Retracing Hell’s Highway

Dutch cyclist Bart Verhulst retraces XXX Corp’s route of advance during Operation Market Garden

Hell’s Highway route 135, the original 135km ‘Thunder Road’, one of many routes mapped out by Bart, is the closest to the original taken by XXX Corps

Bart Verhulst, a military history and cycling enthusiast from the Netherlands has followed in the footsteps of XXX Corps by retracing the infamous Hell’s Highway by bicycle for the 77th anniversary of Operation Market Garden.

Bart’s initiative and an associated website he created titled Cycling Hell’s Highway were born out of an early love for cycling. “I love the sense of freedom it gives,” he said. “Ever since I was 14 years old, I would wander off on my bike for hours on end in search of adventure and to discover new things.”

One day while cycling, Bart recounted how he stumbled across weathered graffiti on the walls of a house, but it was not in Dutch.

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