Arnhem 1944: The Airborne Battle, 17-26 September (Penguin History)

531 Pages·1999·11.27 MB·English

by  Martin Middlebrook

A R N H EM
1 9 44
THE A I R B O R NE
BATTLE
M A R T IN
M I D D L E B R O OK
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Private Bag 102902, NSMC, Auckland, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
First published by Viking 1994
Published in Penguin Books 1995
3579 10 864
Copyright © Martin Middlebrook, 1994
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has ben asserted
Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
Contents
List of Photographs vii
List of Maps ix
Introduction 1
1 The Path to Arnhem 5
2 'First Airborne' and Friends 20
3 The Arnhem Area 49
4 Preparations for Battle 59
5 The Air Armada 75
6 The Morning in Holland 90
7 The Landings 96
8 The Vital Hours 116
Battalion Krafft 117; 1st Parachute Brigade
Plan 119; The Reconnaissance Squadron 123;
The Divisional Commander 126; The 3rd Parachute
Battalion 129; The 1st Parachute Battalion 137;
The 2nd Parachute Battalion 142; The Divisional
Area 162; The Other Landings 165
9 The Battle in the Town - Monday 167
The 3rd Parachute Battalion 170; The 1st Parachute
Battalion 175; C Company and No. 4 Platoon,
2nd Parachute Battalion 184; Reinforcements 186
10 The Battle in the Town - Tuesday 190
The 1st and 3rd Parachute Battalions 195; The 2nd
South Staffordshires 200; The 11th Parachute
Battalion 206; In the Rear of the Fighting 209
11 Waiting for the Second Lift 217
12 The Second Lift 224
13 The Battle in the Woods 248
The Evening Moves 251; 156 Parachute Battalion -
the Dreijenseweg Action 254; The 10th Parachute
vi Contents
Battalion - the Pumping-Station-Area Action 261;
The Third-Lift Glider Landing 269; The 4th
Parachute Brigade Withdrawals 272; Wednesday -
into Oosterbeek 282
14 The Battle at the Bridge 287
Monday 288; Tuesday 300; Wednesday 307;
Resistance Fails 317
15 The Formation of the Oosterbeek Perimeter 324
The Eastern Perimeter 324; The Western
Perimeter 329; Wednesday - Lonsdale Force 331
16 The Battle at Oosterbeek 341
The Thursday Attacks 341; The Siege - Friday to
Monday 351; The Local People 365; The Divisional
Units 372; The Medical Services 378
17 The Resupply Flights 386
Tuesday 387; Wednesday 391; Thursday 393;
The Final Flights 396
18 The Polish Brigade 402
19 The Sacrifice of the Dorsets 418
20 Evacuation 423
21 The Reckoning 436
The Cost 438; Was It Worth It? 441
22 The Years That Followed 445
Appendix 1 Order of Battle and Operational Details,
1st British Airborne Division and Attached Units 455
Appendix 2 Order of Battle, Polish Independent
Parachute Brigade Group 461
Appendix 3 Order of Battle, 38 and 46 Groups RAF
and RASC Air Despatch Units 462
Appendix 4 Order of Battle, US Air Units Carrying
British and Polish Parachute Troops on Operation
'Market' 464
Appendix 5 Arnhem Today 465
Acknowledgements 478
Bibliography 486
Index 487
Photographs
1 Waiting for take-off - men of the 1st Parachute Battalion.
2 Horsa glider taking off at Harwell.
3 Albemarle and Horsa taking off at Manston.
4 Flying to Arnhem.
5 Gliders on Landing Zone-Z.
6 C-47s dropping parachutists on Dropping Zone-X.
7 Parachutists landing.
8 Royal Artillery jeep unloading.
9 Men of 1st Battalion near Wolfheze.
10 Arnhem road bridge from the air.
11 SS troops prepare for battle in Arnhem.
12 South Staffords move to Arnhem.
13 Captured South Staffords in Arnhem.
14 Pre-war aerial photograph of Arnhem.
15 S S men in action in Arnhem.
16 Captured men from the Arnhem bridge fighting.
17 Airborne men at Oosterbeek.
18 Stirlings on resupply drop.
19 Mortar team at Oosterbeek.
20 A 75-millimetre gun team.
21 Airborne prisoners on march towards Germany.
22 'Killed in action'.
23 Battle wreckage in Oosterbeek.
24 Survivors who escaped the battle.
25 Maj.-Gens Sosabowski and Thomas.
26 Brig. Hicks, Maj.-Gen. Urquhart and Lt-Gen. Browning on
investiture day.
27 Oosterbeek children place flowers on graves.
28 Oosterbeek cemetery today.
29 Memorial at Heelsum.
viii Photographs
30 Johannahoeve Farm today.
31 The Arnhem road bridge today.
32 The Arnhem bridge battle area today.
33 St Elizabeth Hospital.
34 Arnhem Museum.
35 Oosterbeek Church.
36 The Hartenstein.
37 Airborne Memorial at Oosterbeek.
38 The Evacuation Memorial.
The author and publishers are grateful to the following for
permission to reproduce photographs:
Imperial War Museum - 1, 2, 4-9, 12,18-20, 24, 26, 27.
Bundesarchiv - 11, 13, 15, 21-3.
Charles Bates - 3.
Col Paddy de Burgh - 10.
KLM Luchtfotographie - 14.
Len Wright - 16.
Mrs Kremer - 17.
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum - 25.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission - 28.
Photographs 29-38 were taken by the author.
Maps
Maps by Reginald and Marjorie Piggott from preliminary drawings by
Mary Middlebrook
1 The 'Market Garden' Plan 15
2 The Air Armada 84
3 The Landings - First Lift 98
4 1st Parachute Brigade Plan 122
5 1st Parachute Brigade - 2.0 a.m. Monday 151
6 1st Parachute Brigade - into Arnhem 176
7 West Arnhem - Tuesday 192
8 The Second Lift 235
9 4th Parachute Brigade Attacks - Tuesday Morning 253
10 4th Parachute Brigade Withdrawal 278
11 Arnhem Bridge 289
12 The Oosterbeek Perimeter 338
13 Arnhem Today 466-7

