Battle for Arnhem.... (2 Viewers)

[Arnhemjim]

Hello Kevin,
As an addicted Anglophile, particularly with regard to the Parachute Regiment at Arnhem/Oosterbeek, may I say Bloody Magnificent! Appreciated your added discussion regarding the action of elements of the RASC during the battle. Believe it or not I was Andy Neilson's technical advisor on his Market Garden series version of the Universal Carrier, Set MG046. I provided a reasonably accurate technical intelligence report. See http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-universal-carriers-of-british.html. Unfortunately he exercised some major artistic license on the back-end, which I think severely detracted from an otherwise accurate rendition. Certainly his prerogative, as self proclaimed "Creative Director". Hope by now you have had the opportunity to read Antony Beevor's best seller on Arnhem, and an older title, ARNHEM-The Fight to Sustain by Frank Steer. If you are further inclined, you may find the following analysis on my blog page of some interest; http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/p/operation-market-garden.html.
Warmest regards,
Arnhem Jim
Arizona Territory

 

[panda1gen]

Hello Kevin,
As an addicted Anglophile, particularly with regard to the Parachute Regiment at Arnhem/Oosterbeek, may I say Bloody Magnificent! Appreciated your added discussion regarding the action of elements of the RASC during the battle. Believe it or not I was Andy Neilson's technical advisor on his Market Garden series version of the Universal Carrier, Set MG046. I provided a reasonably accurate technical intelligence report. See http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-universal-carriers-of-british.html. Unfortunately he exercised some major artistic license on the back-end, which I think severely detracted from an otherwise accurate rendition. Certainly his prerogative, as self proclaimed "Creative Director". Hope by now you have had the opportunity to read Antony Beevor's best seller on Arnhem, and an older title, ARNHEM-The Fight to Sustain by Frank Steer. If you are further inclined, you may find the following analysis on my blog page of some interest; http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/p/operation-market-garden.html.
Warmest regards,
Arnhem Jim
Arizona Territory

Thank you for the kind comments.

Also, thank you very much for the link, a very useful and interesting blog.

 

[King & Country]

Hello Kevin,
As an addicted Anglophile, particularly with regard to the Parachute Regiment at Arnhem/Oosterbeek, may I say Bloody Magnificent! Appreciated your added discussion regarding the action of elements of the RASC during the battle. Believe it or not I was Andy Neilson's technical advisor on his Market Garden series version of the Universal Carrier, Set MG046. I provided a reasonably accurate technical intelligence report. See http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-universal-carriers-of-british.html. Unfortunately he exercised some major artistic license on the back-end, which I think severely detracted from an otherwise accurate rendition. Certainly his prerogative, as self proclaimed "Creative Director". Hope by now you have had the opportunity to read Antony Beevor's best seller on Arnhem, and an older title, ARNHEM-The Fight to Sustain by Frank Steer. If you are further inclined, you may find the following analysis on my blog page of some interest; http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/p/operation-market-garden.html.
Warmest regards,
Arnhem Jim
Arizona Territory

Hi Jim,
Greetings from the 'self-proclaimed' creative director to the 'self-proclaimed' technical adviser...
Happy to hear you're still advising.
All the best,
Andy.

 

[panda1gen]

http://www.defendingarnhem.com/Sturmgeschutzbrigade280.htm

During the Battle of Arnhem Sturmgeschützbrigade 280 was commanded by Major Kurt Kühme who was a veteran of both the Eastern and Western Fronts. His unit had just been refitted in Denmark and was on its way to Aachen when part of the unit was rerouted by Field Marshal Model to the impending crisis in Northern Holland. Whilst the rest of Sturmgeschützbrigade 280 was located over the German Border, Major Kühme, on orders, employed only 10 AFVs - 7 x StuG III (different variants), 3 x StuG42 (Sd.Kfz. 142/1) and 1 x SPW ( Sd.Kfz. 251/8). Even so, this unit had considerable fire power and was extremely effective against the lightly armed airborne troops.

Below, somewhat modified K&C early polystone StuH42, StuGIII with 105mm gun instead of 75mm.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Kevin,

Great to see you back in Arnhem, always one of my favorite threads!

 

[panda1gen]

Trudging along the road to Nijmegen ........

 

[panda1gen]

I have often wondered when looking at Market Garden just how significant the start of the V2 attacks on London were in giving it the green light.

If it was successful and they did reach the N German plain, would they have reduced the launch areas in range of the UK sufficiently enough to stop or minimize the V2 campaign? It appears that they might have, at least for a while?

A two stage rocket under development would reach New York soon, if it were not stopped by the end of the war.

V2 rockets reached the Hague on 7 September, the first was launched at London on the 8th. Mobile launch sites around the Hague and in Belgium put the whole of SE England in range - London had 1/5 of the UK population.

Eventually 125,000 men would be devoted to sweeping up the explosions from the 'flying gas mains', referring to the cover story the Government used for the first month, intending to reduce panic.

If the campaign had started 6 months earlier, SHAEF wondered if the invasion might have been impeded or stopped.

What if? What if Hitler used his stock of nerve agent Tabun in a warhead, the death toll might have been hundreds of thousands or millions, a drop of the nerve agent would kill on skin contact, gas masks provided to civilians and serving troops would be useless.

ref https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Ballistic-Missile-Attack-on-London-1944-45

Meanwhile - a Figarti A4 test rocket ......

