Tag Archives: Arnhem

MG at 80

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Did you know that, while the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions jumped/glided into Holland during Market Garden some 80 years ago this week with relatively light air-cooled machine guns (M1918 BARs and M1919 Brownings), the British and Polish airborne forces landed with 60 proper full-sized water-cooled Vickers MGs in both their parachute and airlanding battalions?

Courtesy of the Vickers MG Collection & Research Association:

On a more somber note, the Americans, Brits, Dutch, Poles, and even the Germans have been in attendance for the anniversary of the jumps.

The 82nd in Nijmegen, Mook, Grave and Groesbeek:

U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division stand in formation during a commemoration ceremony at the 82nd Airborne Division Memorial near Mook, Netherlands Sep. 18, 2024. Each year, U.S. Army units’ partner with Dutch communities to celebrate their shared history from the campaign and the initial liberation of the Netherlands during World War II. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Matthew Diaz)

The 101st at Nuenen and in unveiling bridge monuments in Sint Oedenrode and Son:

A convoy of vintage U.S. military World War II vehicles passes through the Netherlands town of Nuenen during the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden in Nuenen, the Netherlands, Sept. 14, 2024. Over 200 vintage U.S. military World War II vehicles, including jeeps, trucks, and even an M24 Chaffee tank, traveled in a convoy from the Netherlands town of Nuenen south to the town of Veghel, following the route that the 101st Airborne Division took alongside British soldiers against German forces during Op

Two fallen Brits from the battle were interred at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery:

Going for a Sunday walk among the sunflowers in the countryside with the lads

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Via the Parachute Regiment archives:

77 years ago today: Sunday, 17th September 1944, the Market side of Operation Market Garden.

Usually misidentified as Airborne Signallers, this is a group of the 1st Battalion, The Border Regiment, 1st (British) Airborne Division, at the edge of Drop Zone “X” in Holland mid-way between Sinderhoeve and Jonkershoeve, looking south towards the Klein Amerikaweg.

Pic by – Sgt. M. Lewis, AFPU.

Second from left is a Sergeant, fifth from the left is an Officer and on the right, the soldier is hoisting a 51-pound (without the ammo!) Vickers Medium Machine Gun onto his shoulder. Note the handie-talkie being used by the officer, at least four Borderers with No. 4 Enfield .303 rifles, and two with STEN MK IVs.

After having gone to France with the BEF in 1939, the Borderers made it out sans most of their equipment from Dunkirk, and, since they were “light” already was reformed as a mountain unit attached to the 31st Bde then in 1941 were transitioned to being glider-borne infantry. As such, they landed at Sicily in Operation Ladbroke, suffering heavy casualties and losing 75 percent of their ranks.

Reformed too late for Overlord, Market Garden was only their second combat glider operation. However, they were all but destroyed in that infamous “A Bridge Too Far” operation, and spent the rest of the war reforming for a third time just in case they were needed for the push on Tokyo. They were not, and ended WWII in Trieste on the early front line of the Cold War.

Formed in 1702, 1st Bn/Borderers were amalgamated with 1st Battalion, The King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), to form 1st Battalion, The King’s Own Royal Border Regiment, which was further amalgamated with the King’s Regiment and the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment to form the new Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (King’s, Lancashire and Border) (LANCS) which today still carries a Glider Flash worn on the sleeve while in No. 1 and No. 2 uniforms to remember Ladbroke and Market Garden.

Out of ammunition, God Save the King

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With Arnhem lost, the Britsh light infantry of 1 Airborne Division holding the increasingly pressured Oosterbeek perimeter some 75 years ago this week, was gratefully able to be evacuated.

Opposed by units that included two Waffen SS panzer divisions (albeit rebuilding) the British had mostly STEN guns, bolt-action No. 4 Enfield .303s, light mortars, and a smattering of anti-tank weapons such as 6-pdr (57mm) rifles and PIATs. Still, they held the line often without water, ammunition, and food for over a week.

Hard to image men with 9mm subguns facing down Tigers rushed to the battle directly from Germany via high-speed train Blitztransport.

British 1st Airborne Division takes cover in a shell hole, Arnhem, 17 September 1944 NAM. 2005-12-38-72

A paratrooper armed with a PIAT and Enfield rifles covers a road at Arnhem, 18 September 1944 Market Garden British NAM. 2005-12-38-50

British paratrooper with STEN defending Divisional Headquarters at the Hartenstein Hotel, Arnhem, on 23 September 1944 STEN Market Garden NAM. 2005-12-38-44

Pegasus flag: Private Morris of Acton, London, 1st Airborne Division’s HQ Hartenstein Hotel, 20 September 1944 Market Garden STEN NAM. 2005-12-38-28

Private J Connington of Selby, Yorkshire, in action with his Sten gun, 20 September 1944 Market Garden NAM. 2005-12-38-21

Troops dug in holding Brigade Headquarters, 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, Operation MARKET GARDEN, 18 September 1944 STEN NAM. 2005-12-38-49

The RAF and USAAF tried in vain to drop supplies to the embattled Paras but some 93 percent of the loads fell into German hands, who gratefully accepted them. They could use the 9mm ammo, as well as the food and medical supplies. For the weapons they didn’t have ammo for, spares were dropped.

