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Showing posts with label General Eisenhower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Eisenhower. Show all posts
After the Poles had evacuated Warsaw the Germans in defiance of the terms of the capitulation agreement, began a wholesale destruction of the city. German Command dispatched special teams of German engineers dispersed throughout Warsaw, setting fires, and systematically destroyed buildings. Demolition squads of flamethrowers and explosive experts set about their task to obliterate the very existence of Warsaw, building by building, block by block. Nothing was overlooked - historical monuments, the Polish national archives, libraries and museums and their priceless manuscripts and collections, palaces - the very cultural heritage of a people was blasted into oblivion, gone forever. Nothing was left to show that there used to be a great cosmopolitan city here - but just a pile of rubble and ashes. According to the Germans, the area was slated to become a military transit station.
Warsaw 1944: A Necropolis (00:04:15m)
Meanwhile, Stalin's Red Army remained poised across the banks of the Vistula River observing the macabre destruction being carried out. In the rest of Poland, Soviet NKVD agents were hunting down Polish insurgents and executing them; many other Poles were deported to Russian gulags.
At the end of German operation, Warsaw's public losses were estimated as follows:
10,455 Buildings 923 Historical Buildings (94% of Warsaw)
25 Churches Monuments
14 Libraries
The National Library 81 elementary schools 64 high schools Warsaw University Polytechnic
Over 516,000 individual pieces of art were looted by German armies including 2,800 paintings by European painters,11,000 paintings by Polish painters, 1,400 sculptures, 75,000 manuscripts, 25,000 maps, 90,000 books of which 20,000 were printed before the year 1800, and hundreds of thousands of other invaluable artistic and historical artifacts. Among the many priceless paintings destroyed was the painting of "Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and St. Stanislaw" painted by Palma il Giovane. The painting was once looted by Napoleon but returned to Warsaw in the 1820s.
The exact amount of losses to private and public property, including cultural and scientific artifacts was quite considerable. It was not until the late 1940s that efforts were made to estimate the total value of damages - it came to US$30 billion. (In 2004, the President of Warsaw and subsequently President of Poland, appointed an historical commission to review the evaluation and estimated losses to have been at least US$31.5 billion, however these estimates were increased in to $45 billion in 2004 and to $54.6 billion in 2005.)
The Warsaw Uprising was the most tragic battle of World War II. Over 18,000 Polish insurgents were killed or missing in action, over 5,000 wounded, 15,000 sent to POW camps. (However other sources mention that 60,000 AK soldiers were killed during the Uprising.) Over 200,000 Polish civilians died in the 63 days of battle, and about 700,000 were expelled from Warsaw, and 55,000 sent to concentration camps, including 13,000 to Auschwitz. About 3,400 insurgents chose to go underground and continue to fight. Berling's Polish Army suffered 5,660 casualties KIA, MIA, or WIA.
German casualties were about 10,000 KIA, 7,000 MIA, and 9,000 WIA. Up to 2,000 Germans were captured and taken prisoners by the Polish insurgents. German material losses were: three airplanes (two outside Warsaw in Kampinos forest ), 310 tanks, self-propelled artillery, armored cars, 4 rocket launchers, 22 artillery pieces (caliber 75mm), and 340 trucks and cars.
By January 1945 about 85% of the buildings had been destroyed: 10% damages were sustained as a result of the September 1939 campaign and other combat; 15% during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (which had taken place in April 1943); 25% during the Uprising, and 35% due to systematic German actions after the Uprising. General Dwight Eisenhower, Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, visited Warsaw in 1945 and was so moved by the scene of utter destruction that he stated, “I have seen many towns destroyed, but nowhere have I been faced with such destruction.” Poland had lost a staggering 38 per cent of its national assets whereas France and Britain lost only 1.5 % and 0.8% respectively. Moreover, Poland lost vast regions of their country including two great cultural centers of Wilno and Lwow. Despite the so-called "liberation" of Poland by Soviet troops on January 17, 1945, Poland, the 4th largest Ally, had really lost the war, betrayed by Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
ROYAL CASTLE DESTROYED (above photo & aerial view)
D-Day will forever be remembered by the world. It was the greatest - the largest amphibious invasion in the history of mankind.
