Air War Market Garden [02] So Near and Yet So Far by Martin W. Bowman

Author:Martin W. Bowman [Bowman, Martin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: World War 2, Air Combat, Battles, Campaigns, Missions
ISBN: 9781783468881
Goodreads: 17075696
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Timeline Monday 18 September (D+1)

0600 With the armoured cars of the 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment reconnoitring ahead, the Guards Armoured advance resumes, leaving 231st Brigade to hold Valkenswaard. Halfway to Eindhoven the Grenadier Guards Group takes over the lead, with the Welsh Guards Group opening up the second Route axis towards Helmond. VIII Corps attack begins. 74 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitoes of 6 and 8 Groups attempt to bomb a coastal battery at Domberg on Walcheren Island but the Master Bomber abandons the raid after 8 Mosquitoes had attempted to mark the target in poor weather conditions.

Before dawn At Arnhem both sides attack. Kampfgruppe ‘von Tettau’ under Generalleutnant Hans von Tettau (including 224th Panzer Company with French Renault tanks) move against 1st Airlanding Brigade from Renkum to the west, gradually absorbing all other German forces west of Oosterbeek in a fire-fight that lasts most of the day, 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment resumes its advance towards Arnhem bridge against SS-Kampfgruppe ‘Spindler’ under Sturmbannfúhrer Ludwig Spindler. Within 2000 metres of the bridge, the British and Germans become intermingled in confused street fighting.

Dawn A force of around 740 British airborne soldiers is gathered at the north end of the Arnhem road bridge.

At Nijmegen Gavin orders 1/508th and 3/508th Parachute Infantry to try again for the road bridge. Three times during the day the paratroops report that the bridge is theirs, but each time the German defence holds. Blocked at Arnhem Bridge, 10th SS-Kampfgruppe ‘Frundsberg’ Division begins the slow process of ferrying troops and vehicles across the Pannerden Canal, the canalized stretch of the Lower Rhine east of Arnhem. The first troops reach Nijmegen on bicycles, followed by four PzKpfw IV tanks, the vanguard of SS-Kampfgruppe ‘Reinhold’. Brigadeführer Harmel, who had driven flat-out from Berlin, sets up HQ next day at Doornenburg six miles north of Nijmegen to coordinate the defence.

0800 At Arnhem the HQ of 1st Parachute Brigade arrives (without Brigadier Gerald Lathbury), giving Frost radio contact with 1st British Airborne HQ and artillery support from one of the three troops (four guns each) of the division’s 75mm howitzers. At Arnhem Bridge as 3rd Battalion’s advance pushes to within 2,000 metres of the structure, confused street fighting ensues and Urquhart’s party is cut off. Shortly before noon Lathbury is wounded and has to be left in a nearby house. As the Germans close in Urquhart, accompanied by two officers is forced to take refuge in a sympathetic householder’s attic while German troops patrol the streets below. With Urquhart and Lathbury both missing, Brigadier Hicks officially takes over the division at 0915, sending 2nd Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment (two companies strong) to reinforce 1st Parachute Brigade’s increasingly fragmented drive. At Arnhem bridge itself, Frost has at least as many troops as SS-Kampfgruppe ‘Knaust’ of the 9th SS Panzer Division ‘Hohenstauffen’, which attacks from the north but soon realise that artillery and armour are needed to dislodge Frost’s men from the houses.

0930 The 9th SS Reconnaissance Battalion (sent south the day

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