Schwerpunkt: From D-Day to the Fall of the Third Reich (36 page)

After dropping the Airborne troops on day one of the operation, a second air drop of food, medicine, ammunition, and more importantly, additional troops was supposed to take place later that day but because the weather in England turned too cloudy and foggy, the planes could not take off. All these supplies remained in England for a full day. By the time the fog lifted, we had received reports that the fighting was so fierce at the northern objective, that the British paratroopers were being overwhelmed. The second drop faced relentless anti aircraft artillery and many of the planes never made it. As the second wave of paratroops dropped, many were killed by enemy gunfire as they were literally being dropped into a battlefield.

I keep thinking about the information sent to Montgomery’s headquarters where the Dutch Resistance had reported that there were two extra Panzer divisions in addition to the ones we already knew about right where the British Airborne troops landed. We’ve now been able to confirm that, just as reported, the 9
^th
and 10
^th
SS Panzer Divisions are all present and accounted for up here. I don’t know why those reports were ignored but seeing what happened when the Tommies landed, I sure think those reports should have been investigated more thoroughly especially since we also got Enigma decrypts telling us the 9
^th
and 10
^th
Panzer Divisions were refitting in that area. No one paid enough attention to the reports we received about the Panzer divisions stationed in the area and these men paid the price. And if things were not bad enough with this second drop, most of the equipment and supplies didn’t even reach the ground troops fighting at Arnhem. Much of it was taken by the goddamn Krauts.

Further south, the American paratroop landings by the 101
^st
and the 82
^nd
apparently were at least going better than up north. They met their objectives and most of their targeted bridges were taken: the bridge over the canal at Eindhoven, the bridge at Grave over the River Meuse and the bridge at Nijmegen over the Waal River. The Krauts blew the bridge at Son but the 101
^st
simply sent in engineers to build another bridge. That whole first day, the 101
^st
was fighting for the Eindhoven Bridge and after taking it and liberating the town, they then had to fight some more to defend it against the Germans while waiting for the British XXX
^th
Infantry Corps to relieve them. Eindhoven, I’m proud to say, was the first Dutch town liberated by the Allieds and it was our 101
^st
that did it.

The 101
^st
came up from the south and linked up with the 82
^nd
who were fighting like hell around Nijmegen in the middle of what was now being called Hell’s Highway before the British infantry that was supposed to relieve them appeared. Meanwhile, we learned that the 82
^nd
couldn’t get the Nijmegen Bridge in their hands by conventional means so General Gavin reported that he was intending to cross the Waal in order to attack the bridge from the north and inquired where the goddamn boats were. They were with General Horrocks Infantry. When Horrocks’ men of the British infantry finally reached the southern-most paratroops of the 82
^nd
, they were more than a whole day late. What this meant was that if the British infantry who were supposed to be relieving all three Airborne divisions hadn’t yet reached our two Airborne divisions in the middle, the poor British Airborne bastards up north sure never got the relief they were expecting and depending on.

We heard that once the XXX Armoured Corps took off for their long drive, they made decent progress as they first set off but then once engaged by the enemy, they started losing tanks and slowing down. They lost nine tanks pretty much right off the bat. The XXX
^th
reported intense enemy resistance and counter-attacks. But everyone else was reporting the same thing. And once the British Infantry reached the 101
^st
in Eindhoven, it took them the rest of the day and overnight to get to the 82
^nd
paratroops who had taken the bridge at Grave, 25 miles further north. Our men in Grave were also facing the same fierce enemy opposition and were depending on the XXX
^th
for relief. The XXX
^th
then made it another 10 miles or so to Nijmegen about four hours later that same day. For a plan that was only supposed to take 72 hours from the southern start to the northern finish, progress was remarkably behind schedule.

