In May 1940 the Netherlands was occupied by German forces. It would take five years before they could be ousted. The final drive to liberate the whole country was launched in February 1945 after the so-called ‘Hunger Winter’ had led to 20.000 fatalities in the still occupied territory.

Immediately after the Netherlands surrendered, a cemetery was laid out at the battle site for both Dutch and German military personnel who died during the Battle of the Grebbeberg.

The military cemetery can be found in Ysselsteyn, Netherlands, in the Province of Limburg close to the German border. The cemetery is the only German military cemetery in the whole Netherlands. 85 killed soldiers from the First World War and almost 32.000 from the Second World War are buried here on a territory of 28 hectares.

Operation Market Garden managed to liberate a large part of the Netherlands, but failed in its main objective: outmaneuvering the Germans with a surprise crossing of the Rhine. The Nijmegen-Groesbeek area, conquered during Market Garden, remained in Allied hands and served as a springboard for the successful Rhineland Offensive in February 1945.

Operation Market Garden was one of the largest Allied operations of the Second World War. It aimed to secure the bridges over the rivers Maas (Meuse), Waal and Rhine in the Netherlands in order to outflank the heavy German defences of the Siegfried Line and to insure a swift advance towards Berlin.