On Tuesday, June 6, 1944 at 6:30 British Double Summertime (GMT+2) over 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. They were supported by over 5,000 ships manned by more than 195,000 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel and accompanied by 13,000 aircraft. This was Operation Neptune. The first phase was an airborne assault launched shortly after midnight in which over 24,000 British, American, Canadian and Free French troops, which was followed by the amphibious landing beginning at 06:30 hours.
Troops from the United States, United Kingdom, Free France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway and, little known to many people, the Polish troops of the 1st Armoured Division, took part in this massive Operation which ultimately freed Fortress Europe from the Nazi scourge.
Just before the start of the invasion, General Eisenhower gave an historic speech to the Allied Expeditionary Force.
His opening words were, "You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months......"
Despite the enormous magnitude of this Operation, there existed a unspoken yet palpable trepidation that the invasion might not succeed. For in his pocket, General Eisenhower had prepared a statement to be read in the event that the invasion failed. It was dated July 6 in error.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower's D-Day Speech
George Hicks, London Bureau Chief for the Blue Network (later to become ABC) was aboard the Allied communications ship, the U.S.S. Ancon, and gave an eye-witness radio report of the D Day invasion on the 7th of June, 1944. Click here to listen
The Invasion was slated to begin on June 5th but bad weather postponed the Operation. There were only a few days each month suitable to launch an attack, that is, during a full moon and high tide. The illumination of navigational landmarks were vital for the airborne landing divisions, and the latter made it possible for landing craft to maneuver safely and avoid defensive obstacles beneath. There was a full moon on June the 6th however overcast skies limited the field of vision of Allied air support.
Due to bad weather conditions, the Germans had a false sense of security believing that the Allied invasion would be delayed. They had no idea that the invasion was already underway. Though the Allied Expeditionary Force was a formidable presence indeed, its landing troops faced horrendous fire from the German defenses.
By June 6th, 1944 the German troops were solidly entrenched - 157 divisions in the Soviet Union, 6 in Finland, 12 in Norway, 6 in Denmark, 9 in Germany, 21 in the Balkans, 26 in Italy, and 59 in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. However, according to German statistics, their divisions in the east were greatly depleted due to heavy fighting, and by spring 1944 the average personnel was roughly half of its original size.
What made the German defenses so invincible was their interlocking firing style, a tactic which permitted them to protect areas that were under heavy fire. Moreover, the Germans had, during the past four years, constructed impenetrable concrete bunkers, atop the cliffs and hills from which their machine gunners had clear views of the beaches.
German tobrouk manning MG-42 machine guns.
Rommel, assigned to command the Normandy coast, fortified German positions along the Atlantic Wall with tank top turrets, laid hundreds of thousands of mines along the littoral, and flooded the meadows to impede the Allied advance. German power was indeed a force to contend with. Between Barfleur and Le Havre, the Germans had at least six coastal artillery batteries: located at Merville, Long-sur-Mer, Pointe du Hoc, Maisy, Azeville, and Crisbecq. From these positions, German gunners were able to fire at a range of 30 kilometers.
50mm German gun near Merville battery
The Atlantic Wall, as outlined in the map above, was a virtual German fortress comprising of a web of radar tracking stations, many of them defended with 88 mm anti-aircraft guns. From the Norwegian coast all the way to Spain, the Germans not only had radar stations but also "listening" stations: between Cherbourg, Vire and Le Havre, there were 1 identification radar, 2 "Freya" type radars, 5 long-range coastal radars, 7 mid-range radars, and 14 "Wurzburg" giant radars.
