Battle for Arnhem.... (2 Viewers)

Ref: Battleground Europe - Operation Market Garden Hell’s Highway - By Tim Saunders

By midnight of the 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] September 1944, XXX Corps’ route north was again clear.

1196rcsrz.JPG


The enemy had been driven away from positions on the immediate eastern flank. If left there, they could have interfered with the traffic on Hell’s Highway.

IMG_0131csrz.JPG

IMG_8325xrrsc.JPG


Although the British VIII Corps was advancing more quickly, the Germans were able to complete the removal of the eastern units of their own accord.

IMG_0752 - rcsL 0.JPG


Kampfgruppe Walther had lost twenty percent of its armour and twenty-five percent of its infantry, so on the evening of 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] September, LXXXVIII Korps ordered it to disengage and move to new defensive positions in the Venlo area.

IMG_2005cscx.JPG
 
The following is an excerpt from:

The War Diary: 5th Battalion COLDSTREAM GUARDS, Jan - Dec 1944

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?thread...n-coldstream-guards-jan-dec-1944.33691/page-5



1944 September 23

0630 hours

In the early morning the situation was as follows:-

The enemy were found to be holding the LEVEL CROSSING at 510404 and the area to the South in strength.
They were also reported on the LEVEL CROSSING at 538421 and in the village of VOKEL 5640.
VEGHEL itself is held by troops of 50th DIVISION.

The GRENADIER GUARDS Group was ordered to attack down the Centre Line towards VEGHEL starting at 0930 hours, and as soon as UDEN was clear of their transport the COLDSTREAM GUARDS Group is to pass through and clear VOKEL to the South East.

693rcsr.JPG


0900 hours


The Commanding Officer gave out orders:-

The Battalion is to clear the Centre Line by clearing the enemy out of VOKEL.

The COLDSTREAM GUARDS Group will move in the following order:-

No. 3 Squadron
No. 1 Squadron carrying No. 1 Company on the tanks,
Battalion H.Q. of both Battalions
No. 2 Squadron (less one Troop)
No. 4 Squadron
No. 4 Company
R.A.P.
Support Company
F.2. Echelon

The Battalion will move off as soon as Brigade inform us that UDEN is clear. The leading Squadron will go as far down the road to UDEN as possible, and then the Company/Squadron Group will be called forward to deal with whatever enemy are found to be holding things up.

The column moved off at 1045 hours and at 1130 hours reported that they had reached the WOOD at 5541 and were meeting strong enemy opposition from the houses and heath area just to the West of VOKEL.

The Commanding Officer then moved up the 1 Squadron/1 Company Group and the Command Post to behind the wood, and gave out orders for the attack on VOKEL.

At 1310 hours No. 1 Company will advance from their F.U.P. behind the wood and close up on a barrage from the Heavy Mortar Platoon which is coming down on VOKEL from 1250 hours.

From there they will be helped on to their objective by fire from No. 2 Squadron now in position and a Section of 3” Mortars under command of the Company.

As soon as the village is cleared No. 1 Squadron will move up to support them in holding the village.

The attack went in at 1310 hours and by 1400 hours the Company reported that they were in the outskirts of the village and meeting strong opposition.

They were also troubled by heavy mortar fire put down by the enemy just North of the village. However, the enemy mortars were successfully located and silenced by a heavy concentration from our Field Artillery.

IMGP9407 - rs 0.JPG


During the attack the Company Commander Major The Lord LONG was killed and the other Officer in the Company wounded.

At 1500 hours the tanks reported that No. 1 Company was now firmly in possession of the village and that only a few Germans were still holding out.

The Commanding Officer then ordered No. 4 Company to clear up the Wood to the Left of the road, and No. 1 Squadron to go round the village and cut the road to LANGENHEUVEL.

Patrols of HONEY tanks went through the village to the South and reported that the enemy were withdrawing towards BOEKEL in large numbers

IMG_8930sr.JPG


and TYPHOONs were ordered to go and deal with them.

188sr1 (2).JPG


1700 hours

Enemy Artillery has been very quick to shell any villages known to be held lately,

IMGP9533 - rcs 01.JPG


and accordingly it was decided to draw back behind VOKEL at dusk, and the Battalion took up a final position as follows:-

No. 1 Company on the Right of the ROAD at 555413

No. 4 Company in front of the wood on the Left of the ROAD at 550481.

