The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (144 page)

Instantly German fire from three directions
: AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (“
mackerel on the feed
”); Ryan,
A Bridge Too Far
, 406–8;
SLC
, 180; OH, Robert M. Tallon, March 6, 1968, CJR, box 103, folder 20 (
direct hit from a mortar round
); Burriss,
Strike and Hold
, 113–15 (
engineer shot through the head
), 116–17 (“
Thy will be done
”); Nordyke,
More Than Courage
, 234 (“
his skull dropped
”).

“
It was a horrible, horrible sight
”: OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17.

The roar of gunfire and ripping canvas
: Nordyke,
More Than Courage
, 237, 256; Reuben H. Tucker, ts, n.d., CJR, box 103, folder 23 (“
look at ’em
”).

Half made the far shore
:
SLC
, 181; AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (
galley slaves
).

“
God help anyone in front of us
”: Nordyke,
More Than Courage
, 240.

“
jack-in-the-box shooting
”: OH, Theodore Finkbeiner, Jr., March 4, 1968, CJR, box 102, folder 24;
SLC
, 181.

One company slaughtered the enemy garrison at Hof
: AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125; Powell,
The Devil’s Birthday
, 160; corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“
driven to a fever pitch
”).

Sensing that the day had turned
: AAR, Co. A, 1st Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (
yellow recognition flags
); Fitzgerald,
History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War
, 504 (
high in the girders
); corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“
gargoyles
”); corr, Virgil F. Carmichael, Oct. 13, 1967, CJR, box 102, file 16 (
shot trying to surrender
); Nordyke,
More Than Courage
, 260 (“
Old German men grab
”); Kershaw, “
It Never Snows in September
,” 211–12 (“
throwing our wounded from the bridge
”);
SLC
, 183 (
Two hundred and sixty-seven enemy bodies
).

Paratroopers darting through river grass
: Nordyke,
More Than Courage
, 263 (“
Roman candle balls
”); Forbes,
The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945
, vol. 1, 137–38 (
skidded sideways
); AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125 (
detonators lashed to a catwalk
).

“
The most gallant attack
”: Horrocks,
Corps Commander
, 112;
SLC
, 183; Kershaw, “
It Never Snows in September
,” 211–12 (“
blow up the bridge
”); Nordyke,
More Than Courage
, 264 (“
They’re over the Waal
”).

Montgomery monitored the battle
: Hamilton,
Monty: The Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976
, 73, 76, 87–89.

“
Things are going to work out alright
”: msg, BLM to DDE, Sept. 20, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83.

“
I regard general situation on rivers
”: Powell,
The Devil’s Birthday
, 184.

“
all was not well
”: Randal,
A Short History of 30 Corps in the European Campaign
, 35.

“
General, you’d better get the hell back here
”: OH, JMG, 1975, Donald G. Andrews and Charles H. Ferguson, SOOHP, MHI, JMG papers, box 1.

Racing to his command post
: corr, JMG to MBR, Jan. 27, 1973, CJR, box 102, folder 6; Gavin,
On to Berlin
, 176–77.

But troubles in the Anglo-American rear
:
SLC
, 187; “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG Staff Study No. 3, CARL, N-17309.1 (
another 85,000 Germans
); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 150; Margry, ed.,
Operation Market-Garden Then and Now
, vol. 2, 569.

That same morning, Hell’s Highway
: Ryan,
A Bridge Too Far
, 476–77; Horrocks,
A Full Life
, 228 (“
blackest moment
”);
SLC
, 189–92; Kershaw, “
It Never Snows in September
,” 283–87 (
destroy fifty vehicles
).

The new bridgehead over the Waal
:
SLC
, 184–86; Crosswell,
Beetle: The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith
, 720 (
supplies promised by SHAEF
); OH, JMG, 1975, Donald G. Andrews and Charles H. Ferguson, SOOHP, MHI, JMG papers, box 1 (“
Why die now?
”); corr, JMG to MBR, Jan. 27, 1973, CJR, box 102, folder 6 (
found Colonel Tucker in a farmhouse
); Powell,
The Devil’s Birthday
, 162–63 (“
What in the hell are they doing?
”).

At 1:30
P.M.
on Thursday
: AAR, 3rd Battalion, Irish Guards, UK NA, WO 171/1257 (
captured German map
);
SLC
, 185 (
waited in ambush
); Fitzgerald,
History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War
, 508–9 (“
head to tail in silhouette
”); Ellis,
Welsh Guards at War
, 229 (“
these sad flat lands
”); Margry, ed.,
Operation Market-Garden Then and Now
, vol. 2, 576–77 (“
not going to get a yard
”).

“
But farther they could not go
”: Forbes,
The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945
, vol. 1, 141; T. G. Lindsay, “Operation Overlord Plus,” n.d., LHC, 43–44 (
plover and pheasant
).

The British survivors at Arnhem were now pinched
: Urquhart,
Arnhem
, 105–7, 131; Saunders,
The Red Beret
, 242–43 (“
I used to watch an apple tree
”).

Between mortar barrages, called “hate” by the British
: Powell,
The Devil’s Birthday
, 208 (“
In the Mood
”);
By Air to Battle
, 124–25 (
notched their rifle butts
); Kershaw, “
It Never Snows in September
,” 240 (“
room to room
”); Middlebrook,
Arnhem 1944
, 344–46 (“
You have no idea
”); Baynes,
Urquhart of Arnhem
, 147 (
kept the 9th SS Panzer at bay
).

Of nearly 9,000 British soldiers inserted
: Middlebrook,
Arnhem 1944
, 39, 339, 398–400. Urquhart cited eighty-four supply planes lost (AAR, “Airborne Division Report on Operation Market,” 1st Airborne Division, Jan. 10, 1945, CARL, N-5647, 34).