When Horrocks’ British tanks finally arrived at Nijmegen, they were immediately put to the fight by the 82
^nd
Paratroopers who needed this additional firepower so the paratroopers could finish taking control of the Nijmegen bridges. We eventually learned that with some help, the paratroopers had captured the Nijmegen Roadway Bridge over the Waal River as well as the railway bridge without any significant damage to either bridge, first by fighting tooth and nail and then by rowing those little goddamn boats across a raging river to the opposite end of the bridge amidst heavy enemy fire. While the tanks blasted away, small units of brave, heroic paratroopers made for the opposite shore where they found the Jerries and took them out of action. We were told that even as the British tanks were driving over the bridge, the goddamn Krauts tried to blow the bridge they were on. It was only the failure of their shitty detonators that kept the bridge from blowing. Our men kept those bridges intact for several days despite enemy bombing and heavy shelling. The railway bridge was finally demolished when the middle part was blown up by teams of Kraut frogmen. But by then, who the hell really cared. The British tanks were by now over the bridge at Nijmegen.

We then received the most bizarre and disheartening reports of this whole operation. Having reached Nijmegen, and with only about 15 miles or so to get to Arnhem, Horrocks’ XXX
^th
Infantrymen stopped and spent the night at Nijmegen! That is goddamn infuriating! Why those tankers didn’t move with all due haste to relieve the poor bastards fighting for their lives at Arnhem will haunt me the rest of my life. But there they sat and General Gavin himself reported that when his 82
^nd
paratroopers fought, and fought hard to take the bridge at Nijmegen, a unit of British tanks rolled over the newly held bridge but instead of driving balls to the wall to get north to Arnhem, the whole goddamn unit stopped for a tea break! By now it was dark and Horrocks’ XXX
^th
waited there as night fell saying they had neither ammunition nor night cover. While they overnighted, their Airborne compatriots were fighting house to house. The British Paratroopers reported that their side of the bridge at Arnhem, which they had been gingerly holding, was now out of their hands and was back in the hands of the Germans. Those men at the northern bridge had fought throughout the first three nights and days, defending themselves even with bayonets, to keep their hiding places safe until they could be relieved by General Horrocks’ Infantry troops but that relief never arrived. It was reported that by September 21
^st
, the buildings in town that they had been hiding in to protect themselves were being knocked down by the lousy Krauts one building after another.

As our paratroops drove further north, they reported fighting battle after battle after battle. Tanks, infantry, artillery…the Jerries used them all and our casualties racked up considerably. It’s becoming pretty goddamn clear that Monty’s plan seems to be heading for trouble so what does he do? Since he is in command of all troops involved in Market Garden, he ordered the American paratroops of the 101
^st
and the 82
^nd
to fight as if they were infantry troops. I actually saw that Monty ordered them to take the bridge at Nijmegen and told them to hold it, not until relieved but forever. He said that they would be “reinforced” with men of the British XXX Corps. Hell! The XXX Corps is infantry and keeping a secured bridge clear is their job! The paratroops’ job is to hold the position they’ve taken with their landings until the infantry gets there and relieves them. I was fuming but since Ike didn’t enter the fray, our Airborne are now serving as Monty’s additional infantry. They did as ordered, fighting not only to take the bridge at Nijmegen but then fighting to keep it took.

Reports were sporadically coming in to our headquarters but not nearly quick enough to give us a true picture of what was happening far away from us. When we finally got the full story, probably a day or so later, it was apparent that in going for the bridge at Arnhem, the British 2
^nd
paratroop Battalion soon found that it was cut off from the rest of the friendly troops and then they found out they were almost completely surrounded by the goddamn Krauts. We got word on September 19
^th
that our men at Arnhem Bridge were still holding their side of the bridge while waiting for Horrocks’ XXX
^th
or anyone probably, to relieve or reinforce them. A while later, Major-General Urquhart of the First British Airborne confirmed that the infantry still had not reached them.

Monty had tried to get the Polish troops to relieve his guys (he would never say “rescue”). On September 20, 1944, three days after the operation began, General Sosabowski’s Polish Airborne Brigade was sent to reinforce the British Airmen at Arnhem but they had to be called off and were told to wait another 24 hours because of the bad storms. They finally took off on September 21
^st
but were still encountering such bad weather that many had to abort and return to base. Of those that continued their flights, many planes were lost or shot down. Those men who finally did land only had ferry boats to try to get them across the river. Many of these remaining would-be rescuers were mowed down in their attempt to cross the river to reach the British paratroopers. It must have been like shooting fish in a barrel for the goddamn Krauts. Those men didn’t stand a chance in those small boats with the enemy on both sides of the river banks, but in spite of this deck stacked against them, some made it and went to the aid of their brethren. This drop was a disaster and did essentially nothing but waste planes, supplies and too many more good men.

