The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  Eleven bridges could be found in the 82nd sector: Field Order No. 11, 82nd AB Div, Sept. 13, 1944, “bridge data” annex, CARL; John S. Thompson, “The Holland Jump,” 1944, CJR, box 101, folder 9 (shooting up two truckloads); AAR, Reuben H. Tucker, 504th PIR, n.d., and AAR, 2nd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (ripped out boxes of dynamite); signage, Grave bridge, author visit, May 2009 (“Bridge number eleven”).

  Bridge eleven and all its sisters: memo, JMG to Office of the Theater Historian, July 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder 171; memo, G-3, 82nd Airborne, Oct. 23, 1945, CJR, box 100, folder 3 (“capture and retention”); SLC, 159 (eight 75mm howitzers); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 221–22 (seven pieces).

  “Everything is going as planned”: corr, JMG to A. Bestebreurtje, July 9, 1973, CJR, box 100, folder 9; OH, JMG, Jan. 20, 1967, CJR, box 101, folder 10.

  So too had the Germans: Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 68 (“Everyone out”); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 199 (underwear spilling); Hastings, Armageddon, 41; SLC, 140.

  Vengeful Dutchmen ripped the rank badges: Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 299; photo, Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 95.

  Not much else went right: Urquhart, Arnhem, 40–41; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 304–5 (fire engines); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 117–19.

  Ignoring warnings of dangers ahead: Urquhart, Arnhem, 64–66; Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 108–11; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 298 (“idiotic, ridiculous”).

  A single British parachute battalion: Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 38 (“snogging”); Frost, A Drop Too Many, 210–11 (rail bridge blew up); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 147–48, 152–58; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 99 (trucks blazing on the ramp).

  A brutal deadlock had begun: VW, vol. 2, 51; Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 292–93 (only 740); Saunders, The Red Beret, 225–26 (lashed into the tree branches); Frost, A Drop Too Many, 204 (golf clubs).

  That would not happen. At precisely two P.M.: Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 489–90; AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 37 (Typhoons swooped in).

  “Driver, advance!”: Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 99–101.

  The artillery barrage now rolled: AAR, 2nd Bn, Irish Guards, UK NA, WO 171/1256; Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 127 (“Advance going well”).

  No sooner had the hand-rubbers on the roof: Horrocks, A Full Life, 211–12; Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 127–28 (“burning hulks”); Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 101–3; Hastings, Armageddon, 55 (tanker boots).

  The German defenders soon were identified: AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 37 (“complete surprise”); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 129 (6th Parachute Regiment); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 230 (“indignant surprise”); Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 492–93 (“ugly mood”); OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 216–17, 226; AAR, 2nd Bn, Irish Guards, UK NA, WO 171/1256.

  For seven miles from the Dutch border: Bredin, Three Assault Landings, 126; AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 89 (wider than thirty feet); “Preliminary Tactical Study of the Terrain,” XVIII Airborne Corps, Sept. 11, 1944, CARL (“impracticable to impossible”); SLC, 148–49; Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 101–3 (only fifteen dead); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 227.

  “Things are going very well indeed”: office diary, Sept. 17–18, 1944, First Allied Airborne Army, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 2.

  Eindhoven was home: Baedeker’s Netherlands, 178; www.hansvogels.nl/eindhovenENG/violet2en.htm; www.frits.philips.com/en/darkcloud.html; Crouch, “Frederik Philips Dies at 100; Businessman Saved Dutch Jews,” NYT, Dec. 7, 2005; Teulings, “Structure and Logic of Industrial Development: Philips and Electronics Industry,” Social Scientist 9, no. 4 (Nov. 1979): 3+; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips.

  Now this company town of thatched roofs: Moorehead, Eclipse, 202–3; “Eindhoven,” 506th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427A, CI, folder #226 (all bridges intact); SLC, 150 (“reek with hate”).

