Arnhem

by William F Buckingham

  Lieutenant Kennedy’s storm boat grounded on the south bank of the Lower Rhine in full daylight at 07:20 on Tuesday 26 September 1944. At that point Operation BERLIN, and by extension Operation MARKET GARDEN that had necessitated it, effectively came to an end.

  22

  Aftermath and Reflections

  The end of Operation BERLIN was not the end of the story in Oosterbeek. A significant number of Airborne soldiers were still on the north bank of the Lower Rhine when the evacuation effort was called off. The 1st Airborne Division HQ War Diary cites a figure of 300, but the 260 Field Company record refers to 200 and an eyewitness at the embarkation point, Private John Ranger from the 1st Border, estimated there were half as many again when Lieutenant Kennedy’s storm boat departed on its last southbound crossing.1 Interestingly, if not surprisingly given the number of eye-witness accounts to the contrary, Lieutenant-Colonel Henniker’s account claims that at the time of the last trip ‘no more Airborne soldiers were found awaiting passage to the south bank’.2 Whatever the precise number of men abandoned on the north bank, the more important point was that the vast majority of Airborne personnel had been successfully evacuated because the 1st Airborne Division’s deception and withdrawal plan tailored to carry out that most difficult of military manoeuvres, breaking contact without alerting the enemy, had exceeded expectations. The Germans had thus remained oblivious to what was occurring under their noses. As late as 09:30 II SS Panzerkorps had informed Kampfgruppe von Tettau that ‘the enemy made another attempt to break out to the east in the early morning hours but was repulsed,’ presumably referring to the clashes involving the 21st Independent Company and the 1st Parachute Battalion as they withdrew to the embarkation point.3 Eager to capitalise on the previous day’s progress the Germans renewed their assault on the British perimeter at first light and it rapidly became apparent that they were pushing against an open door. By 10:25 SS Bataillon Eberwein reported finally clearing the houses along the Utrechtseweg that had been a deadly bone of contention for several days and moving on the Hotel Hartenstein, making contact with Kampfgruppen Möller moving in from just a few hundred yards to the east in the process. SS Junker Rudolf Lindemann from Unterführerschule ‘Arnheim’ admitted after reaching the Hotel Hartenstein that ‘it was not a real attack [because] the paras had gone already. We found only weapons and dead people.’4

  To the north Kampfgruppe Bruhn and SS Bataillon Oelkers made similar progress through the territory previously held largely by the 7th KOSB, and made contact with the forces pressing in from the east and west at around midday; the Oosterbeek Hexenkessel was fully secured by 14:00.5 Hauptsturmführer Hans Möller belatedly realised the significance of the pounding his Kampfgruppe had endured from 30 Corps’ artillery, recalling that the ‘Red Devils had withdrawn and disappeared during the night behind this curtain of dirt and destruction’ although he was somewhat wary of the unnatural silence that fell over the battlefield thereafter; ‘But then – it stopped all of a sudden – the silence appeared treacherous to all and almost “hurt”. Was it all over? Would it start again?’6 There was also reportedly a widespread sense of relief as the Germans had understandably assumed that their Airborne opponents would fight to the finish. 9 SS Panzer Division’s chief-of-staff, Hauptsturmführer Wilfried Schwarz, observed that ‘Morale was particularly good at the end. We had actually succeeded in forcing this elite British division to stop, and pushed the remnants over the Rhine!’7 The German advance from the east was followed closely by Colonel Warrack and members of staff from the makeshift hospital he and Lieutenant-Colonel Herford had set up in the Dutch barracks in Apeldoorn, searching out and evacuating the abandoned wounded from the RAPs and other places across the now empty Airborne perimeter. They were assisted by the Germans who provided a fleet of thirty-six vehicles marked with the Red Cross to evacuate the casualties to Apeldoorn; Warrack commandeered a Jeep and personally scoured the eastern and western evacuation routes leading down to the Lower Rhine searching for casualties abandoned in the darkness and confusion of the withdrawal.8