German sentinel watching the horizon
The Germans knew of the impeding invasion though not the exact time - nor place. Nevertheless, German armoured and infantry divisions were dug in and waiting. German Command believed that the Invasion would begin at the Pas-de Calais area - the shortest route from the British mainland. This belief was due entirely to Operation Fortitude, Churchill's ingenious plan by which the Allied forces staged fake military activity in the south-east England, using inflatable tanks and wooden guns and warships as props. From the perspective of German reconnaissance aircraft, they looked quite real. In addition to this, Allied intelligence fed misinformation to the enemy that the Allied units were under the command of the feared General Patton. The Germans fell for it.
It was vital to the success of the Allied invasion that the Germans believed that the invasion would begin at Pas-de-Calais, the consequence of which was to delay the full brunt of their military presence on the Normandy beachhead.
Under the command of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay of the Allied Naval Expeditionary Force, the Allied armada comprised of warships from eight different navies including that of Poland. In all there were 6,939 vessels: 1,213 warships, 4,126 transport vessels, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. The flotilla was divided into two task forces: Western, under the command of Rear-Admiral Alan G. Kirk, and Eastern, under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Philip Vian.
Leo Pikulski was part of the Polish contingent which fought on the Normandy Beaches, together with the First Canadian Corps and at the Battle of Falaise.
HMS X-24
In Operation Gambit, British X class submarines (midget submarines) HMS X20 and HMS X23 were already in position on June 4th, 1944. Their mission was to provide navigational aids to incoming Allied troops: an 18-foot telescopic mast with a light shining to seaward, a radio beacon and echo sounder tapping out a message for the minelayers approaching 'Sword' and 'Juno' beaches.
The main thrust of Operation Neptune was to ensure the isolation of invasion routes and beaches from any intervention by the Kriegsmarine, the Germany Navy. According to the Royal Navy Home Fleet, the threat was two-fold: a surface attack by German vessels coming from Scandinavian ports and the Baltic Sea and that of U-boats transferred from the Atlantic. However, German warships were seriously damaged and fuel supplies cut by a third. As for the latter, few U-boats were spotted by the RAF air surveillance. In any event, the Royal Navy was fully capable of repelling any enemy attack, and had mined the Kiel Canal area while the RAF maintained a cordon well west of Land's end.
The HMS Ramillies and Warspite and the monitor HMS Roberts were old battleships used to suppress shore batteries located east of the Orne; cruisers targeted shore batteries at Ver-sur-Mer and Moulineaux; eleven destroyers provided local fire support. In addition, there were modified landing-craft: 8 "Landing Craft Gun", each having two 4.7-inch guns; 4 "Landing Craft Support" with automatic cannon; 8 Landing Craft Tank, each with a single salvo of 1,100 5-inch rockets; 8 Landing Craft Assault (Hedgerow), each with twenty-four bombs intended to detonate beach mines prematurely. Twenty-four Landing Craft Tank carried "Priest" self-propelled howitzers which also fired while they were on the run-in to the beach. The Allies had similar arrangements at other beaches.
During D Day there was minimal naval contact - four German torpedo boats launching eighteen torpedoes sank the Norwegian destroyer Svenner off the coast of Sword beach but missed the battleships HMS Warspite and HMS Ramillies. Immediately after having fired, the enemy vessels veered away and escaped into a smoke screen. A great debt of gratitude goes to ULTRA, whose intelligence work discovered the location of German channels through their own minefields, and thus the Allies were able to limit their losses. Unfortunately,the USS Corry sank off the coast of Utah, as well as the USS PC-1261, a 173-foot patrol craft; three LCTs and two LCIs.)
The mission of Naval operations was to provide cover for transport vessels from the threat of enemy ships, submarines and aircraft. More importantly, their purpose was to support Allied landings by launching continuous bombardment of enemy positions ashore, to suppress shore defenses as well as to break up enemy concentrations as the troops began to move inland.
