The Devil’s Bridge by Anthony Tucker-Jones

Author:Anthony Tucker-Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472839879
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

13

Creating Hell’s Highway

While Field Marshal Model desperately sought to hold the Allies at Groesbeek and Nijmegen, he maintained pressure to the north of Eindhoven. Looking at the map, showing the Allied corridor, he convinced himself that Veghel was the key. However, on the flanks of Highway 69, which the Allies dubbed ‘Hell’s Highway’, things were not going very well for him.

Student’s initial attacks towards Eerde and Veghel had been repulsed. At Dinther and Veghel, a battalion from Major Hans Jungwirth’s Parachute Training Replacement Regiment was left partially hemmed in along the Willemsvaart Canal by units of the 101st Airborne Division. This battalion was another poor-quality creation, made up of reluctant youngsters and pensioners. They had neither the training nor the willpower to take on aggressive American paratroopers.

The attack by General Poppe’s 59th Division from Schijndel towards Veghel was no more successful either. On the afternoon of Tuesday 19 September, German artillery had opened up, trying to knock out American defences at Veghel and ending liberation celebrations by the Dutch. ‘I watched… two large 88mm guns’, recalled Student, ‘shooting at American snipers who sat in the tall trees and hindered our attack from the flank.’1 His operations at Best and Son had also proved ineffective.

At Son, on 20 September, Major von Maltzahn decided to repeat his unimaginative tactics of the previous day. Under cover of the British 30th Corps noisily rumbling northward and during the hours of darkness, he had rounded up his wayward forces. At dawn his Panther tanks and Panzergrenadiers once more pressed towards the vital bridge at Son. Once more, there was no element of surprise or adequate support for his operation.

An Allied patrol bumped into Maltzahn’s advance elements and drove off sharpish to warn the 101st Airborne. Although the 1034th Grenadier Regiment overran some of the Americans’ forward positions, anti-tank guns kept their supporting Panzers at bay. Once ten British Cromwell tanks and a battery of self-propelled guns arrived on the scene, the attack wilted under the shelling. Still lacking artillery or air cover, Maltzahn was unable to press home his attack. During the fighting, four of his Panthers were destroyed to add to the two lost on 19 September. Although he had again disrupted the flow of traffic, he failed to cut the bridge. It seemed that his brigade was simply not up to the job.

Northwest of Veghel, any plans Jungwirth had of trying to cut the highway were rapidly derailed. At 0930 hours that day, near Heeswijk and Dinther, the battalion from his battle group found itself under attack from all directions. Once the Americans, striking from Dinther, had reached the bridges at Heeswijk, the battalion fighting with its back to the Willemsvaart Canal was completely trapped. The inexperience of the new recruits soon began to show. After being under fire for 30 minutes, some 50 men from one company surrendered.

In the meantime, other American units were pushing east from Veghel up the Aa Valley and along the canal. Another 200 Germans belonging to the Jungwirth battalion were captured, but elsewhere they put up a stiffer fight.

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