The Patrols cover the roads into VOKEL till dark and then withdraw Battalion H.Q. at 550414.

The GRENADIER GUARDS Group attack down to VEGHEL was also successful and the Centre Line was open to traffic once more.
 
The departure of Kampfgruppe Walther over the next thirty-six hours removed the last significant threat to the eastern flank of Hell’s Highway.


Panther takes cover in a wood and the crew discusses what next ....

IMG_4435red.JPG


Troops grab some grub ....

IMG_3303qared.JPG


Paras pull back, hitching a ride when they can ....

IMGP3678-2sr.JPG


Panzer grenadiers are about to move out ....

IMGP4794-rsc1.JPG

IMGP4866-cr2s.JPG
 
The Allies considered that the situation in 101st Airborne Division’s area had been restored, but the situation was still in the balance to the north.

On the day the spearhead of 43rd Wessex Division broke out of their bridgehead at Oousterhout on The Island, between the Waal at Nijmegen and the Rhine ....

568csr.JPG


Hell’s Highway had been closed for thirty-five vital hours .....

IMG_0227rcsrx.JPG


5th Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry made a dash across the Island and covered ten miles in thirty minutes to reach the Rhine at Driel .....

IMGP5173rrsx.JPG

IMGP3109rccsx.JPG


.... supported by 4/7 Dragoon Guards.

175redcrop.jpg
 
test - I am a luddite but this seemed hard.

Are the photos going to become as large as they used to be or have I reduced photos to a larger format for nothing?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1547csr.JPG
    IMG_1547csr.JPG
    94.9 KB · Views: 6
Unfortunately, the vital road was cut behind them at Veghel,



which left both guns ....

IMG_2100csrx (2).JPG

.... and infantry critically short of ammunition and supplies.

IMG_6901rcsrcz.JPG

IMG_6704srcz.JPG

IMG_6705srcz.JPG

The options open to General Horrocks were becoming extremely limited.

1817-1scrr.JPG

Ref: Battleground Europe - Operation Market Garden

Hell’s Highway - By Tim Saunders
 
Unfortunately, the vital road was cut behind them at Veghel,



which left both guns ....

View attachment 339713

.... and infantry critically short of ammunition and supplies.

View attachment 339716

View attachment 339718

View attachment 339719

The options open to General Horrocks were becoming extremely limited.

View attachment 339717

Ref: Battleground Europe - Operation Market Garden

Hell’s Highway - By Tim Saunders
Photos in this message look very good. Like your thread a lot, pitty that the photos in messages 1902 to 1906 do not look that great at first sight. Anyway I stay true to this thread even if you got to draw the illustrations by hand. What ever you did in message 1907, the photos look great here and do not have to be loaded - which somewhat sucks .... keep doing that so and tell others about the how to as well.
Kind Regards
Wolfgang
 
Photos in this message look very good. Like your thread a lot, pitty that the photos in messages 1902 to 1906 do not look that great at first sight. Anyway I stay true to this thread even if you got to draw the illustrations by hand. What ever you did in message 1907, the photos look great here and do not have to be loaded - which somewhat sucks .... keep doing that so and tell others about the how to as well.
Kind Regards
Wolfgang
Dear Wolfgang

Thanks for your kind comments, I am glad you like it.

The smaller photos were transferred from the old site - nothing to do with me. They do get bigger if you click on them.

In the new forum appearance thread I asked and was told how to do the photos inside the text. I had almost given up as I tried to do it in the K&C photos thread and couldn't manage it. You use 'insert image' on the top icon menu (which I had not noticed as it is different to the old site). Like this....

IMGP4738-1rcs.JPG

If you use the 'attach files' at the bottom you get this.....

So thanks to Rich for helping this old duffer with this tech stuff. Hope this helps, if not ask Rich.

All the best

Kevin
 

Attachments

  • IMGP5822-rs-c1.JPG
    IMGP5822-rs-c1.JPG
    159.7 KB · Views: 4
One problem I seem to have is with a draft freezing after I add an attachment (the guy in the Tobruk bunker above) and try 'preview', so I could not alter it - what am I doing wrong?
 
One problem I seem to have is with a draft freezing after I add an attachment (the guy in the Tobruk bunker above) and try 'preview', so I could not alter it - what am I doing wrong?
It froze again with this post after preview, but I did not add an attachment.

?????????
 
