Richard Lonsdale Service Order. His citation read: Most of the 1st Airborne Division returned to the United Kingdom in November 1943 and were kept in reserve during Operation Overlord. In September Lonsdale was made second in command of 11th Battalion, Parachute Regiment and in the same month the division was deployed in Operation Market Garden. The Allies planned to use airborne forces to secure key bridges over a number of rivers and canals in the Netherlands, opening a route around the Seigfried Line and into the heart of Germany. 1st Airborne Division was tasked with securing bridges across the Lower Rhine at
Moerdijk bridges 1940, bridges were captured during paratroopers operation and held 4 days, until German forward forces arrived. In 1944, both the road and railway bridge were destroyed by the Germans, to prevent the Allied Forces from reaching South Holland. Moerdijk bridges The Moerdijk bridges in the Netherlands are bridges that connect the Island of Dordrecht with the Dutch province of North Brabant ("Noord Brabant") across the "Hollands Diep". The first bridge was built at the end of the 19th century, and was a railway bridge. The second bridge was built in the 1930s for road traffic, and is currently part of