The amphibious landings were particularly vulnerable to very strong German counterattacks and depended on the establishment of a secure lodgement in order to expand the beachhead and build up a sufficient force capable of breaking out. During this most critical period, Allied bombers were the key to slowing down the German's ability to prepare and launch counterattacks. Their main targets were bridges, roads and the eastern and western flanks of landing areas. The U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were assigned to objectives west of Utah Beach while the British 6th Airborne Division were assigned to similar objectives on the eastern flank; and 530 Free French paratroopers from the British Special Air Service Brigade were assigned to objectives in Brittany (from 5 June to August.)
East of the landing area, the open, flat, floodplain between the Orne and Dives Rivers was an ideal position from which the Germans could launch counterattacks. However, the landing area and floodplain were separated by the Orne River, which flowed northeast from Caen into the bay of the Seine and the only crossing of the Orne River north of Caen was 7 kilometres (4.5 mi) from the coast, near Bénouville and Ranville. The crossing was vital to the Germans as well as to the Allies: to the Germans, it provided the only route for a flanking attack on the beaches from the east, and to the Allies, the crossing was vital for any attack on Caen from the east.
The tactical objectives of the British 6th Airborne Division were to capture intact the bridges of the Bénouville-Ranville crossing, defend the crossing against the inevitable armoured counter-attacks, destroy German artillery at the Merville battery which threatened Sword Beach, and destroy five bridges over the Dives River to further restrict movement of ground forces from the east.
Shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, paratroopers of the 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades, including the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, began landing and immediately encountered elements of the German 716th Infantry Division. At dawn the Battle Group von Luck of the 21st Panzer Division counterattacked from the south on both sides of the Orne River. By this time the paratroopers had established a defensive perimeter surrounding the bridgehead. Casualties were heavy on both sides but the airborne troops held. By afternoon, they were received reinforcements of commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade.
By the end of D-Day, 6th Airborne had accomplished each of its objectives. For several days, both British and German forces took heavy casualties as they struggled for positions around the Orne bridgehead. On June 10th, the German 346th Infantry Division succeeded in breaking through the eastern edge of the defensive line but finally, British paratroopers were able to overwhelm the panzergrenadiers (Battle of Bréville on 12 June). The Germans did not post a threat to the bridgehead again and the 6th Airborne remained on the line until it was evacuated in early September.
Over 13,000 American paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed from 12 troop carrier groups of the IX Troop Carrier Command. These courageous men were less fortunate in completing their mission. In order to maintain the element of surprise, the drops were planned to approach Normandy from the west however various factors affected their plans. That the drop was to commence under the cover of night, was itself a serious impediment, and a tactic not used again during the war. The result was that about 45 % of the units were scattered over a wide area and unable to rally. Moreover, landing zones were not effectively marked by the early pathfinder teams, and the most serious impediment was the unreliability of the Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar beacons to guide in the C-47 Skytrains.
America the Story of the US: D-Day Invasion (00:03:07)
Between the hours of 00:48 and 01:40 three regiments of 101st Airborne paratroopers were the first to be air dropped, quickly followed by the 82nd Airborne's drops between 01:51 and 02:42. Each operation was a massive undertaking requiring about 400 C-47 aircraft. Just before dawn, two glider landings brought in anti-tank guns and support troops for each division. By the evening on D-Day, two additional glider landings brought in two battalions of artillery and 24 howitzers to the 82nd Airborne. Additional glider operations on 7 June delivered the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment to the 82nd Airborne, and two large supply parachute drops that date were ineffective. After 24 hours, only 2,500 troops (a third)of the 101st and 2,000 of the 82nd were under the control of their divisions. The dispersal of the American airborne troops, however, had the effect of confusing the Germans and fragmenting their response. Moreover, the defensive flooding created by German units, at least in the early stages, posed an advantage to American troops, protecting their southern flank.For the next several days paratroopers continued to roam and fight behind enemy lines, many of them consolidated into small groups. Many of them rallied with NCOs or junior officers, and comprised a mix of soldiers from different companies, battalions, regiments, and even divisions.