  The German occupation of the Oosterbeek pocket was not totally without incident, with isolated groups of sadly unsung Airborne soldiers fighting to the last through simple bloody-mindedness or because they received no word to join the evacuation and remained in place as ordered until overrun; Middlebrook refers to his contributors reporting two small groups from the 7th KOSB who were left standing by but never called to withdraw, two sentries from the 10th Parachute Battalion left behind on isolated sentry duty and men from the 2nd South Staffords and RA anti-tank-gunners similarly forsaken in the LONSDALE Force area.9 Some missed the evacuation because they were simply unaware it was happening. Captain The Reverend Arnold Pare, Chaplain at No. 1 Wing GPR, had not been informed of the withdrawal for whatever reason and slept through the night in the Hotel Schoonoord in spite of the British bombardment and the German attack on the Poles on the Stationsweg–Utrechtseweg crossroads. He awoke to an unnatural quiet to be informed by an RAMC orderly that the rest of the Division had gone during the night and who begged him to inform the wounded still in the building as the orderly lacked the nerve to do so.10 One of the larger groups was Lieutenant Alan Green and his nineteen survivors from D Company 1st Border on the Van Borsselenweg, who had to be persuaded that the withdrawal had taken place during the night by Sapper Stanley Holdsworth and several others left behind. The point was proven by the arrival of German troops in D Company’s position who carried the seriously wounded away in a captured Jeep, marched the walking wounded away and set Lieutenant Green and the able-bodied survivors to gathering up the weapons and equipment strewn around the vicinity.11

  Kampfgruppe Harder ran into resistance as it moved on the embarkation point while advancing from the east along the Benedendorpsweg as did Bataillon Worrowski, possibly accompanied by tanks from Panzer Kompanie 224, moving in from the west. Lance-Corporal Harry Smith from the 2nd South Staffords was among a group led into a hollow in the riverbank for cover by an unnamed lieutenant; the latter was then hit in the side by a 20mm round when he stood to wave a makeshift white flag. A former German national among the group was prevailed upon to shout ‘Cease fire’ in German as the enemy closed in; the ploy worked as there was no more firing and a single German soldier armed with a rifle and a large, white ‘Kaiser Bill moustache’ came over the bank alone and led the party away.12 The number of prisoners taken in the immediate aftermath of the evacuation varies between accounts. Kampfgruppe Harder reportedly captured 170 men from the throng that had missed a place on the boats to the south bank for example, while in his typically vainglorious and self-serving fashion Hauptsturmführer Sepp Krafft reported that his SS Panzergrenadier Ausbildungs und Ersatz Bataillon 16 had taken fifteen officers and 580 Other Ranks prisoner ‘in a keen attack in the morning’, which was likely news to the other German units pressing into the largely empty British perimeter.13 The prisoners included Private Jan Szubert from the Polish 3rd Battalion HQ who discarded his Sten but held onto his Colt .45 pistol until twice ordered to discard it by an SS officer ‘in a uniform cleaner than a whistle’ wielding a Luger pistol and Lieutenant Albert Smaczny and some of his men from No. 8 Company. Smaczny had remained at the Transvalia house as instructed, vainly awaiting the promised runner with the order to withdraw. After waiting for several hours during which the stream of British troops passing the Poles’ positions had dried up, Lieutenant Smaczny despatched Cadet Lance-Corporal Bielawski to the nearest British command post. When that proved to have been abandoned apart from two medical orderlies and some wounded, he led his men down to the river where he released them to make their own way if they preferred. When the shooting started Lieutenant Smaczny tried to lead his remaining men back into the woods but they were intercepted by two German tanks and obliged to surrender.14

