British Airborne Soldier vs Waffen-SS Soldier by David Greentree & Peter Dennis

Author:David Greentree & Peter Dennis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472825698
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

The gliders were late in arriving, with seven lost on the way; 26 landed at LZ L and two elsewhere. The German reaction was immediate. A Coy suffered the most, and received orders to disengage and meet the gliders. Corporal D. Holt was attacked from the north and west; he and three others took three Bren guns and covered the rear, but A Coy would be surrounded en route to the railway line. Buchanan had a platoon from B Coy and three of his own platoons. Instead of going south to the railway line, the platoons went east; the company had to cross an area of open ground between woods. The leading platoon stopped short of the woods and the others followed. Then two German officers appeared, demanding that they surrender as there were machine guns in the woods 185m in front. German soldiers also revealed themselves to both sides; these were probably from 4./SS-PzGrenAuEBtl 16. Kauer ordered the 7 KOSB personnel to surrender. The 30-strong rearguard, from A Coy in the woods behind, managed to escape.

Other British personnel thought the Germans were friendly troops from the gliders and were captured. Private J. Coupland belonged to the anti-tank detachment that was with A Coy and was waved out of the woods by soldiers he thought were Poles; but they were Germans. A Coy would not arrive at the rendezvous south of the railway line. During the evening of 19 September Hackett told the platoon of A Coy that did reach the embankment to head to Wolfheze rather than south; the platoon would be surrounded the following morning.

The British withdrawal was chaotic; there was no unit cohesion and soldiers intermingled. Instead of moving to Wolfheze, many opted to climb the railway embankment, perhaps having not received the order to meet at the rendezvous point. A mortar team endeavoured to drag the hand cart over the embankment, but failed; many of the men became lost in the woods. In a small wood north of the railway line, Lance Corporal O’Neill Berry noticed some Germans pass a hand cart; he took the Bren from his gunner and fired and the hand cart exploded with a tremendous bang. Doig ordered a charge and the advancing Germans were dispersed. The hand cart, which had been commandeered by the Germans, had been carrying some anti-tank mines.

Forman then brought B Coy to the railway line, where Hackett told him that 7 KOSB was at Wolfheze and that he should go there to be sure, leaving his company at the embankment. Forman was soon fired on, and returned to the embankment. In the early hours of 20 September Forman was ordered to Hotel Wolfheze with three platoons in an effort to keep the railway crossing open. Hackett was subsequently criticized for not bringing his entire brigade over the railway line that evening; he discussed this over the radio with divisional headquarters, but was discouraged from making the move. Instead, he was advised to move first thing in the morning.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.