It was a smooth march without any trouble. Thirsty and hungry, the German soldiers knocked on the doors of their inhabitants to beg for food and drink, while the residents of Nuenen realized that war had once again befallen them.

At the same time, the Allied operation "Market Garden" did not go well. Since some Allied forces entered Belgium and advanced to the Dutch border, the British Second Army's Guards Tank Division had a series of fierce battles with the Germans on the way to Edthofen, in which nine Sherman tanks were destroyed by German assault guns, 75mm anti-tank guns and "RPGs", and the Allies paid huge casualties to break these German blockades, and that night the British finally reached the south of Edthofen and rested there for a night, precious time was quietly passing.

The next morning the British tank units south of Edthofen were again delayed: some German reservists armed with 88-mm guns held the entire Thirtieth Army at bay for several hours. Why didn't the 101st Airborne Division come to help? They had by this time liberated Edthofen and made radio contact with the British in the Thirtieth Legion, and no one knows why they did so little until now.

Thankfully, however, on September 19 the Allies finally made some progress, and a Bailey steel bridge was erected at Mulberry, allowing tanks and trucks of the 30th Army to pass through to the north in order to rescue the beleaguered British paratroopers at Nijmegen and Anheng, where the British were battling the 9th and 10th Elite Panzer Divisions of the 2nd Panzer Army under General Bitrich and the Dutch SS units, all veterans of the Eastern Front who had just fought the Battle of Normandy. The combat effectiveness is very strong.

For the British Second Army, the bridge across the Wilhelmina Canal at Mulberry was the most important, and the British came with a beautiful quick assault: fifteen kilometers in an hour! The British tanks reached Hraf, near Nijmegen, and made contact with the 82nd Airborne Division,

But they came to a halt again - this time because they had to cross the 10th SS Panzer Division and the Vaal River.

Edthofen on September 19 became a sea of joy, the Germans were finally gone, the lovely Americans and the British came, the Dutch girls kissed the GIs, everything looked good, but the streets were crowded with people, and the traffic jams were consuming time little by little [I'm sure you've all seen "Band of Brothers." I have an intuitive feeling about this].

The next night was a disaster: to everyone's surprise. German bombers bombed Edthofen fiercely. This was not a blind revenge, but had a clear tactical objective, that is, the ruins of Edthofen would force the British Second Army to spend more time passing through the city in order to delay its advance to Nijmegen and Anheng in the north.

The Germans at Mulberry were fighting the paratroopers of the US 101st Division, and they were told that a German tank unit would attack from the east. But it turned out to be nothing. The generals of the 59th Infantry Division were very sorry. He had just launched a solo attack. More than 1,700 people were lost. There is no doubt that the British will come with their "Cromwell" tanks, but where are Germany's own tanks?

On the afternoon of September 19. Colonel Tsai studied the map, and he was directing his tank to advance towards the bridge in Mulberry, and although there were several options to achieve the goal, he finally decided to use the canal's embankment to get the leopard to pass. It was not easy to drive tanks on a narrow embankment, but the drivers had no choice, and it was Lieutenant Dick who commanded them.

Through the binoculars he could see that the road to Nijmegen was crowded with tanks and trucks, the British were sitting on the ground smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, and no one noticed the leopards! Then come to the surprise, the leopards turned left one after another and drove up the embankment, now on their right was the Wilhelmina Canal, on their left was the bushes and woods, they went along the embankment, there was no cover, no retreat and no choice, a real adventure! It was 17 p.m.

General Taylor, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division, was a little worried when he heard rumors that the German tanks were heading for Sang, so he sent a reconnaissance platoon to find out.

Without hesitation, the leopards opened fire and hit one of the trucks on the bridge, and more leopards drove out of the bushes to shoot at the houses on the other side of the river, and the scene was chaotic! Some American soldiers tried to block the advance of the Leopard with bazookas, but without success, General Taylor's command was also hit by several shells, he ran out to find and start a jeep to drive near some gliders that had not yet been unloaded, found a seventy-five mm anti-tank gun and pulled it out, quickly set up a firing position near the bridge and opened fire on the first Leopard tank that was almost on the bridge, fortunately it hit, the Leopard stopped and blocked the road of the tanks behind, and the Germans could not advance, The second Panther was soon hit by a bazooka and caught fire.

Lieutenant Dick realized that his Leopard tanks alone could not do anything now, and the German tanks began to retreat, and at the same time he asked Zein to send grenadiers to attack, and the tanks provided fire support for him, but Zein refused on the grounds that it was getting late and that the city was likely to be heavily defended, in fact, the exact opposite, if he decisively sent the infantry he would easily occupy the bridge. The first attack of the 107th Tank Division failed, but for the American and British troops they really survived. That night the Luftwaffe bombed Edthofen, and the joy quickly passed, and people began to fear that the Germans would soon return.

On this very day, the road from Edthofen to Nijmegen was called the Hell Highway by the Allies. The road runs north-south from Eindhoven to Fehel, to Nijmegen and to Arnhem. The road is half asphalt and half brick, and can be crossed by two small cars. But it's a bit crowded for trucks. Like most roads in the Netherlands, it's about a metre above the ground, meaning anything on the road stands out on the horizon.

On this day, the Germans cut off the road more than once and fierce fighting broke out with the Allies. From the morning, the Germans launched an attack from the south of Mulberry to the road to Nijmegen, because the ground was very wet and muddy, the German tanks and half-tracks were almost unusable, so the Germans had little cover, the Americans used seventy-five-mm self-propelled howitzers to return fire, although the Germans could not cut off the lifeline of the Allied forces, but they achieved their goal: delay.

…… (To be continued......)