  Some men tried to evade capture. Three officers from the 1st Border, Captain Barry Ingram from HQ Company and Lieutenants Arthur Royall and Patrick Stott from B Company dumped all thei
r kit apart from compasses, torches and pistols and set off at around first light in search of a house to hole up in until dark but became separated after coming under German machine-gun fire. Royall and Stott were captured shortly thereafter but Captain Ingram not only found a suitable house, but one that contained the body of a dead Royal Artillery Captain whose small pack contained emergency rations, a wash kit, a copy of the Sunday Express from 17 September and fifty cigarettes and, best of all, an undamaged bedroom complete with silk pyjamas. After a refreshing sleep followed by a shave and leisurely reading of the newspaper over the rations Ingram dressed in civilian clothes found in the house, padding them out as they were rather oversized, and boldly attempted to bluff his way through the considerable German activity on the surrounding streets. He was eventually stopped by a more observant patrol which searched him and discovered his issue torch, at which point Ingram admitted to being a British officer and was taken prisoner.15 Many more men had better luck and over time the area around Arnhem and Oosterbeek became host to several hundred Airborne soldiers who had either evaded capture or escaped and avoided being transported to Germany, often with the assistance of the Dutch Resistance or courageous individuals.

  The St Elizabeth Hospital and the temporary hospital in the Dutch barracks at Apeldoorn proved good locations for escapees. Brigadier Gerald Lathbury simply walked out of the former as soon as he was able and rapidly made contact with other Airborne evaders in the area, while Brigadier Hackett was smuggled out in a car in broad daylight once his wounds had healed sufficiently to allow him to be moved; he was lodged at Ede, ten miles west of Arnhem with the de Nooij family. A quartet of Dutch women looked after him until the Dutch Resistance arranged to get him to safety across the Lower Rhine in February 1945.16 At Apeldoorn Colonel Graeme Warrack RAMC and Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Herford RAMC had given parole that they would not try and escape but decided that this no longer applied once the Germans began winding down the temporary hospital for closure on 26 October 1944, and arranged to make their exits along with some of the medical staff. Lieutenant-Colonel Herford escaped on 16 October and reached the safety of British lines after nearly a week, bringing with him a nominal roll of the 1,500 Airborne casualties in German hands; he was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his work during MARKET GARDEN.17 Colonel Warrack ‘escaped’ by hiding in the cupboard in his room for fourteen days before emerging and making his way out of the by then deserted Dutch barracks. After being given shelter by a courageous Dutch family he made contact with the Dutch Resistance who arranged for him to cross the Lower Rhine to safety in company with Brigadier Hackett in February 1945. For his courage and actions at Oosterbeek he too was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Order.18 Not all escape attempts were successful and despite the overall exemplary German behaviour during the bitter fighting some Airborne soldiers were killed by their captors after surrender. According to Middlebrook three officers ‒ one from the Royal Engineers and two from the GPR ‒ and two paratroopers were shot very shortly after being taken prisoner. Four more were killed outright and two mortally wounded on 23 September when a guard panicked and fired indiscriminately into a truck carrying prisoners as it passed through Brummen, ten miles north-east of Arnhem, after Majors Anthony Hibbert and Dennis Munford jumped from the vehicle in an attempt to escape. The shooting also killed one of the German guards and one of the mortally wounded was Major Anthony Cotterell, a pre-war journalist working for the Army Bureau of Current Affairs attached to the 1st Parachute Brigade, who died two days later. Major Munford was recaptured but Major Hibbert got away and crossed the Lower Rhine to safety on the night of 22 October 1944.19 Three other Airborne Officers died after escape and recapture. Captain John Keesey from 16 Parachute Field Ambulance died on 2 October 1944 after being shot and wounded trying to escape from a hospital train in Apeldoorn, likely during the closure of the temporary hospital in the Dutch barracks there.20 Lieutenant Raymond Bussell from the 3rd Parachute Battalion and Lieutenant Michael Cambier from 156 Parachute Battalion escaped together from a hospital train on 25 September, having been slightly wounded in the arm and foot respectively. They were executed by Untersturmführer Ludwig Heinemann of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in Vorden on 10 October 1944 after being recaptured in civilian clothes eight days earlier; Heinemann was subsequently hanged for this and other crimes in Arnhem on 10 February 1947.21

