Battlefield Tours

Hell’s Highway – 101st Airborne Battlefield Tour

Hell’s Highway – 101st Airborne Battlefield Tour

In this full day Hell’s Highway battlefield tour, we will drive up and down Hell’s Highway from Veghel to Son. We will cover the objectives of the 101st Airborne Division to secure bridges across streams and canals at Son, Sint-Oedenrode, and Veghel and keep the roads in between them open.

The tour will start at the dropzones near Son and will then proceed towards the bridge across the Wilhelmina Canal at Son and we will talk about the capture, rebuilding and then the defense of this vital bridge.

We will then shift our focus to the 502nd Parachute Infantry Brigade as we move towards Best and discuss the plan to capture the bridge there. This started off series of events that led to half the division being engaged. We will visit the monuments for Robert Cole and Joe Mann in the process.

We will then drive across the vast landing fields where hundreds of gliders landed and move to Sint Oedenrode where we will talk about the defense of the town and the battles on the road to Schijndel.

The tour will continue in Veghel where we will discuss the capture of the bridges and then to the location of the Cannae in which a battalion of Germans was captured in a stunning tactical move.

Then we will move to the North of Veghel where the Germans cut the road for the first time after which they tried again at Eerde and finally cut the road again at Koevering, which we will all visit.

Hell’s highway tour itinerary

The tour begins at 09:00h at the Eindhoven railway station and we will visit the following locations:

  • Drop and landing zones near Son
  • Road bridge at Son
  • Joe Mann & Robert Cole memorials at Best
  • Sint Oedenrode – the surprise bridge
  • The bridges at Veghel
  • The first cut of the corridor north of Veghel
  • The windmill and sand dunes at Eerde
  • Koevering, where the Germans cut the road

This tour takes around 8 hours and ends around 17:00h (5PM) at the Eindhoven railway station.

Languages

This tour is available in English and in Dutch.

Pricing

We have a flat fee price for our tours:

  • Price for a full day private tour for 1 to 4 persons including transportation is €479.99.
  • For 5-8 persons I have to charge €649.99 to cover the rent of a large minivan.
  • Lunch and museum entrance is not included in the price.
  • For a group of more than 4 persons please visit my Groups page

 

Bookings for 2025

Please contact me using the contact form for booking a tour in 2025.

Book this tour now

Please note that I’m only available on the dates that you can select in the date picker below, all other dates I’m already fully booked.

By Joris

My name is Joris Nieuwint and I will be your tour guide! Please allow me to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about what I've been doing over the past years. For the past 10 years I've been living in Veghel, and before that, I've lived in Arnhem for almost two decades. Living so close to the battlefields meant that Operation Market Garden always had my interest and I've been studying the battles for all those years. Sharing what I've learned over the years has been my passion and becoming a tour guide was one of my dreams. Keeping the sacrifices of these men alive by telling their stories and showing the locations where it happened is my greatest passion.

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