  Not until dusk did XXX Corps arrive: AAR, 3rd Bn, Irish Guards, Sept. 18, 1944, UK NA, WO 171/1257; AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 39–42 (stiffened with Panther tanks); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 113 (grounded the Typhoons); Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 103; Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 122 (“Every time the advance”); SLC, 150.

  Reinforcements from England also arrived: “327th RCT at Zon,” 327th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427A, CI, folder #226-A; H. J. Jablonsky, “Combat Lessons of 82nd Airborne Division,” Observers’ Board, WD, Dec. 9, 1944, CARL, 5; SLC, 167; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 311–16 (four thousand aircraft); AAR, “Air Resupply and Resupply by B-24 Aircraft,” Oct. 29, 1944, 2nd Bombardment Division, CARL, 1–7 (stripped of their ball turrets); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 124.

  The 101st found more unexpected trouble: “Combat Diary of Edward McCosh Elliott, 1944,” 2nd Bn, Glasgow Highlanders, IWM, 99/61/1, VIII-12; “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG Staff Study No. 3, CARL, N-17309.1; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 308–09 (Fifteenth Army troops).

  Among seven wounded GIs: Nappi, “War Hero Enriches Soul History,” (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review, Aug. 14, 2004, www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=20967*; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 287–99; Marshall, Battle at Best, 10–36; Medal of Honor citation, http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/citations_1940_wwii/mann.html.

  Nearly out of ammunition: Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 144; SLC, 152 (three hundred enemy corpses); “Battalion and Small Unit Study No. 6,” Oct. 1944, NARA 498, ETO HD, UD 602, box 5, 35–36 (shot by their own comrades); Marshall, Battle at Best, 41.

  “Dutch report Germans winning”: SLC, 170.

  “grossly untidy situation”: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 110.

  In a shot-torn town: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 282 (bakeries), 218 (head to toe like sandbags), 232–33 (“gone awry”); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 200–202, 209, 281; Saunders, The Red Beret, 232–34 (“little bayonet rushes”); Airborne Forces, 167; SLC, 172–73 (Balky radios); Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 111 (would not rejoin his headquarters); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 130 (over half of the British soldiers).

  Nothing was right except the courage: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 344–45; Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 72 (cherry brandy); Mackay, “The Battle of Arnhem Bridge,” Royal Engineer Journal (Dec. 1954): 305ff. (Benzedrine and “Great joy all round”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 177 (perimeter of ten buildings); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 359 (vases were filled with water); Saunders, The Red Beret, 239 (rolled strips of wallpaper); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 292–95; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 465 (Mercedes trucks); “Arnhem,” AB, no. 2 (1973): 1ff.

  Germans on the south bank of the Neder Rijn: Frost, A Drop Too Many, 223–25; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 177–78 (“skin peeling”); Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 74 (“shake itself like a dog”).

  “Arnhem was burning”: Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 359 (“metallic daylight”), 354 (“Nobody is in such dire need”); Saunders, The Red Beret, 236–37 (“never saw anything more beautiful”); Mackay, “The Battle of Arnhem Bridge,” Royal Engineer Journal (Dec. 1954): 305ff. (Despite a BBC report); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 312 (“pretty desperate thing”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 216–17 (tossed from upper windows).

  “a sea of flame”: Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 307.

  “Our building is on fire”: Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Eu
rope, 167–68.

  “Deutschland, Deutschland”: OH, Joseph Enthammer, Arnhem History Museum, John Frost Bridge, author visit, May 2009.

  Both sides agreed to a two-hour cease-fire: Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 167–68. (“British or American?”), 169 (offered brandy, chocolate); Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 85 (“The Last Stand”), 88 (“grotesque paddles”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 125–26 (“harder battle than any”); Frost, Nearly There, 80–81; Frost, A Drop Too Many, 233 (“kind, chivalrous”); exhibit on Dr. Jan Zwolle, Arnhem History Museum, John Frost Bridge, author visit, May 2009 (put before a firing squad).