The first town to be liberated during the invasion was Sainte-Mère-Église in the early morning hours of June 6th, 1944, by the troops of the 82nd Division.The Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy at Sword - Juno - Gold - Omaha - Utah. Of 73,000 Americans who landed, 23,250 were on Utah beach; 34,250 on Omaha; and 15,500 were airborne units. British (61,715) and Canadian (21,400) troops landed - more precisely, 24,970 on Gold beach, 21,400 on Juno, 28,845 on Sword, and 7,900 airborne troops. On D Day, Allied aircraft flew 14,674 sorties, and lost 127 planes.
During the airborne landings on D Day, 2,395 aircraft and 867 gliders were used by the RAF and USAAF. Of the thousands of Allied Vessels in operation on June 6th, included 1,213 naval combat ships, 4,126 landing ships and craft, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Of the 195,700 personnel assigned to Operation Neptune, 52,889 were American, 112,824 were British and the remaining 4,988 from other Allied countries (including Poland). By the end of June 11th (that is D + 5), about 326,547 troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had landed on the beaches of Normandy.Casualties were very heavy except for Sword where in comparison, British infantry suffered light casualties and at Utah where 197 men were killed of a total of 23,000 troops that landed there. By a twist of fate, the 4th Infantry Division had landed at the wrong place at Victor Sector instead of Tare Green and Uncle Red Sectors. Those soldiers met with minimal German opposition and by afternoon they were able to rendezvous with the 101st Airborne and advance inland quickly.
By the days end about 10,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded in action. Total German casualties on D-Day are not known but have been estimated between 4,000 and 9,000 men.During the Battle of Normandy, the Allies suffered 209,000 casualties with about 37,000 ground forces killed, and another 16,714 killed from Allied air forces. Of these casualties, 83,045 were from the 21st Army Group comprising British, Canadian and Polish ground forces) and 125,847 from US ground forces. The Allies captured 200,000 prisoners of war. Allied naval losses for June 1944 included 24 warships and 35 merchantmen or auxiliaries sunk and an additional 120 vessels damaged.German casualties on D-Day are not known but have been estimated between 4,000 and 9,000 men. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded during the Battle of Normandy. The fighting around the Falaise Pocket in August 1944, resulted in German casualties of approximately 90,000 including prisoners.There are 27 war cemeteries which hold the remains of over 110,000 remains of soldiers who fought during the Battle of Normandy: 77,866 German, 9,386 American, 17,769 British, 5,002 Canadians and 650 Poles.
Winston S.Churchill - We Shall Fight on the Beaches (00:02:25m)
The Battle of Arnhemcode-named Operation Market Garden was fought in The Netherlands from September 7 to 25, 1944 by Allied forces of the United Kingdom, United States, Free Polish, Dutch Resistance, and Canada. It called for the seizure of bridges across the Meuse River and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine) as well as several smaller canals and tributaries. The Allies hoped that by crossing the Lower Rhine that they would outflank the Siegfried Line and encircle the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland.
The Operation was the largest airborne operation in history, delivering over 34,600 men of the 101st, 82nd and 1st Airborne Divisions and the Polish Brigade. Over 2,000 transport aircraft and 478 gliders including the famous Polish 303 Squadron set off as an airborne armada to breach the western defences and open up the German plains for the final assault on Berlin. 14,589 troops were landed by glider and 20,011 by parachute. Gliders also brought in 1,736 vehicles and 263 artillery pieces. 3,342 tons of ammunition and other supplies were brought by glider and parachute drop.
C-47s Loading
Allied High Command were convinced that German resistance had broken as most of the German Fifteenth Army was withdrawing without sign of any Panzergruppen. Allied Command assessed that the XXX Corps would face only a limited resistance along Highway 69. (The German army had suffered heavy losses and a string of defeats between June 6 and August 14: 23,019 killed in action, 198,616 missing or taken prisoner and 67,240 wounded.)