By now, the British paratroopers had been defending that goddamn bridge at Arnhem for five days with no relief. They had run out of ammunition and attempts to reinforce them had essentially failed. There would be no march into Arnhem and we eventually received the report that told us they could hold out no longer. The surviving British Airborne soldiers in Arnhem surrendered, except for the few who went to ground. Many of those poor bastards who hadn’t been killed outright were now taken prisoner. Meanwhile, XXX Corps continued to report that they were encountering severe resistance and more attacks while those brave Airmen in Arnhem stayed there holding off the Krauts thinking they were going to be relieved. Their relief by the British Infantry was to have been accomplished within three days. We kept waiting for news that the infantry reached the paratroopers and we finally got it – nine days later!

With all those British paratroopers to worry about, the only thing to be done was to get them the hell out of Dodge. Monty sent even more units to try to evacuate those stranded men and finally, after a night of blanketing artillery fire, the few survivors of the 1
^st
British Airborne were taken out at night by the Dutch Resistance under a moonless sky to boats waiting on the banks of the Rijn River. Of the whole British Airborne Division which dropped around Arnhem nine days ago, we came to find out that most of those heroes are now in POW camps. Of the close to 10,000 paratroopers who started this operation, just over 2,000 survivors of Arnhem got to the river. Each man who was able to make it out had to be helped into an assault boat which had been brought up from the Bridge at Nijmegen. Each boat was then rowed silently across the river so as not to alert the enemy. Most of these survivors had been hidden in Dutch houses where discovery by any German soldier would have meant death for him as well as the family who hid him if not for the entire town as retribution for the act of aiding an enemy soldier. American paratroopers waited on the opposite shore to direct these heroes back to friendly camps.

By the end of October, I saw the after reports showing that the British 1
^st
and the Polish 1
^st
Parachute Brigade had been all but annihilated. Over 10,000 British and Polish paratroops were dropped as part of Operation Market and just about 75% of them were casualties of this battle. These soldiers fought for Arnhem, first for the bridges then for their lives, but the initial plan to secure the bridges never materialized because the British Infantry was unable to finish their drive from Eindhoven to Arnhem. The operation started with three Airborne divisions and an infantry corps but when it was over, more than 6,000 Allied soldiers had been taken prisoner and almost 1,400 were dead. And that was just at Arnhem. On the Garden side of this grisly ledger, 5,350 men were killed, wounded or missing on Hell’s Highway.

Operation Market Garden was a complete failure. The Operation was too ambitious, it failed to take all intelligence of German troop and tank strength into account, it did not allow for alternative contingent plans and it relied on an infantry division that moved too cautiously and too slowly. Nevertheless, Monty was permitted to keep the American Airborne divisions under his command until the British cleared the city of Antwerp. That frightened me, if no one else, because I saw how slowly and deliberately the British moved. Keeping our elite forces as Montgomery’s infantrymen was something I objected to but I’m sure Ike knew what he was doing. At least I hoped he did and I hoped the reason was more than to just save face for HRE (“His Royal Egotist”) Montgomery.

The Allieds to the south of Arnhem continued to fight for another two months and there were an additional 3,500 casualties from these battles. During their time fighting Krauts for the various bridges in Holland, the 101
^st
was down to 30% of its original strength. It took until November 11
^th
to free the 82
^nd
from Monty’s command and until the 27
^th
to have the 101
^st
released. The fighting was savage and those guys did all and more than what could have been expected of them. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I thank God Harold is not a paratrooper. I dread the fact that my cousin Paul is. Those men are called upon to do the impossible for every mission they’re given. And when Monty is commanding them, they have to do double duty. I just found out that Paul was one of the unlucky ones who found himself fighting under Monty. I just got a letter from him.