Joe's Bridge

[1] The bridge was captured by British troops in September 1944, becoming the springboard for the ground offensive of Operation Market-Garden.

[citation needed] While the Welsh Guards engaged the German forces around Hechtel, the Irish Guards advanced rapidly north-east through the villages of Eksel, Overpelt and Neerpelt, and launched their combined infantry-tank assault, with artillery support, from the grounds of the zinc processing factory in Overpelt and took the bridge undamaged.

German units tried for some days to recapture the bridge from the north but were driven off, once with bayonets.

Some 1.9 mi (3 km) to the west, in the center of Lommel, SS troops had placed 40 randomly selected Belgian civilians in the street, at machine gun-point, as a human shield.

Joe's Bridge is on the "Airborne trail", a |140 mi (225 km) footpath from Lommel to Arnhem, created as a permanent reminder of Operation Market-Garden by the Dutch hiking associationOllandse Lange Afstand Tippelaars (OLAT).