80th anniversary of the liberation of Grave in connection with Operation Market Garden

Every year, at the request of the mayor of the municipality of Land van Cuijk, the historic fortified town of Grave organises a large-scale commemoration of its liberation in connection with Operation Market Garden on 17 September 1944. In 2023 there was again an impressive commemoration with many American, Canadian, English and German (military) authorities, FlyBy of historical aircraft, speeches etc etc. This commemoration takes place every year at the US 82nd Airborne Monument at the southern ramp of the (US First Lieutenant) John S. Thompson Meuse Bridge.

We will again organise this Market Garden commemoration on 17 September 2024. This time in 2024, it will be a large-scale commemoration in cooperation with surrounding Market Garden municipalities, with the Dutch defence forces and the American 82nd Airborne Division and a large number of re-enactors from Grave and Nijmegen. Impressive activities will take place on and around the 1Lt John S. Thompson Maas Bridge, which played a crucial role in Operation Market Garden, and was recently featured on the National Geographic Channel. Among other things, there will again be a Çider White-CP' American-historical encampment set up by re-enactors Grave and mock-battles will be conducted. The Liberation Task Force will also visit Grave with a large number of historic army vehicles in spectacular fashion and also drive over the 1Lt John S. Thompson Meuse Bridge (again). Naturally, the young people of Grave will be actively involved, but the Grave military veterans will also be actively involved and honoured, with a lot of attention being paid to past and present military missions, as well as focused attention on recent and current conflicts.