However, German Command was receiving intelligence reports of a planned Allied attack and intensified their positions with reinforcements. By September 16th, Panzer divisions were mobilizing towards Nijmegen and Arnhem. British intelligence detected an increase in movements and relayed the information to senior Allied Commanders, but the news was not passed further down the chain of command. On September 10, General Eisenhower immediately sent his Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, to raise the issue with Montgomery but Montgomery refused to change the plans for the landing of 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem.
Major Brian Urquhart, the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Allied Division attempted to intervene and arranged an emergency meeting with Browning to apprise him of the present danger to the men of the 1st Airborne Division, but was rebuffed. Browning had subsequently ordered the senior medical officer of the division to send Urquhart on sick leave on the grounds of "nervous strain and exhaustion." Aerial photographs of Arnhem taken by reconnaissance confirmed the location of German Panzer Divisions.
General Sosabowski’s rebuff and criticism of the plans for Market Garden set the tone of a long campaign under Browning’s direction to discredit the Polish contribution and undermine the leadership of Sosabowski.
Left: Polish General Sosabowski and Gen. Browning
Initially Operation Market Garden opened with Allied success all round. On September 17, the first landing, almost all troops arrived on top of their drop zones without incident. In the 82nd Airborne Division, 89% of troops landed on or within 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) of their drop zones and 84% of gliders landed on or within 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) of their landing zones. In the south the 101st met little resistance and captured four of five bridges. To their north the 82nd arrived and the small group dropped near Grave took the bridge in a rush. They also succeeded in capturing one of the vitally important bridges over the Maas-Waal canal, the lock-bridge at Heumen
The 1st Airborne Division landed at 13:30 without serious incident but problems associated with the poor plan began soon after.
Only half of the Division arrived with the First Lift and only half of these (1st Parachute Brigade) could advance on the bridge. The remaining troops had to defend the drop zones overnight for the arrival of the Second Lift on the following day. Thus the Division's primary objective had to be tackled by less than half a brigade. While the paratroopers marched eastwards to Arnhem, the Reconnaissance Squadron was to race to the bridge in their jeeps and hold it until the rest of the Brigade arrived. The unit set off to the bridge late and having travelled only a short distance the vanguard was halted by a strong German defensive position; the squadron could make no further progress.
This had grave consequences. Five hours after the initial landing, feeling that the British were tied down in Arnhem, the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 9th Waffen-SS Panzer Division was able to cross the Arnhem bridge and drive to Nijmegen and the bridge over the Waal branch of the Rhine. No British airborne unit was at the bridge.
Two of the three battalions of the 1st Parachute Brigade were slowed down by small German units of a training battalion which had quickly established a thin blocking line covering the obvious routes into Arnhem. Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost's 2nd Battalion, advancing eastwards along the southernmost road into Arnhem near the Rhine, found its route largely undefended. They arrived at the bridge in the evening and set up defensive positions at the north end. Two attempts to capture the arched steel bridge and its southern approach failed. Of the other battalions, the 3rd had only covered half the distance to the bridge when they halted for the night, the rear of their column being under attack and needing time to catch up. The 1st Battalion was similarly fragmented, yet pushed on around the flank of the German line throughout the night. Frequent skirmishes resulted in their making little more progress.
The 1st and 3rd Parachute Battalions pushed towards the Arnhem bridge during the early hours of September 18 and made good progress but they were frequently halted in skirmishes as soon as it became light. By the end of the day the 1st and 3rd Parachute Battalions had entered Arnhem and were within 2 km (1 mile) of the bridge with approximately 200 men, one-sixth their original strength. Most of the officers and non-commissioned officers had been killed, wounded or captured. The Second Lift was delayed by fog and jumped onto a landing zone under heavy attack but landed at full strength (the 4th Parachute Brigade consisting of the 10th, 11th and 156th Battalions of the Parachute Regiment, commanded by Brigadier-General John Winthrop Hackett) and C and D Companies of the 2nd South Staffordshire Regiment.