“
Thou shalt not be afraid
”:
By Air to Battle
, 125;
http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/jimmy_cleminson.htm
.

“
Our casualties heavy
”: Urquhart,
Arnhem
, 132.

Relief came, though far too little
: Sosabowski,
Freely I Served
, 152, 156, 164; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 138–39 (
forced many befuddled pilots
); Middlebrook,
Arnhem 1944
, 410–11, 341–43 (
narrowing Urquhart’s river frontage
);
SLC
, 186–86; Margry, ed.,
Operation Market-Garden Then and Now
, vol. 2, 588–89.

A night passed, then another
: Chmielewska-Szymańska,
Życie i działalność Stanisława Sosabowskiego
, 144–45; Sosabowski,
Najkrótszą Drogą
, 247; Peszke, “The Polish Parachute Brigade in World War II,”
Military Affairs
(Oct. 1984): 188
ff
.

A battalion from the Dorsetshire Regiment
: “Pegasus and the Wyvern,”
Royal Engineers Journal
(March 1946): 22
ff.
;
SLC
, 196–97; Powell,
The Devil’s Birthday
, 215 (“
quite useless
”); Swiecicki,
With the Red Devils at Arnhem
, 82 (“
Everything would seem to point
”).

When the end came, it came quickly
: Horrocks,
A Full Life
, 230–32; Urquhart,
Arnhem
, 170–77 (
trundled the lightly injured
); Badsey,
Arnhem 1944
, 76 (
medical truces
).

“
The night was made for clandestine exits
”: Powell,
The Devil’s Birthday
, 221; author visit, May 24, 2009; Badsey,
Arnhem 1944
, 83 (
shuffled through the mud flats
); Urquhart,
Arnhem
, 170–77 (“
Let’s be having you
”);
By Air to Battle
, 130 (
Cointreau and mugs of tea
); Margry, ed.,
Operation Market-Garden Then and Now
, vol. 2, 684.

Dawn caught the division
: “Pegasus and the Wyvern,”
Royal Engineers Journal
(March 1946): 22
+
; Tucholski,
Spadochronowa opowieść, czyli o żołnierzach gen. Sosabowskiego i cichociemnych
, 72–73 (
flailed for the southern bank
); Waddy,
A Tour of the Arnhem Battlefields
, 177 (
only four of twenty-five aboard
).

Urquhart was among those
: Urquhart,
Arnhem
, 179–80.

“
You did all you could
”: Baynes,
Urquhart of Arnhem
, 151. Historian Max Hastings concluded that Browning “displayed shameful incompetence and merited dismissal with ignominy” (
Inferno
, 561).

In the small hours of Friday, September 29
: “Germans Use Expert Swimmers to Mine Dutch Bridges,”
Military Intelligence Service
, no. 25, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #494L, 61
+
; Margry, ed.,
Operation Market-Garden Then and Now
, vol. 2, 706–7 (
air cylinders
); “Forced Crossing of the Rhine, 1945,” Aug. 1945, CE, Historical Report No. 20, CEOH, box X-32, folder 20, 14; Randal,
A Short History of 30 Corps in the European Campaign
, 38.

This rude gesture hardly dampened
: Powell,
The Devil’s Birthday
, 232 (“
decided victory
”); Brereton,
The Brereton Diaries
, 360–61 (“
brilliant success
”); Hart-Davis, ed.,
King’s Counsellor
, 258 (“
well pleased with the gross result
”); AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 115 (“
90 percent successful
”); Orange,
Tedder: Quietly in Command
, 279 (“
one jumps off a cliff
”); OH, F.A.M. Browning, Feb. 1955, NARA RG 319,
SLC
background papers, 2-3.7 CB 3 (“
Who was to tell
”);
SLC
, 198 (“
We have no regrets
”).

Brave words from a division commander
: Middlebrook,
Arnhem 1944
, 445;
SLC
, 200 (
losses in
MARKET
approached 12,000
);
VW
, vol. 2, 54 (
in 17,000 air sorties
); Ryan,
A Bridge Too Far
, 523; Kershaw, “
It Never Snows in September
,” 311 (
total German losses
);
De Slag Om Arnhem
, 24 (
went on finding skeletons
). A recent German study puts Model’s losses around Arnhem alone at 3,300 (Ludewig,
Rückzug
, 278).

Even decided victories and brilliant successes
: AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 115 (
Montgomery blamed the weather
); AAR, “Operations in Holland,” First Allied Airborne Army, Dec. 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, Act R A-104, box 62; Brereton,
The Brereton Diaries
, 360–61.

Browning blamed Sosabowski
: In 2006, Queen Beatrix awarded the Bronze Lion to Sosabowski, who died in 1967 (Dreel ferry signage, author visit, May 24, 2009.
www.ww2awards.com/person/34944
).

“
too busy fighting Eisenhower
”: Baynes,
Urquhart of Arnhem
, 160, 167 (“
a bit more constructive criticism
”).

“
a single controlling mind
”: ibid., 159.

Horrocks at least had the grace
: Horrocks,
A Full Life
, 231; Keegan, ed.,
Churchill’s Generals
, 236–38 (
had failed to keep a senior Dutch officer
).

Several hundred fugitive Allied troops
: brochure, “Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein,’” Oosterbeek, author visit, May 2009, 12–13; Badsey,
Arnhem 1944
, 83–85; Middlebrook,
Arnhem 1944
, 439 (
more than six thousand others
); Hastings,
Armageddon
, 56 (“
Green grow the rushes
”); Arthur,
Forgotten Voices of World War II
, 364 (“
show these bastards
”).