Britain at War - 09.2019

RIGHT

An RAF aerial

photograph of

Arnhem Bridge,

taken on September

19, British positions

may be seen on

the north ramp

of the bridge as

can knocked out

German vehicles.

VIA AUTHOR

LEFT

One in every

five men of the

Squadron were

killed. A comrade

pays his respects

at the temporary

grave of 27-year-old

Trooper William

Edmond, who, today

he rests in the

Oosterbeek War

Cemetery, grave

number 16.B.9.

VIA AUTHOR

BELOW

German soldiers

move wounded

British paratroopers

in jeeps captured

from 1st Airborne

Division.

TOPFOTO

was postponed. Frost made one more

attempt to have the jeeps charge the

bridge. He thought they might do so at

dusk to try to join the leading elements

of XXX Corps. Once again, the plan

was dropped.

HIGH-SPEED DASH

Tuesday also saw Divisional HQ

deploy elements of the squadron

on recce tasks; the acting CO was

concerned by a threat from the

west. ‘A’ and ‘D’ Troops, with the

HQ, set out along the Utrechtseweg,

while ‘C’ moved north. Before long

‘C’ encountered the enemy, took

some prisoners but was cut off and

surrounded. The troop observed

consolidate around Oosterbeek and

secure the Driel ferry crossing. This

gave the division a strong holdfast

to defend until XXX Corps arrived,

but it meant abandoning the force

trapped on Arnhem Bridge. When

Frost was wounded early in the

afternoon, command there devolved

to Freddie Gough.

Dickie Minns later wrote an account

of his experiences, noting that the

building in which

the squadron HQ

was established was

“badly damaged

and burning” on

the 20th, with the

wounded moved to

the cellar. His battle

ended that day:

“Late Wednesday:

Wounded evacuated

with German

assistance [the

result of a truce],

followed shortly by evacuation of all

remaining troops into outside prepared

slit trenches.” Just before midnight,

the Germans overran those trenches:

“I was a prisoner”, reflected Minns,

“many of my colleagues were not.”

By 5am the Germans had secured

the bridge; Gough was among those

taken prisoner.

At Oosterbeek, the pressure

continued to increase; so did casualties.

Early in the afternoon of September

20, the squadron’s main body

rendezvoused at the new squadron

HQ – close to the Hartenstein Hotel

• when a German self-propelled
  gun (SPG) appeared. Lieutenant
  John Christie reacted immediately.
  With Tprs Drinkwater, Watson and
  Bateman, he worked to bring one
  of his Polstens into action. He took
  one Polsten in tow, drove onto the
  Utrechtseweg and turned,

German armour concentrating but,

with wireless communication still non-

existent, could not pass this on. Fortune

took a hand as an Allied air attack

created such noise that Captain John

Hay reckoned he could risk a high-speed

dash ‘home’. All seven jeeps started the

run. Only seven men made it back.

By Wednesday, elements of XXX

Corps should have reached Arnhem

and begun to relieve the airborne.

Montgomery had only

ever considered their

task to be a two-day

holding operation, but

instead of relief, the

division was enduring

a siege. With enemy

pressure increasing,

this was the day

Urquhart decided to

http://www.britainatwar.com^47



BASH ON! GOUGH'S RECCE MEN|ARNHEM

"“Dickie Minns,

who had evaded

capture the

previous day, later

wrote: ‘We won

this one.”"

42-49 BASH_ON_GOUGHS_RECCE_MEN_ARNHEM BAW SEPT2019.indd 47 8/14/2019 5:22:56 PM