Britain at War - 09.2019

Market

Garden

ABOVE

A paratrooper

is stretchered

away in woodland

near Oosterbeek.

PA ARCHIVE

LEFT

The sheer scale

of the drops into

the Netherlands

is evidenced by

this photograph.

TOPFOTO

BELOW

In what is likely

a staged shot,

British troops

walk into Arnhem.

TOPFOTO

46 http://www.britainatwar.com

BASH ON! GOUGH'S RECCE MEN|ARNHEM

by the provincial

electricity board.

The force on

the northern end of Arnhem Bridge

on Monday, September 18 numbered

about 500, with Frost in command. He

had some 6Pdr anti-tank guns, but – as

paratroopers tend to be – the force was

soon surrounded. The men and tanks

of 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen

reinforced the blocking line established

on Sunday and closed the gap used

by those British units to reach the

bridge. The commander, Friedrich-

Wilhelm Bock, sent his reconnaissance

battalion – under Hauptsturmführer

Viktor Gräbner – across the bridge

to reconnoitre towards Oosterbeek.

Gräbner was among about 70 of his

battalion who were killed and most of

their vehicles were destroyed. Dickie

Minns, who had evaded capture the

previous day, later wrote: “We won

this one”.

On Tuesday morning, the Polish

Independent Parachute Brigade was to

be dropped on the southern bank of

the river, and Frost planned to contact

the Poles as they landed to inform

them of the situation. The Germans

lay between his position and the

Polish LZs and DZs, but he thought

Gough’s two jeeps and a Universal

Carrier from 2nd Battalion could race

across the bridge while the Germans

were distracted by the landing – Frost

even remarked to Gough that the

plan would give him an opportunity

to earn his family’s fourth VC. The

plan came to naught as the Polish lift

42-49 BASH_ON_GOUGHS_RECCE_MEN_ARNHEM BAW SEPT2019.indd 46 8/14/2019 5:22:43 PM