The rundown:

Those 16,000 PIAT rounds would have been very welcome

By 25 September 1944, on the 9th day of the operation (remember, the Paras had been expected to be relieved after just 48 hours) only 2,163 British Airborne troops were able to be evacuated back across the Rhine. The British 1st Airborne went into Holland some 9,000 strong.

1 Abn Divisional commander, Maj. Gen. Roy Urquhart, who during the battle was largely out of touch with most of his units, in concluding his 52-page report on the operation in January 1945, said it was

“…not 100% a success and did not end quite as was intended. The losses were heavy but all ranks appreciate that the risks involved were reasonable. There is no doubt that all would willingly undertake another operation under similar conditions in the future.

We have no regrets. 

A Very British Salute, 75 years on

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British Lt. Jack Reynolds, aged 22, with LCPL George Parry in the background, gives the classic British two-finger salute to a reportedly grinning German Wehrmacht cameraman as he is captured near Arnhem, The Netherlands 19 September 1944, during the start of the worst chapter of Operation Market Garden, some 75 years ago today.

“Down the road, I saw a German chap with a camera and a huge grin on his face and I thought ‘what a bastard’ and gave him the V sign” Reynolds later said. (Photo: Bundesarchiv 497/3531A/34)

Reynolds, (SN 190738), joined the colors as a signaler in the Sussex and Surrey Yeomanry in 1939 and served in the Coastal Artillery during the Battle of Britain, exchanging fire with German big guns across the Channel in Dover. He later volunteered for the new glider-borne infantry with S coy, 2 Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment (“South Staffs”) being stood up in 1942, which became part of the 1st Airlanding Brigade in the 1st Airborne Division.

He earned a battlefield commission by 1943, leading the company Recce platoon as part of Simforce through Operation Ladbroke, an element of the Allied invasion of Sicily, where he picked up the MC.

His award: 

This officer with his party of nine men landed at 2225 hours some four miles south of the Battalion Rendezvous. He led his party throughout the night to Waterloo Bridge encountering stiff opposition on the way during which six of his nine men became casualties. On the way up he collected several stragglers, forming them into an organised group, eventually assisting in the defence of the Bridge, during which two more of his men were killed and another missing.

Throughout the fighting this officer set a very high example of courage and leadership in the face of heavy odds.

Leading S coy’s Mortar Platoon at Arnhem, and facing being overrun after two days of fighting after Allied armor failed to make it to the town in time to save them, Reynolds and his remaining men tried to break out westwards towards Oosterbeek and only took the reluctant decision to surrender after being pinned down and running out of ammunition and water.

The British 1st, 3rd, and 11th Parachute Battalions, along with the South Staffs, had made it to Arnhem but were so mauled that, when the survivors of the four units amalgamated near Oosterbeek on 20 September, they only counted about 450 combat effective members. The rest had been killed, captured, or were still holding out to the East in little pockets.

As for Reynolds, he spent the rest of the conflict in Germany as a prisoner of war, until his liberation in 1945. He was demobilized from the army in 1946.

Jack passed away last month, on 21 August, aged 97.

Another one of the Greatest Generation, lost

Vale, Lt. Reynolds.

And of course, remember the entire 1st (British) Airborne this week, who were sent epically “a bridge too far.”

For more on the battle, a great and amazingly comprehensive book about Market Garden is The Battle of Arnhem by Anthony Beevor.

I’ve spent the past several weeks digesting it and have no regrets.

 

Loading up to go see a bridge, 75 years ago today

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Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division loading aircraft for Holland, 17 Sep 1944:

Part of the epic First Allied Airborne Army, the 82nd, along with the 101st, the British 1st Airborne, as well as later Polish and other Allied units, was to make a daylight combat jump in what is still the largest airborne operation of all time, Market Garden.

SGT David Webster, E Co 2nd/506th PIR, 101st Airborne, “A Complete Wardrobe for the Holland Tourist, Sept 1944” 

Men of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment during Operation Market Garden, 17 September 1944. Note the patch has been obscured by censors. 

101st Airborne Division troops that landed behind German lines in Holland examine what is left of one of the gliders that cracked up while landing.  

The paratroopers and their follow-on glider-borne infantry/artillery were to clear and hold the myriad of bridges in the Eindhoven–Arnhem corridor across the Netherlands while the British XXX Corps, a mechanized unit, was to come up and quickly relieve and reinforce them.

Of course, not all goes as planned…

A bridge too far, with lots of STEN sticks

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kit-layout-of-a-lance-corporal-from-operation-market-garden-para-british-sten

In honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem, here is a kit layout for a British Para Lance Corporal from Operation Market Garden in 1944. Can you say STEN mags? Note the one for the gun, seven in the stick pouches, and eight in the two hip pouches for a total of 16 30-round mags or 480 rounds of ammo. When that ran out, well, there are always the two Mills bombs and the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife. The para who wore this would likely add a couple 50mm mortar bombs and a belt or two of .303 ammo for machine guns.

Image via the Parachute Regiment