 

[panda1gen]

I recently read the Wikipedia section on Market Garden, which reports that after the breakout from Falaise and the thrust into Belgium, Montgomery initially suggested a narrow thrust to the Ruhr, 'Operation Comet'.

This was intended as a limited 'coup de main', by the so far unused British 1st Airborne (the 6th Airborne dropped on D-Day 6th June 1944). It would be be launched on 2 September 1944.

Comet envisioned using the British 1st Airborne Division, along with the Ist (Polish) Independent Brigade, to secure several bridges over the Rhine River to aid the Allied advance into the North German plain.

The Divisional Headquarters for the British 1st Airborne Division, with the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were to land at Nijmegen. The British 1st Parachute Brigade would land at Arnhem and the British 4th Parachute Brigade was to land at Grave.

Several days of poor weather and Montgomery's concerns over increasing levels of German resistance caused him to postpone the operation. He cancelled it on 10 September.

Comet was replaced by a more ambitious plan to bypass the Westwall (Siegfried line) by hooking around its northern end. This would allow the Allies to cross the Rhine with large forces and trap the German 15th Army in Holland. Operation Market Garden was proposed instead.

On 10 September Dempsey, the British Second Army commander, told Montgomery that he had doubts about this plan and that he instead favored an advance north-eastwards between the Reichswald forest and the Ruhr to Wesel.

Montgomery replied that he had just received a signal from London that something needed to be done to neutralize the V-2 launch sites around the Hague (which were bombarding London) and that the plan must therefore proceed.



Generals Horrocks and Urquhart with Lt Colonel Frost (all K&C) at a briefing (photoshoot 2007 in Louis' back yard).

 

[panda1gen]

In late September 1944, Autumn is already on it's way ....

A Luftwaffe half track joins other Fallschirmjäger fighting as infantry in Holland, under General Student, during operation Garden.



Due to a combination of the distances from Allied airfields after the rapid August/September advance, the close proximity of Luftwaffe airfields, the weather and presence of many heavy flak units in Holland, the Luftwaffe often had local air superiority in Holland.

However, the guy in the half track has good reason to be looking over his shoulder when he hears this coming his way .....

 

[Louis Badolato]

Nothing beats a target rich environment . . . :salute::

 

[panda1gen]

Nothing beats a target rich environment . . . :salute::

And Louis, you have the daddy of target rich environments! :salute::

 

[panda1gen]

Sturmgeschützbrigade 280 get ready to move to the Arnhem area .....

 

[panda1gen]

Many years ago I took these urban fighting pictures, I have now resized some. I may have shown some of these before.

SS troops try to clear out 2 para from positions near the bridge, here they approach the outskirts ......



The paras can see them getting very close and get ready to shoot and bomb ...



2 para fight back from dwindling cover as the buildings are smashed and riddled with bullets



Get used to photos of these guys, for so many years the only available British infantry, there are a lot more on the way ... 30 Corps are still marching to battle

 

[panda1gen]

das Mittagessen wird serviert

Taking advantage of a lull in fighting, lunch is served for some German troops

 

[panda1gen]

https://history.army.mil/html/books/104/104-7/cmhPub_104-7.pdf

This link is to a US Army publication looking at the German armour repair and recovery setup in WW2.

At around 50 short pages it covers organization and practice, with key lessons for anyone who wants to operate armour, especially at some distance from - hopefully - well stocked home depots.

The manufacture of spare parts v new tanks is also touched upon, a major reason for vehicle failure if spares are made in insufficient quantity.

Cannibalization of vehicles became necessary.



The second company of the fourth platoon of this panzer regiment prepare for action against the 'Garden' part of the attack.



Tank 405 is inspected for a decision on repair or cannibalization - is 405 a 'disguised' number for an HQ tank?

 

[Louis Badolato]

Kevin,

I love those giant garage structures! . Who made them for you?

 

[panda1gen]

Kevin,

I love those giant garage structures! . Who made them for you?

Louis,

Glad you like them, I have a lot more photos using them :wink2:

Don't laugh, I had this diorama in mind and speculated on trying some kids play buildings. They come flat packed, are prepainted mdf or similar and are cheap as chips. They each cost between £30 and £40, delivered. Even I only took 5 minutes or so to assemble them. Link bellow -

https://www.scalefarm.com/_access-farm-building_scale_farm_buildings_and_fencing.htm

More repair/maintenance to follow now and in due course.

damaged panther -





When I discovered Louis did not have it, I was pleased to offer a gift of the HB winter field kitchen. Even before I sent it Louis gifted me this magnificent JJB Stug - surely the most detailed model I now own.

It is also another to represent Sturmgeschützbrigade 280 getting ready to move to the Arnhem area .....

 

[Louis Badolato]

Great photos and thanks for the link!:salute::

 

[panda1gen]

Great photos and thanks for the link!:salute::

Louis, you are most welcome my friend

Meanwhile .... some oldies

Crikey boys, halt, Hell's Grannies coming down the high street!



Morphine? That's for the boys who are really injured ....



Stugs - one down, how many to go?





That's it boys, mind those Gerries and stay nice and tight for the close up shot ...

 

[panda1gen]

30 Corps are still held up ..... the Dutch polder meant that they were largely limited to the roads, which, especially when raised like this one, made them good targets ....



1st Airborne 3" mortar fires in support .....



Guards Amoured Division Cromwell tries to find a way through ....



Sturmgeschützbrigade 280 still getting ready to attack in the Arnhem area .....



At least someone has a good breakfast ....