  Eighty-one paratroopers had been killed: Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 321.

  “God save the king”: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 430.

  The Arrow That Flieth by Day

  At 4:30 P.M. on Tuesday, September 19: OH, JMG, Jan. 20, 1967, CJR, box 101, folder 10, 1–3 (curb); Gavin, On to Berlin, 170–71.

  Afternoon shadows stretched: Bates and Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 99–100 (weather had deteriorated); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 129–33; SLC, 154.

  Of five major objectives: “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG Staff Study No. 3, CARL, N-17309.1, 22; AAR, JMG, July 25, 1945, Office of Theater Historian, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 164; SLC, 163–66 (muddled firefight in the dark); Nordyke, All American All the Way, 457 (10th SS Panzer soldiers); Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, 404; Baedeker’s Netherlands, 288 (falcons).

  Nor had the belated arrival of XXX Corps: VW, vol. 2, 37; Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 129–33; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 349, 360–63; AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125. No Dutchman explained why the detonators would be placed on the wrong side of the bridges to be destroyed (Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 499–500).

  Enemy commanders were so confident of holding the bridges: Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 43; Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 128 (bowled thermite grenades).

  Joining Gavin along the Malden curb: Tucker biographical data, CJR, box 103, folder 23; Chatterton, The Wings of Pegasus, 178 (“air of nonchalance”); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 118 (arrived in a nearby cabbage patch); OH, Eddie Newbury, Browning personal secretary, n.d., CJR, box 108, folder 6 (Twirling his mustache); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 344 (airborne smock); office diary, First Allied Airborne Army, Sept. 19, 1944, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 2 (“extremely pleased”); Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 60 (ink jar).

  Gavin quickly described the predicament: Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 193; SLC, 175; Gavin, On to Berlin, 175, 163 (“tough and confident”); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 134–35 (riverfront bandstand); Wills, Put on Your Boots and Parachutes!, 141–43 (on foot and by bicycle); Otis L. Sampson, “My Last Combat Jump,” n.d., Co E, 505th PIR, JMG, MHI, box 15 (wrapping themselves in drapes); corr, JMG to CJR, Oct. 2, 1973, and JMG to M. C. Hustinx, March 8, 1947, CJR, box 101, folders 9 & 10 (six hundred Dutch resistance fighters); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 118 (Browning’s radios).

  Colonel Tucker, whose helmet brim: Chatterton, The Wings of Pegasus, 178 (“Every time he did”); Gavin, On to Berlin, 173 (attack the German rear).

  Browning and Adair said little: corr, JMG to CJR, Oct. 2, 1973, CJR, box 101, folder 9 (Horrocks was skeptical); DOB, 347 (Rapido); Gavin, On to Berlin, 170–71 (“never try to fight an entire corps”).

  Two hours later, as dusk sifted: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 135; SLC, 153 (only large, long-range air strike); Bredin, Three Assault Landings, 126–28 (Dutch flags abruptly vanished); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 395–97 (“All smiles stopped”).

  No enemy tanks appeared: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 135; Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 349–50 (“flat on our stomachs”); Booth and Spencer, Paratrooper, 228 (“Great fires were burning”).

  “A blind act of malice”: Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 395–401.

  The boats were late arriving: Horrocks, Corps Commander, 112 (“For God’s sake, try!”); OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17 (there were twenty-six); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 137 (“suitable for the quieter rivers”); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 406–8 (two paddles); corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“Daddy’s tin ducking boat”).

  As a Royal Engineer major gave rudimentary instructions: OH, Robert M. Tallon, March 6, 1968, CJR, box 103, folder 20 (“Head them upriver”); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 225 (pork chops); AAR, Reuben H. Tucker, 504th PIR, n.d., and AAR, 2nd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171; OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17 (milky smoke screen); AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (Four hundred grunting men).