  Operation BERLIN marked the effective end of the 1st Airborne Division’s involvement in Operation MARKET GARDEN and all the men who had fought in Oosterbeek and successfully escaped across the Lower Rhine were repatriated to the bases in the UK from which they had set forth up to nine days earlier with such high hopes by the end of the month. First away appears to have been No. 1 Wing GPR HQ which was moved entirely by air. The Glider Pilots were trucked from Nijmegen at 10:00 to the forward airfield at Grave where they were shuttled to Brussels at 14:25 and then on again just under two hours later, arriving at Harwell at 19:11 on Wednesday 27 September 1944.22 They were trailed the following day by the 21st Independent Parachute Company which, after being driven from Nijmegen to Louvain where they remained overnight, embarked on US C-47s at Brussels airport for the flight to Saltby at 15:00 from where they were trucked to their billets in Newark.23 The bulk of the Division’s survivors were flown back to Britain on Friday 29 September, again involving a move by motor transport from Nijmegen to Louvain where many had an overnight stop including an evening’s leave in some instances; at least some men were billeted in an abandoned monastery and others in a large barracks. They were then trucked the ten miles or so to Brussels airport from where they were lifted back to Britain in a shuttle of Dakotas from RAF No. 233 and RCAF No. 437 Squadrons, which appear to have been delivering supplies and equipment on the outbound leg.24 The lift also seems to have involved C-47s from the US 61st and 314th Troop Carrier Groups, considering the airfields some of the survivors were delivered to and that at least one unit War Diary specifically refers to being lifted by US aircraft.25 If the War Diary entries are any guide the US airfields also took the trouble to provide the returning Airborne soldiers with a warm welcome. 1st Airborne Division HQ and Royal Artillery HQ elements were back at Cottesmore at 19:00 and Barkston Heath at 18:00 respectively on 29 September for example, those arriving at Barkston Heath enjoying a ‘very good meal, RAF band, and beer’.26 The 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron landed at Saltby and was also greeted with a hot meal, while the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment RA and 9th (Airborne) Field Company landed at Barkston Heath at 13:00 and 18:30 respectively; both also dining well, and the RA contingent mention an RAF band; perhaps the band was all played out by the time the 9th Field Company reached the mess.27 The 2nd South Staffords left Louvain for Brussels at midday, emplaned at 14:00 and landed at Woodhall Spa and two other airfields at 17:00, possibly carried in Dakotas belonging to RAF No. 233 Squadron.28 The 1st Parachute Battalion was possibly alone in being moved in two increments, the Battalion’s advance party flying from Brussels on 29 September. The much-reduced main body of the Battalion flew from Brussels at 10:00 on Saturday 30 September and landed at Saltby at 12:15 to another ‘wonderful welcome’; this may also have been the last of the 1st Airborne Division’s air movements.29

  The movements of the 1st Airborne Division’s seaborne tail unsurprisingly proved to be a more complicated and drawn-out affair. The 1st Airlanding Brigade HQ seaborne echelon was divided into two components, the first of which had been unloaded at the JUNO landing area at 06:30 on 17 August and remained in Normandy until 2 September when it made its way across France, Belgium and up the Airborne Corridor to Nijmegen; it then retraced its route to Normandy for return shipment at some point after 30 September. The second increment does not appear to have disembarked at Arromanches after sailing from Tilbury Docks on 22 September aboard the MV Samhern, and sailed back to Tilbury on 29 September after seven days aboard ship, arriving safely the following day.30 Returning the Division’s seaborne echelon was a more protract
ed process, involving as it did moving a thousand vehicles by sea.31 The Division HQ seaborne echelon was originally alerted for a three-day road march to Arromanches for embarkation via the MULBERRY harbour there, beginning on 1 October 1944.32 This was cancelled in favour of returning via Ostend in Belgium, which both saved time and the protracted road march. Loading at Ostend began at 09:00 on 3 October, with the vehicles moving to the port in increments via a concentration area at De Haan, on the coast six miles east of Ostend. The first increment disembarked at Tilbury Docks on 4 October and vessels were then despatched daily until the final increment arrived at Tilbury on 8 October 1944.33