Menu
At the beginning of September 1944, after weeks of flight, German troops offered fierce resistance to the canals around Leopoldsburg. Allied hopes for a quick end to the war faded. British Marshal Montgomery is therefore pushing through a new plan: Operation Market Garden, a lightning attack from a bridgehead in Lommel towards Arnhem on the Rhine in the Netherlands. In this way, the strong defense line in Germany, the Siegfried Line, can be circumvented. On September 16, 1944, the commanders were called to Leopoldsburg. There is a lot of military police present. The officers gather at Cinema Splendid. Tension is in the air. General Brian Horrocks enters the room. He is a living legend and the man who must lead the ground troops to Arnhem. He reveals the daring plan. The officers trust Horrocks. But there is also doubt. The road to Arnhem is long and vulnerable. Will the ground troops reach the paratroopers at the Rhine Bridge in Arnhem in time?
a lightning attack from a bridgehead in Lommel towards Arnhem on the Rhine in the Netherlands
Brian Horrocks is one of the great British generals of the Second World War. Yet he does not seem to be going far at the beginning of his career. He got low grades during his officer training. But everything changes when Horrocks enters the First World War. He shows a lot of courage at the front in France. He was seriously injured after a few months. When Hitler attacks in May 1940, Horrocks again proves courageous and capable in France. Montgomery is immediately convinced that Horrocks is made of the right stuff. He quickly makes him commander of a corps, a force of tens of thousands of soldiers.
Horrocks is very loved by its soldiers. But on the eve of Operation Market Garden, he is no longer the man he once was. As a corps commander, Horrocks helps deliver the first heavy defeat to the Germans in North Africa. Shortly afterwards, disaster strikes. A German fighter plane appears out of nowhere in Tunisia. It fires its machine guns at Horrocks. Bullets pierce his lungs, stomach, intestines. Horrocks undergoes surgery after surgery. He spends more than a year in hospitals. In August 1944, Horrocks has still not fully recovered. But the Battle of Normandy is raging in full force. And Montgomery desperately needs competent commanders. He takes Horrocks to Normandy with his private plane. The 48-year-old Horrocks is successful again. With his XXX Corps he contributes to the rapid advance through France and Belgium. But Horrocks regularly gets sick and is in bed with a fever. When he addresses his officers about Operation Market Garden in the Cinema Splendid in Leopoldsburg on September 16, 1944, he knows that this assignment is the most dangerous of his career. But on stage in Leopoldsburg he only exudes confidence and defies the pain of his injuries.
