Editing Nijmegen (section)

=== World War II ===
In 1940, [[Battle of the Netherlands|the Netherlands was invaded]] by Germany, with Nijmegen being the first Dutch city to fall into German hands. On 22 February 1944, [[Bombing of Nijmegen|Nijmegen was heavily bombed]] by American planes, causing great damage to the city centre. It was subsequently claimed by the Allies that the American pilots thought they were bombing the German city of [[Kleve]], while the Germans alleged that it was a planned operation authorised by the Dutch government in exile. The Dutch organization for investigating wartime atrocities, the [[NIOD]], announced in January 2005 that its study of the incident confirmed that it was an accident caused by poor communications and chaos in the airspace. Over 750 people died in the bombardment.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=684|title = U.S. Air Force deadly 1944 bombing of Nijmegen accidental » the Windmill news articles » goDutch}}</ref>

During September 1944, the city saw heavy fighting during [[Operation Market Garden]]. The objective of the [[Battle of Nijmegen]] was mainly to prevent the Germans from destroying the bridges. Capturing the road bridge allowed the British Army [[XXX Corps (United Kingdom)|XXX Corps]] to attempt to reach the [[1st British Airborne Division]] in [[Arnhem]]. The bridge was heavily defended by over 300 German troops on both the north and south sides with close to 20 [[anti-tank guns]] and two [[anti-aircraft guns]], supported with artillery. The Germans' late attempt to blow the road bridge was possibly foiled by a local Dutch resistance hero, [[Jan van Hoof]], who is said to have cut the wires to the bridge. The Germans made repeated attacks on the bridge using bombs attached to driftwood, midget submarines and later resorted to shelling the bridge with [[88mm]] barrages. Troops {{Clarify | post-text = German or Allied? | date = September 2019}} were positioned on the bridge giving an excellent [[arc of fire]] in case of attack. Troops that could not fit onto the bridge were positioned in a bombed-out house slightly upstream of the bridge. During the shelling, the house was hit, killing six soldiers and wounding one. Nijmegen was liberated from German occupation by the British [[Grenadier Guards]] of the [[Guards Armoured Division]], as well as elements of the American [[82nd Airborne Division]] in September 1944. The city was later used as a springboard for [[Operation Veritable]], the invasion across the Rhine River by Allied Troops.