BELOW
The popular
and capable
commanding officer
of XXX Corps, Lt-Gen
Sir Brian Horrocks,
KCB, DSO, MC in
June 1963.
TOPFOTOLEFT
Operation Market
Garden: Guards
Armoured Division,
September 1944.
BY ANDY HAYTHE ORIGINAL THUNDER RUN|ARNHEM
than tanks.
However, 2nd
Welsh retained
the speedy Cromwell tanks it had used
in the recce role and, other than some
fielded by Divisional HQ, these were
the Guard’s only Cromwells.TRAPPED ON
HELL'S HIGHWAY
Further news from Arnhem spurred
the Division on. But there were
problems: ammunition was short;
artillery support – other than a
single medium battery – could not be
provided for the immediate advance;
close air support was restricted to a
small number of Typhoons; and the
Irish Group was short of infantry.Market
Garden against well-sited German defences,
Horrocks ordered 5th Brigade to hold
fast while 43rd Division took over the
task next morning, advancing through
the Guards. This was also the day
the 1st Polish Independent Parachute
Brigade dropped northwest of Elst
and in the early mist of the following
day, 2HCR made another spectacular
dash. Captain Arthur Young’s troop of
‘C’ Squadron slipped through German
lines, using side roads to reach the
Poles – some six miles away – as the
mist cleared. Subsequent attempts to
push armour and infantry through
to them were halted, so Young’s
troop provided the brigade with their
only armour support with which
to repel German attacks during the
day. His Military Cross citation read
“By his resource and courage several
enemy armoured vehicles and many
infantry were destroyed and all attacks
repulsed.” Young also conducted a
recce under fire of the riverbank for
the Commander, Royal Engineers of
43 rd Division.
Young found Lieutenant-Colonel
Charles Mackenzie, 1st Airborne
Division’s General Staff Officer 1,
with the Poles and learned of the
predicament of the men under siege
at Arnhem/Oosterbeek. WhenReinforcements were being caught
in the huge, congested logistics tail,
and were frequently shelled. No.1
Squadron, 2nd Irish Guards, under
Captain R S Langton, had advanced
some two miles when the lead troop’s
three Shermans were knocked out.
They were forced to fight on a
one-tank front and a faulty wireless
set made it impossible to call in the
Typhoons. It soon became clear that
the Irish Group had been stopped.
The original XXX Corps plan to take
Arnhem bridge and advance to the
Zuider Zee was in tatters, especially as
the Germans were launching attacks
along the lines of communication,
dubbed ‘Hell’s Highway’.
The Welsh Group was advancing
on another axis but, before long,
they were also involved in difficult
fighting. Securing, at best, slow gains38 http://www.britainatwar.com34-41 THUNDER_RUN_ARNHEM BAW SEPT2019.indd 38 8/14/2019 5:14:23 PM