire from two 88s and mortars positioned in the main street, effectively stopping all movement. Colonel Sink flanked the guns from the left with the 2nd Battalion. A Dutchman joined the Americans and promised to lead them to the 88mm battery. Then a Dutch woman signaled from a window that some Germans were approaching. Eventually, with the help of the Dutch citizens, the guns were knocked out. In the process, the troopers took 31 prisoners, killed 13 Germans and suffered only two casualties.

Suddenly, the German resistance stopped — or at least it seemed so to me. Eindhoven was free, the first Dutch city to be liberated. Joyfully, its inhabitants crowded around the paratroopers and orange streamers appeared everywhere. The 506th Parachute Regiment made contact with the British XXX Corps at noon. The British were told to move their Bailey bridge unit to the head of the column because of the destruction of the Zon bridge. They were still five miles south of Eindhoven. At that time the 506th held the center of town and was sitting on the four bridges over the Dommel River. The Germans had stopped fighting in order to withdraw and avoid the night bombing of the city. It was a sad ending to a glorious day. The enemy bombers, unhampered by anti-aircraft fire, leisurely circled and bombed the central part of the city indiscriminately. We pulled women and children from their blazing homes and tried to remove the dying from the rubble. Eindhoven, a city of 130,000 suffered more than 1,000 civilian casualties that night, including 200 dead.

At 6:45 the following morning, the British Guards Armored Division thudded across the bridge. The 36 hours lost by the British armor may have been the main cause of the annihilation of the British airborne division that was trying to hold at Arnhem. British Lt. Gen. Frederick Browning of tactical command told General Montgomery before the operation, I think we may be going a bridge too far.

Meanwhile, the British 1st Airborne Division across the Lower Rhine River at Arnhem was desperate. The British had landed in an area where there were more German troops than in all the American areas to the south. The 9th and 10th SS Panzer divisions were refitting in Arnhem and were deployed immediately against the British. German reinforcements came in faster than the British airborne reinforcements, which were delayed by bad weather. British supplies were accidentally paradropped into enemy hands, and they had not been able to seize the bridge that would give them contact with the south bank of the river.

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