30th September 1944 - ‘The whole of 50th Division was now tasked with guarding the bridge and bridgehead north of Nijmegen called the Island. The first serious German counter attack came when seventy tanks and the equivalent of an infantry division was unleashed on the division. 69th Brigade and 5th Guards Brigade were holding the line, while another attack was put in against 43rd Division across the Lower Rhine. The intensity of the attack on the 69th Brigade and the intensity of their defence can be judged by the fact that 124th Field Regiment Royal Artillery fired a total of 12,500 25-pound shells during the action and 'B' Company of the 2nd Cheshires fired 95,000 rounds of medium-machine-gun fire. For nearly two months static warfare was the norm on the Island. The forward troops rotated regularly. The great bridge at Nijmegen was under constant shellfire and journeys over it were made at full speed. The 50th Division casualties in the battles on the island in early October were severe: almost 900 including 12 officers and 111 other ranks killed in action, 30 officers and 611 other ranks wounded and another 114 missing.' (From TT 50th Infantry Division.)
Colonel Brownrigg describes 61st Recce’s role:
“After Arnhem we had a long spell of line-holding, as the war began to settle down for the winter. We had considerable variety, sometimes watching long stretches of river or very open ground, for which our mobility and communications were ideally suited; sometimes supporting our friends the American 101st Airborne Division: but eventually in November we had a series of ordinary infantry positions in the ‘Island’ between Arnhem and Nijmegen. By the time that floods drove us out of our forward positions with water washing the hubs of our vehicles, we had held the line on the extreme west of the ‘Island’, but it was a miserable place, and one’s heart sank every time one crossed the Nijmegen bridge going north. We started by taking over a battalion position, and finished by relieving a brigade*.” (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)
*battalions typically consist of 300-800 soldiers under a Lieutenant-Colonel. Brigades may consist of three to six battalions led by a Brigadier while a Division eg 50th (Northumbria) Division, has three or more brigades (ten to thirty thousand soldiers) under a Major-General.
A Corps is either a large military formation of two or more Divisions eg XXX Corps, or a professional branch of the armed forces such as Recce Corps.
Regiments are permanent (and often historical) units of various sizes although many British regiments have now combined to make larger regiments eg 'The Dorsets' were merged to become 'the Devonshire and Dorset light infantry regiment' in 1958, which in turn became part of the large regiment of ‘The Rifles’ in 2007.
Eric Brewer reveals that the squadron shifted to Mill (south of Graves and Nijmegen) on 30th September. “Out on recce saw the right Ark car that the O/C of a squadron got killed – his name was Major Alexander – also his grave.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)
Dick, in ‘B’ Squadron like Eric, would have been located east of Mill,
north-west of Boxmeer in the Netherlands
and west of the River Maas.
Eric had found some camera film in a German tank a week or two earlier and borrowed a camera, sending the film home to be developed at the beginning of October 1944.
Eric Brewer on half-track vehicle, in centre (photo courtesy of Derek Brewer who has copyright)
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