“Monty stood up in his car,
Having espied from afar
‘Chutes in trees and gliders wrecked,
Arnhem: he gave cigarettes.”
(From ‘Destination Berlin’ by Major Frank Harding MC, in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)
On 25th September Eric Brewer recorded “Monty and Eisenhower also Chief of the Airborne ('Boy' Browning) stopped and spoke to us today; asked if we were getting our food OK, also if there were any complaints. He gave us 2,500 fags between us and also told us we were being transferred from being called the 61st recce to the 50th.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)
Don Aiken’s account of 61st Recce and Market Garden mentions a similar incident:
“17th September - Advance on left flank of 30 Corps to Mol and Valkenswald
18th September - Hasselt and Eindhoven (link up with US 101st Airborne)
19th September - Grave (link up with US 82nd Airborne)
20th September - Cross Nijmegen Bridge over the River Waal
22nd September - Elst
24th September - South bank of Rhine (west of Arnhem)
Until 17th October - Continuous patrols on "Island" (between Arnhem and Nijmegen)
September 1944
It had been decided to strike up through Holland on a narrow front in an attempt to seize a corridor which would reach over the Rhine and into Germany; opening up the way to Berlin.
Airborne Troops were dropped on a line up through Holland with the objective of capturing all the bridges on the line of advance.
XXX Corps would quickly create the corridor and take over from the airborne troops. The first line of smaller bridges was to be captured by the US Airborne; and the last one (at Arnhem) was to be taken by the British Airborne Troops.
Initially everything went quite well. The advance progressed rapidly; and it was during this time, whilst we were moving up behind the Guards Armoured Division, and in a period when our advance had been cut off by a German attack, that Monty stopped his staff-car, had a few words with us and handed out some packets of fags.
Very welcome !
In a few days XXX Corps had arrived at Nijmegen and captured the large bridge over the Waal. When we arrived at Nijmegen the battle for Arnhem, a few miles up the road, was taking place. This was doomed to failure, as history knows, and I won't add to it here.
The result was that the whole advance bogged down and, with the approaching winter, conditions would soon be unfit to make a further assault to cross the Rhine. We took up various defensive positions along the perimeter of our territory and a few minor successes were achieved up and down the line but it became obvious that we weren't going anywhere for a while.”
(Extract republished from 'From the Breakout to the Rhine' by kind permission of Don Aiken)
Sandy Handley recalled:
“We eventually went over Nijmegen Bridge. By that time the airborne drop had turned out very badly, so many casualties.”
(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)
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