During the early morning hours of September 19, the 1st Parachute Brigade began its attack towards Arnhem Bridge, with the 1st Battalion leading supported by remnants of the 3rd Battalion, with the 2nd South Staffordshires on the 1st Battalion's left flank and the 11th Battalion following. As soon as it became light the 1st Battalion was spotted and halted by fire from the main German defensive line. Trapped in open ground and under heavy fire from three sides, the 1st Battalion disintegrated and what remained of the 3rd Battalion fell back. The 2nd South Staffordshires were similarly cut off and, save for about 150 men, overcome by midday. The 11th Battalion, (which had stayed out of much of the fighting) was then overwhelmed in exposed positions while attempting to capture high ground to the north. With no hope of breaking through, the 500 remaining men of these four battalions withdrew westwards in the direction of the main force, 5 km (3 miles) away in Oosterbeek.
The 2nd Battalion and attached units (approximately 600 men) were still in control of the northern approach ramp to the Arnhem bridge. The Germans recognized that they would not be moved by infantry attacks such as those that had been bloodily repulsed on the previous day so instead they heavily shelled the short British perimeter with mortars, artillery and tanks; systematically demolishing each house to enable their infantry to exploit gaps and dislodge the defenders. Although in battle against enormous odds, the British clung to their positions and much of the perimeter was held.
September 20: British positions around the north end of Arnhem bridge had weakened considerably. Casualties, mostly wounded, were high from constant shelling. An acute lack of ammunition especially anti-tank munitions, enabled enemy armour to demolish British positions from point-blank range. Food, water and medical supplies were scarce, and so many buildings were on fire and in such serious danger of collapse that a two-hour truce was arranged to evacuate the wounded.
At Arnhem the British 1st Airborne Division met far stronger resistance than anticipated. When ground forces failed to relieve them in time, they were overrun on the 21st. The rest of the division were trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge and had to be evacuated on the 25th. The Allies had failed to cross the Rhine in sufficient force. It remained a barrier to Allied advance until March 1945. The failure of Market Garden ended Allied expectations of finishing the war in 1944.
101st Airborne Division
82nd Airborne Division
British Troops of the 1st Airborne Emplaning
Polish Paratroopers
Aerial View of Glider Landings Arnhem
British XXX Corps cross bridge at Nijmegen
The Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade under the command of Major-General Stanislaw Sosabowski entered the battle on the afternoon of September 21st. Two of the brigade's three battalions were caught in the midst of heavy German gun fire opposite the 1st Airborne Division's position on a new drop zone south of the Rhine near the village of Driel. Furthermore, badly coordinated drops by the RAF resulted in supplies landing 15 km (9 miles) off target on the opposite side of the Rhine.
Polish Soldiers at Driel
September 22 " Black Friday" The Germans shelled and mortared the airborne positions heavily. By the end of the battle over 110 guns had been brought to Oosterbeek.. Attacks were limited, conducted against specific positions and even individual houses. The survivors of the 1st Airborne were outnumbered 4 to 1.
The Polish 1st Parachute Brigade at Driel, unable to cross the Rhine, nonetheless forced a redeployment of German forces. Fearing a Polish attempt to recapture Arnhem bridge or, worse, an attempt to cut the road to the south and so trap the 10th SS Panzer Division then blocking the route of the Guards Armoured Division to Arnhem, the Germans withdrew 2,400 troops from Oosterbeek. They were moved south of the river to engage the Polish paratroopers at Driel, making attacks to little effect through the day.
Lacking assault craft, British and Polish engineers on both sides of the Rhine had labored throughout the day to improvise a crossing using small boats linked by signals cable, but the cable kept breaking. An unsuccessful attempt was made that night to move Polish troops across the river. They resorted to slowly rowing across the strong current which brought them under enemy fire.
Of the 8th Polish Parachute Company, only 52 soldiers survived the crossing.
Though much of the corridor was firmly in Allied hands, German counterattacks were still being mounted along its length. During the previous night, two mixed armoured formations on either side of Highway 69 attacked between Veghel and Grave; one group managed to cut the highway and prevent any further advance to Arnhem.