Dawn – 24 September 1944



After a relatively quiet night, the first light of dawn struggled through a gloom of low cloud and rain.

397 - rsr 0.JPG


On Hell’s Highway, XXX Corps traffic crawled forward.

1053 - rcsr 0.JPG


Drivers starved of proper rest struggled to keep their eyes open. Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) driver Stanley Winton of 43 Ordnance Field Park said:

‘Since we were ordered on to the Centre Line [on 21 September], I only had a few hours cat-nap in the cab of my American two and a half ton truck. We were constantly warned to be ready to move but if we moved at all, it would only be for a short distance before we halted again.’

Crews grab a brew and some grub during another halt.

IMGP06121csxr.JPG


Meanwhile, on the western flank of Hell’s Highway, some very tired American paratroopers ....

IMG_1047 - crs 0.JPG


.... and Household Cavalrymen of A Squadron 2/HCR warned that the enemy were massing for an attack.

IMGP8499 - rsc 0.JPG
 
The Allied positions at Eerde were probed by German recce patrols.

IMG_4289rsx.JPG

IMGP2247-2csr.JPG


By nightfall the Germans had a clear picture of the thin American defences to the west of Hell’s Highway. An entry timed 20.25 hours on 23 September, in General Reinhard’s LXXXVII Corps’s war diary, recorded that:

‘Recce report Erede is occupied but no enemy reported from Schijndel to Dinther in the north-east.’

Further south there appeared to be gaps in 101st’s defences north of St Oedenrode, so orders came down the German chain of command for an attack, from Fifteenth Army HQ. General Chill moved his headquarters forward to Schijndel during the night and at dawn gave his orders to attack the Veghel bridges starting at 09.00 hours on 24 September.

IMG_3926rcsrc.JPG


General Chill’s force had been rushed together from remnants of various units that had previously dashed themselves against the American defences and from any ‘stragglers’ that could be found.

IMG_4391csr.JPG


The main attack was to be launched by five hundred paratroopers of Oberstleutnant von der Heydte’s 6 Fallschirmjäger Regiment on an axis from Schijndel to the Veghel bridges via Eerde.

IMG_86471xcsc.JPG
 
Louis,

I have noticed that this thread, apart from being interminable, doesn't generate as much chit chat as it used to.

Maybe we are in need of an argument?

Or a visit from ......

Screenshot 2024-07-06 113656.jpg
 
Oberstleutnant von der Heydte

In WW2, Heydte took part in the invasion of Poland and the Battle of France as a junior commander. In May 1940, he was transferred to Luftwaffe's parachute arm.

246 - 09 cs 0.JPG


He commanded a battalion during the Battle of Crete in May 1941.

217 - 09 crs 0.JPG


In July 1942 Heydte was sent to Libya as commander of the Fallschirm-Lehrbataillon, part of the Ramcke Parachute Brigade. Heydte was an officer in the Ramcke Brigade in North Africa until February 1943 ....

IMG_8018 - rbcrsc 0.JPG


when he and several other officers were transferred to France to form the nucleus of the new 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division under command of major-general H.B. Ramcke. He was posted as an operations officer in the divisional HQ.

After the fall of Sicily during the summer of 1943, the Germans grew wary of a potential Italian defection to the Allies. To counter this event the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division was transferred from France to Rome on 6 August. Heydte gained audience with Pope Pius XII and befriended the Pope's "Throne Assistant", the theologian Alois Hudal, who would later become a key person in helping Nazi war criminals evade the courts of justice during the post-war war-crime trials. The division participated in taking Rome under German control as part of the German Operation Achse.

Heydte was given command of a regiment of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division in January 1944. By the time of Operation Overlord, the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment had been attached to the 91st Luftlande Infantry Division. Heydte's unit took part in the Battle of Carentan, Operation Lüttich, and in fighting against the Allied forces in Operation Market Garden.

Prior to the Ardennes Offensive, the Germans planned Operation Stösser to drop paratroopers behind the American lines 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) north of Malmédy and to seize a key crossroads (N68-N672) leading to the towns of Eupen and Verviers. To conceal the plans from the Allies and preserve secrecy, Heydte wasn't allowed to use his own, experienced troops. Most of the new paratroops had little training.