Introduction
Arnhem - it was the last major battle lost by the British Army, lost
not by the men who fought there but by the overconfidence of
generals, faulty planning and the failure of a relieving force given
too great a task. If the operation of which Arnhem formed a part
had been successful, the outcome of the war and the history of
post-war Europe would have been greatly altered. Yet is it worth
another book? I had fulfilled all my literary ambitions by researching
and writing thirteen full-length books and was ready to retire from
that laborious craft when Peter van Gorsel, head of Penguin's Dutch
office, asked me to write a book on Arnhem for the fiftieth anniversary
in 1994. It was the first time that my publishers had requested a
book; all previous subjects had been my choice. I eventually agreed
for several reasons. I had not previously researched and written
about the British Army in the Second World War and had not
previously done any work in Holland; so two fresh fields were
opened up to me. I also felt that the fighting in and around Arnhem
had still not been described in the detail that it merited.
The preparations have followed my standard procedure. First
was the study of prime source documents, not always complete in
this case because so few men returned from the battle to write up
unit war diaries. But the Airborne Forces Museum at Aldershot has
a bulging archive of Arnhem reports built up over the years, and I
was most fortunate in being allowed to take home the entire
collection for a careful study. Similarly, Dr Adrian Groeneweg and
the Airborne Museum at Oosterbeek have also been most diligent
in providing help. In addition, I have benefited from the research
which several members of the post-war generation in Britain and
Holland have carried out; these will be acknowledged in due course
but I must mention Jan Hey, a Dutchman who analysed the
registers of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to produce
2 Arnhem - 1944: The Airborne Battle
a most useful publication, Roll of Honour: The Battle of Arnhem,
17-26 September 1944which lists the fatal casualties by units.
The War Graves Commission registers are freely available for such
research, but Jan Hey has added the invaluable information of the
original 'field burial' locations before the remains were concentrated
into post-war cemeteries.
I then set out to contact as many men as possible who had taken
part in the battle - always the most interesting part of my work. A
total of 501 men eventually provided their contributions, 156 by
personal interview, the remainder by correspondence. Some of the
men were regular contributors to Arnhem authors, and their names
appear in other books, but hundreds of men have never told their
stories, and much new material became available. One man in New
Zealand spent eleven days preparing a detailed map and twenty-
eight pages of laboriously handwritten notes. Another man who was
an officer at Arnhem stressed, with his notes: 'Here rests no hero
but the remains of a once young man who was scared out of his
wits at the violence and ferocity of dirty little battles in dirty little
corners of which the world knew nothing nor ever will.'
A visit to Holland proved most rewarding. I needed to study the
ground where the troops landed and on which actions were fought;
fortunately, most of the locations are little changed except for the
road-bridge area in Arnhem. I was also able to interview some of
the Dutch people who were involved in 1944; I will never forget
the help and hospitality shown to me by these people. I would
normally have travelled to Germany to talk to the German soldiers
but did not do so for practical reasons. A new book became
available while I was carrying out my research, written by Robert
Kershaw, a serving officer of the Parachute Regiment who was
attached to the German Army for three years during which he
researched and wrote up Operation 'Market Garden' from the
German side. There was no way that I could improve on this new
work, and I will devote most of my book to fresh material from the
British and Dutch sides.2
1 Published by the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum, Oosterbeek, 1986.
2 Robert Kershaw's book is It Never Snows in September, Crowood Press,
Marlborough, Wilts, 1990.