September 23 The Germans had figured out what the Poles were attempting to do and they spent the rest of the day trying to cut off the British in their northern bridgehead from the riverside. The British managed to hold on and both sides suffered heavy losses. The Germans also attacked the Poles on the south side in order to tie them down but several tanks arrived from XXX Corps and they were beaten off. Boats and engineers from the Canadian army also arrived that day and another river crossing that night landed 150 troops of the Polish 3rd Parachute Battalion on the north bank of the Rhine.
September 24 Another German unit cut the road to the south of Veghel and set up defensive positions for the night. It was not clear to the Allies at this point how much of a danger this represented but the principal objective of Operation Market Garden, i.e. the Allied crossing of the Rhine, was abandoned this day and the decision made to go over to the defensive with a new front line in Nijmegen. Nonetheless, an attempt was made on Sunday night to reinforce the 1st Airborne Division with the 4th Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment. Two companies were put across the river but the location of the crossing point was ill-advised and the Dorsets landed among German positions. Fragmented by their landing and immediately pinned down, of the 315 men who crossed only 75 reached Oosterbeek; the remainder were taken prisoner. As a result of this failure, it was decided to withdraw the 1st Airborne Division from its bridgehead on the northern side of the Rhine.
September 25 The 1st Airborne Division received orders to withdraw across the Rhine. They could not do so until nightfall, and in the meantime struggled to survive. Meanwhile the Germans formed two potent SS battlegroups and made a significant thrust along a narrow front in the eastern sector. They were able to break through and for some time the Allied division was in peril. The attack met with increasing resistance as it pushed deeper into the British lines and was finally broken up by a heavy bombardment of the 64th Medium Regiment.
Employing every ruse to give the Germans the impression that their positions were unchanged, the 1st Airborne Division began its withdrawal at 22:00. British and Canadian engineer units ferried the troops across the Rhine, covered by the Polish 3rd Parachute Battalion on the north bank. By early the next morning they had withdrawn 2,398 survivors, leaving 300 men to surrender on the north bank at first light, when German fire prevented their rescue.
Of approximately 10,600 men of the 1st Airborne Division and other units who fought north of the Rhine, 1,485 were killed and 6,414 were taken prisoner of whom one third were wounded.
To the south the newly-arrived 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division attacked the Germans holding the highway and secured it by the next day. Allied positions in the Nijmegen Salient were manned throughout the rest of September and October by airborne units, then handed over to the First Canadian Army in November 1944 and remained unchanged until February 1945 when Operation Veritable was launched on the Rhineland, advancing east instead of north towards Arnhem.
British 1st Parachute Battalion
After having failed to establish a bridgehead across the Rhine, the Allies launched offensives on two fronts in the south of the Netherlands in order to secure shipping in the port of Antwerp; advancing northwards and westwards taking the Scheldt Estuary in the Battle of the Scheldt. They also advanced eastwards in Operation Aintree in order to secure the banks of the Meuse as a natural boundary for the established salient. This attack on the German bridgehead west of the Meuse near Venlo was for the Allies an unexpectedly protracted affair, which included the Battle of Overloon.
Nijmegen after battle September 28, 1944
In February 1945, Allied forces in Operation Veritable advanced from the Groesbeek heights which had been taken during Market Garden, and into Germany crossing the Rhine in March during Operation Plunder. Arnhem was finally liberated by I Canadian Corps on April 14, 1945 after two days of fighting. A surrender of the remaining German forces in the west of the Netherlands was signed on May 5.
People of the Dutch resistance helping to find Germans and guide the Allies in the fields
A tragic consequence of Operation Market Garden was the Hongerwinter (Hungerwinter). During the battle Dutch railway workers, encouraged by the Dutch government in London, went on strike with the intention of helping the Allied assault. In retaliation Germany blocked the transportation of food and in the following winter thousands of Dutch citizens starved to death.
