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Tuesday, September 19th 1944
D+2
Keep in mind, the operation is now more than a day and a half behind schedule.
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Early morning: excitement at Son as the sappers of the 14th Field Squadron, Royal Engineers finish the Bailey bridge over the Wilhelemina Canal. [Bailey bridge = a portable, pre-fabricated military bridge] [this is a representation of a Bailey bridge]
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An enormous convoy of XXX Corps vehicles, held up all night with the bridge out, comes to life and begins crossing the Bailey Bridge. The column starts moving out at a good pace [speed was always essential here]
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The 2+ mile column passes through the @101stAASLTDIV’s sector, moving through Son, St. Oedenrode, Eerde, Veghel, and Uden. The Screaming Eagles, who’d been waiting 2 days, cheer on their British brothers as they pass.
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Thanks to the 82nd securing the route, XXX Corps’ advance to Nijmegen is smooth. Cheering Dutch crowds greet their liberators.
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The Sherman Firefly is one of the standard tanks used by the British XXX Corps during Market Garden. It's based on the US M4 Sherman, but fitted with the powerful 3-inch (76.2 mm) caliber British 17-pounder anti-tank gun as its main weapon. #TankTwitter
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~8:30 AM: XXX Corps links up with the 82nd Airborne South of the First Airborne Division.
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Just outside Overasselt, Gavin and Browning meet w/ leaders from XXX Corps. [This pic of Gavin & Browning is NOT from that meeting]. Browning reveals that he knows little about the 1st Airborne Division’s situation at Arnhem [the 1st Airborne were having comms problems]
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The XXX Corps leaders are surprised to learn that the Airborne troops hadn’t captured either the rail bridge or the road bridge as planned. The Brits expected to sweep through a secured bridge. [that’s the XXX Corps insignia]
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Browning: “The Nijmegen bridge must be taken today – at the latest tomorrow.” Gavin knows this is his responsibility.
[this is Browning, but not on Sep 19, 1944]
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Meanwhile, to the South a battle at Best: Lieutenant Ed Wierzbowski’s platoon from the 502nd PIR, surrounded the night prior near the canal, remains cut off and behind enemy lines. As a thick morning mist hung heavy, the platoon is surrounded & low on ammo.
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502nd’s Private First Class Joe Mann was wounded four times the night prior – shot once through each arm and once through each shoulder. He mans his trench despite his arms immobilized in slings.
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A potato masher grenade [stielhandgranate] lands about a foot from Mann. He immediately yelled “Grenade!” and threw his body on the grenade, covering it with his back.
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Mann turns to Lt. Wierzbowski: “Lieutenant, my back’s gone” then dies.
By absorbing the grenade, Mann saved his fellow paratroopers.
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Mann earned the Medal of Honor, not only for jumping on the grenade, but also for fighting wounded the night prior.
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Wierzbowski’s platoon surrenders. Unbeknownst to the platoon, 101st commander General Maxwell Taylor launches a massive attack to clear the Germans from Best.
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The 101st captures ~ 1,500 German Soldiers and liberates Wierzbowksi’s men shortly after their surrender.
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Pic: 101st troops with Dutch locals at Best.
Shift in scene: Meanwhile, 30 miles N of Son, the 505th PIR (82nd Airborne) and British Grenadier Guardsmen spent much of the day organizing a push for the Nijmegen bridges.
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A column led by Brit Captain John Neville was to seize the rail bridge while a column led by 2-505 commander Lieutenant Colonel Ben Vandervoort [pictured] was to take the Njimegen road bridge.
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Captain Arie “Harry” Besterbreurje, Royal Netherlands Army, selects several Dutch resistance fighters as guides for the two columns.
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Vandervoort’s column crawls along slowly through urban roads, arriving at the road bridge without knowledge of the enemy force strength in the city.
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The road bridge is defended by 500 – 700 SS men dug in with machine guns and mortars & supported by anti-tank guns, armor, and artillery.
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After arriving in the city, the 505th defends against German counterattacks between Mook and Groesbeek. They hold out but by day’s end are in dire need of reinforcements.
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Captain Neville’s column, to the west, rolled along Oude Heselaan. Dutch Families offered the dismounts coffee and greetings on their way through town.
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On approach to the rail bridge, Neville’s force of 5 tanks, 3 carriers, and a company of infantry was overmatched by an entire Kampfgruppe [~1k troops deployed in the blocks leading to the bridge]
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Like Vandervoort, Neville was in a fight. Both columns were engaged in urban combat. A premise of OMG - that the German forces were through after Normandy – was violently disproven. [this German anti-tank gun was used in the fighting]
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Along some of the blocks, the SS men painted defiant, militant messages on walls. “We Trust the Führer” and “Death to the Murders of Our Fatherland.” The fight raged on.
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By night: the hard afternoon of urban combat spread out the 505 and Grenadier Guardsmen among the various blocks, diluting their combat power. Gavin orders both columns to halt for the night to regroup the next morning.
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The effort to seize the Nijmegen rail and road bridges had failed. This was potentially catastrophic to the plan.
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A few miles from the fighting at Nijmegen: Gavin goes to Horrock’s [remember, he commands 30 Corps] command post in a Malden school house. There he meets Browning and Horrocks. [Malden is marked on this map, W. of Groesbeek]
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The leaders remark that Urquhart’s 1st Airborne Division is in real trouble at Arnhem & could only hold out another 2 days. They must, they agree, get to the other side of the Waal and get to Arnhem immediately.
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Gavin presents an idea he’d been developing throughout the afternoon: double envelopment of the bridge. Seize both ends of both bridges at once, outflank the Germans and prevent them from blowing the bridge.
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The plan is wild: put the 504th PIR in boats, have the “Devils in Baggy Pants” assault across the river, and take the bridges from the north.
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Really, there was little else Gavin could think of. The problem: he had no boats. Horrocks [pictured] knew his corps had 33 boats in trucks somewhere in their long column and would retrieve them ASAP.
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All the generals agree on the plan. The river crossing will go the next day, Wednesday, September 20th.
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One of the most dramatic moments in WWII is set in motion.
FINAL:
Night: the sky over Eindhoven lit up with flares from a German Luftwaffe bombing raid which killed more than 230 Dutch citizens.
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