Originally it was a straightforward walking route through the city. In May 2005 Arnhem council and the Gelders Archive, with assistance from the Gelderland Library, published a booklet relating to the walk.

The actual route is indicated with paving slabs. At each location you will find a special paving slab marked with the Pegasus symbol (see photo), the divisional sign of British airborne forces, and worn by the men of the 1st British Airborne Division who endeavoured to capture the Rhine bridge from the Germans in September 1944. The airborne soldiers who fought at Arnhem wore this emblem on the upper sleeve between the shoulder and the elbow. The sign depicts the mythological winged horse Pegasus with its rider Bellerophon.

Meanwhile, a fourth, revised edition of the brochure has been published. It contains texts in English and German too, and can be obtained for two euros from the VVV Arnhem (Tourist Office), Stationsplein 13, 6811 KG Arnhem, tel. 0900-1122344, Gelders Archive, the Gelderland Library, the Arnhem council Information Centre and the Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ in Oosterbeek. You can also find the text with illustrations on the websites of the Gelders Archive and the Arnhem council.
Brochure download.

The website you have now accessed is an expanded and detailed digital version of the walk. An extra point of interest has been added to the original total.

However, the website is by no means complete and over the coming months numerous additions and corrections will be carried out.

At each location is a detailed description of what occurred at that point and/or in the surroundings. With the aid of current photos and video images, the computer will give you an impression of the spot as it looks today (2007). The descriptions are enlivened with historic photos and with maps that show the location as it was in 1940-1945. Film and sound fragments enable the visitor to the website to delve even deeper into specific sections of the material. Scans of documents provide images of authentic papers from the war years.

Finally, the different locations give references to other websites, books and newspaper articles where much more information on the subject can be found.

The virtual route does not just take the internet walker to the important sites where the Battle of Arnhem was fought in September 1944. One is also taken to locations that were relevant during the occupation, for the resistance, the persecution of the Jews and the evacuation of the population of Arnhem, or are symbolic of these times. There are also points which refer to the liberation and the rebuilding.

From the Station you walk to the Koepel prison via Utrechtseweg and Lombok, along Onderlangs and Rijnkade to the John Frost Bridge, and then through the centre back to the Station. The nice thing about the website is that the ‘walk’ can be followed in a random order. The fact that the descriptions are independent of one another makes this possible.

The information for the website was compiled in 2006/2007 by Frank van Lunteren, 4th year history student at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, and Willem Brouwer, student at the College of Advanced Education, Amsterdam. This was within the cadre of a work experience period at the Gelders Archive. They interviewed eyewitnesses, corresponded with various official bodies, and carried out thorough research in the Gelderland Library and the Gelders Archive collections, among others. Through their dogged persistence in their research they managed to assemble an enormous amount of information and to obtain additional and new details as well.

But take care! The site is still being worked on daily because not all locations have yet been provided with their complete relevant text and associated illustrations and references. Paying a regular visit to the site will give you a good picture of the development of this digital walking route.