The Luftwaffe assembled 112 Ju 52 transport planes; they were manned by inexperienced pilots. It was the German paratroopers' only nighttime drop during World War II. While the aircraft took off with around 1,300 paratroops, the pilots dropped some behind the German front lines, others over Bonn, and only a few hundred in widely scattered locations behind the American lines. Some aircraft landed with their troops still on board. Only a fraction of the force landed near the intended drop zone.

The kampfgruppe was tasked with dropping at night onto a strategic road junction 11 kilometers north of Malmédy and to hold it for approximately twenty-four hours until relieved by the 12th SS Panzer Division, with the aim of hampering the flow of Allied reinforcements and supplies. The planes that were relatively close to the intended drop zone were buffeted by strong winds that deflected many paratroopers and made their landings far rougher. Since many of the German paratroopers were very inexperienced, some were crippled upon impact and died where they fell. Some of their bodies were found the following spring as the snow melted.  Heydte broke his arm upon landing from his jump.

Initially, only 125 men made it to the correct landing zone, with no heavy weapons. By noon on 17 December, Heydte's unit had scouted the woods and rounded up a total of around 300 troops. With only enough ammunition for a single fight, the force was too small to take the crossroads on its own.  But because of the dispersal of the drop, German paratroops were reported all over the Ardennes, and the Allies believed a division-sized jump had taken place. This caused much confusion and convinced them to allocate men to secure the rear instead of facing the main German thrust at the front.

403sr.JPG


Because all his radios had been destroyed or lost in the jump, Heydte didn't know the 12th SS Panzer Division failed to defeat the Americans at the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge, and was unable to relieve his forces. Cut off, without supplies and pursued by the U.S. forces, Heydte ordered his men to break through Allied lines and reach the German lines.

185 - 12 rs 0.JPG


Heydte arrived in Monschau on 21 December and surrendered on 23 December. He was held as a prisoner of war in England until July 1947.

He also had a colourful post war history.

Ref - Wikipedia
 
Ref - Wikipedia

Chill had in reserve Kampfgruppe Jungwirth, which was based on the remnants of Kampfgruppe Huber and the 1035th Fusilier Regiment.

The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of extreme gallantry.

A total of 7,321 awards were made between its first presentation on 30 September 1939 and its last bestowal on 17 June 1945. This number is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR).

Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the Wehrmacht - the Heer (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy) and Luftwaffe (Air Force) as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD—Reich Labour Service) and the Volkssturm (German national militia). There were also 43 recipients in the military forces of allies of the Third Reich.

Jungwirth was awarded The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on the 9th May 1945.

IMG_8500sr.JPG


His unit was recorded as Pionier Abteilung 59 Fallschirmjäger-Regiment "Jungwirth" and he was noted as the Commander of Fallschirm-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 12 (a Recon unit).

Some Aufklärungs pictures from different units by way of illustration .....

077 - csrz 0.JPG

IMG_3481 - rcs 0.JPG

IMG_24821rcsrz.JPG

IMG_43211rcsrx.JPG
 
Louis,

I have noticed that this thread, apart from being interminable, doesn't generate as much chit chat as it used to.

Maybe we are in need of an argument?

Or a visit from ......

View attachment 339893

Kev,

The forum is much quieter than it used to be, and us old timers are still trying to get used to the new format. Anyhow, I'm enjoying this continued Arnhem thread, with the extra items, that General Chill has such a Cool name ha ha
 
Kev,

The forum is much quieter than it used to be, and us old timers are still trying to get used to the new format. Anyhow, I'm enjoying this continued Arnhem thread, with the extra items, that General Chill has such a Cool name ha ha
Matt,

Thanks, glad you still like it.

This old timer was completely b*****ed after the change as things work so differently (and in different menus), thanks to Rich I think I can work it a bit now.

Chill is a cool name in English, apparently the same meaning in German? (Those Angles and Saxons eh.....?)

5462cxrs.JPG


As for the chit chat, when I looked back for something I realised how much interaction there was compared to now. Mind you, this week long battle has now gone on for around 17 years and XXX Corps still haven't reached the Rhine!

IMG_5606srz.JPG

Kevin
 
Chill is a cool name in English, apparently the same meaning in German? (Those Angles and Saxons eh.....?



Kevin
Cool or not, Chill does not have any meaning in German. Sad to see such little Feed back by other Forum members. People visiting the Forum is at an all time low, been here on Daily Basis since the change of Format but could never spot more than 100 visitors at any time, usually less - Hope this is not a trend.
Rgds
Wolfgang
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top