* The Battle of Arnhem was a famous Second World War battle fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek,Wolfheze, Driel and t...
* The Battle of Arnhem was a famous Second World War battle fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek,Wolfheze, Driel and the surrounding countryside from 17–26 September 1944. After sweeping through France and Belgium in the summer of 1944, the Allies were poised to enter the Netherlands. Field Marshal SirBernard Montgomery favoured a single thrust north over the branches of the Lower Rhineriver, allowing the British Second Army to bypass the German Siegfried Line and attack the Ruhr. To this end, the Allies launchedOperation Market Garden on 17 September.Airborne troops were dropped in the Netherlands to secure key bridges and towns along the Allied axis of advance. Farthest north, the British 1st Airborne Division, supported by men of the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade, landed at Arnhem to secure bridges across the Nederrijn. Initially expecting a walkover, British XXX Corps planned to reach the British airborne forces within two to three days. The British forces landed some distance from their objectives and were quickly hampered by unexpected resistance – especially from elements of the 9th SS and 10th SS Panzer Divisions. Only a small force was able to reach the Arnhem road bridge while the main body of the division was halted on theoutskirts of the city. Meanwhile, XXX Corps was unable to advance north as quickly as anticipated and failed to relieve the airborne troops according to schedule. After four days, the small British force at the bridge was overwhelmed and the rest of the division became trapped in a small pocket north of the river – where they could not be sufficiently reinforced by the Poles or XXX Corps when they arrived on the southern bank, nor by the RAF's resupply flights. After nine days of fighting, the shattered remains of the airborne forces were withdrawn inOperation Berlin. With no secure bridges over the Nederrijn, the Allies were unable to advance further and the front line stabilised south of Arnhem. The 1st Airborne Division had lost nearly three-quarters of its strength and did not see combat again... * Roy Urquhart (played by Sean Connery in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far) was one of the most charismatic characters in the upper ranks of the military in the Second World War. * Although head of the First Air Division Urquhart hated flying and feared air sickness. But he put his fears on hold in September 1944 as he prepared to lead his men in the biggest ever airborne operation. * Urquhart was to lead his 9,000 men from the First Air Division in a daring mission to take the last bridge at Arnhem. But the plan went horribly wrong. It didn’t help that the RAF refused to drop the men close to the river but six to eight miles away. Urquhart didn’t like the decision but said: “There was nothing else to do but to accept the risks and plan for them. I was left with no real choice.” 40,000 troops were dropped in Arnhem [ALAMY] Unluckily for the British forces two elite SS Panzer divisions were close by. Urquhart and his men gallantly held the end of the road bridge at Arnhem for four days but were overwhelmed by the German forces. On September 24 Urquhart sent his historic telegram to Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Browning at headquarters outlining the plight of his men. “Must warn you unless physical contact is made with us early 25 SEP consider it unlikely we can hold on long enough. All ranks now exhausted. Lack of rations, water, ammunition and weapons with high officer casualty rate. Even slight enemy offensive action may cause complete disintegration. If this happens all will be ordered to break towards bridgehead if anything rather than surrender. Have attempted our best and will do so as long as possible.” The telegram was marked “NOT for general distribution”. Overall 1,174 of Urquhart’s men were killed and 6,000 captured in the attempt to take the Arnhem bridge. At one point Urquhart and two other officers were forced to hide in the attic of a house of a Dutch family to evade capture by the enemy. . * General Bittrich was among a circle of young Reichswehr officers who appreciated the SS's military doctrine and took the opportunity to form the new service. He always described himself as convinced of large parts of the Nazi ideology, but felt disdain for his "incompetent" leaders and thought the regime's crimes would violate an officer's sense of honour. According to German historian Heinz Höhne, Bittrich vowed to support a plot against the Nazi regime on July 15, 1944 when he met Erwin Rommel and promised that he and his troops were at Rommel's disposal if the Field Marshal so requested, but like many he warned that Hitler had to be removed from power first. This condition was never met. Bittrich is also reported to have been the most sarcastic man in Germany. He was allegedly marked for death by Heinrich Himmler in 1945 as a result of the extremely unflattering comments he made about the Nazi leadership. In any case it is known that his superiors tried to replace him by force several times; during Operation Market Garden in 1944, Himmler had sent "Reichsarzt-SS" Karl Gebhardt to relieve Bittrich from his command and bring him back to Berlin. Following operation Market-Garden in 1944, Albert Speer visited the frontlines and had an opportunity to meet General Bittrich. Speer later wrote: Other visits (to the front) showed me that efforts were being made on the Western Front to arrange agreements with the enemy upon special problems. At Arnhem, I found General Bittrich of the Waffen-SS in a state of fury. The day before, his Second Tank Corps had virtually wiped out a British airborne division. During the fighting the general had made an arrangement permitting the enemy to run a field hospital behind the German lines. But party functionaries had taken it upon themselves to kill captured British and American pilots, and Bittrich looked like a liar. His violent denunciation of the party was all the more striking since it came from an SS general.[4] After his unit had been tasked with the defense of Vienna in spring 1945, Bittrich immediately pulled his troops out of the city to save it from destruction despite the order to hold Vienna "to the last breath…. Less