  Instantly German fire from three directions: AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (“mackerel on the feed”); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 406–8; SLC, 180; OH, Robert M. Tallon, March 6, 1968, CJR, box 103, folder 20 (direct hit from a mortar round); Burriss, Strike and Hold, 113–15 (engineer shot through the head), 116–17 (“Thy will be done”); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 234 (“his skull dropped”).

  “It was a horrible, horrible sight”: OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17.

  The roar of gunfire and ripping canvas: Nordyke, More Than Courage, 237, 256; Reuben H. Tucker, ts, n.d., CJR, box 103, folder 23 (“look at ’em”).

  Half made the far shore: SLC, 181; AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (galley slaves).

  “God help anyone in front of us”: Nordyke, More Than Courage, 240.

  “jack-in-the-box shooting”: OH, Theodore Finkbeiner, Jr., March 4, 1968, CJR, box 102, folder 24; SLC, 181.

  One company slaughtered the enemy garrison at Hof: AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125; Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 160; corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“driven to a fever pitch”).

  Sensing that the day had turned: AAR, Co. A, 1st Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (yellow recognition flags); Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 504 (high in the girders); corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“gargoyles”); corr, Virgil F. Carmichael, Oct. 13, 1967, CJR, box 102, file 16 (shot trying to surrender); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 260 (“Old German men grab”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 211–12 (“throwing our wounded from the bridge”); SLC, 183 (Two hundred and sixty-seven enemy bodies).

  Paratroopers darting through river grass: Nordyke, More Than Courage, 263 (“Roman candle balls”); Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 137–38 (skidded sideways); AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125 (detonators lashed to a catwalk).

  “The most gallant attack”: Horrocks, Corps Commander, 112; SLC, 183; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 211–12 (“blow up the bridge”); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 264 (“They’re over the Waal”).

  Montgomery monitored the battle: Hamilton, Monty: The Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 73, 76, 87–89.

  “Things are going to work out alright”: msg, BLM to DDE, Sept. 20, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83.

  “I regard general situation on rivers”: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 184.

  “all was not well”: Randal, A Short History of 30 Corps in the European Campaign, 35.

  “General, you’d better get the hell back here”: OH, JMG, 1975, Don
ald G. Andrews and Charles H. Ferguson, SOOHP, MHI, JMG papers, box 1.

  Racing to his command post: corr, JMG to MBR, Jan. 27, 1973, CJR, box 102, folder 6; Gavin, On to Berlin, 176–77.

  But troubles in the Anglo-American rear: SLC, 187; “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG Staff Study No. 3, CARL, N-17309.1 (another 85,000 Germans); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 150; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 569.

  That same morning, Hell’s Highway: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 476–77; Horrocks, A Full Life, 228 (“blackest moment”); SLC, 189–92; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 283–87 (destroy fifty vehicles).

  The new bridgehead over the Waal: SLC, 184–86; Crosswell, Beetle: The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith, 720 (supplies promised by SHAEF); OH, JMG, 1975, Donald G. Andrews and Charles H. Ferguson, SOOHP, MHI, JMG papers, box 1 (“Why die now?”); corr, JMG to MBR, Jan. 27, 1973, CJR, box 102, folder 6 (found Colonel Tucker in a farmhouse); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 162–63 (“What in the hell are they doing?”).

  At 1:30 P.M. on Thursday: AAR, 3rd Battalion, Irish Guards, UK NA, WO 171/1257 (captured German map); SLC, 185 (waited in ambush); Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 508–9 (“head to tail in silhouette”); Ellis, Welsh Guards at War, 229 (“these sad flat lands”); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 576–77 (“not going to get a yard”).

  “But farther they could not go”: Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 141; T. G. Lindsay, “Operation Overlord Plus,” n.d., LHC, 43–44 (plover and pheasant).

  The British survivors at Arnhem were now pinched: Urquhart, Arnhem, 105–7, 131; Saunders, The Red Beret, 242–43 (“I used to watch an apple tree”).