Market Garden day 4

[Joris]

Yesterday after the initial success, Market Garden seems to have lost momentum. The Germans bombed Eindhoven last night, killing 227 people and effectively blocking the corridor and destroying valuable truckloads of fuel and ammunition. A few hours before that the Germans launched a heavy counter attack on the Son bridge which was only repulsed by heroic actions the paratroopers from the 101st Airborne.

 

In Nijmegen the waalbridges are still in German hands, the allies have almost all of Nijmegen under controll except the for the vitally important 2 bridges. At the roadbridge the Germans have made very strong fortifications at the Hunnerpark (the park at the foot of the bridge) which proved a tough nut to crack. At the railway bridge the story is about the same, a lot of Germans are dug in strong fortified positions at the foot of the bridge.

General Gavin (82nd Airbornes commander) has came up with a plan to cross the Waal river in boats and take the bridges from the north and the south side. The para's designated for this action, the 504th PIR, company H and I, have been on standby since yesterday evening but the boats still have not arrived. To the east of the Bridge the 508th PIR has been tasked to take Beek and the nearby hill to stop the Germant reinforcing the bridge.

Rumours have come in at headquarters just now that a strong German counter attack has begun in the area of Mook, this could threaten the vital bridge over the maas-waal canal at Heumen.

 

At Arnhem yesterday has proved to be a total disaster. Not only was the 1st Airborne not able to reach their buddies at the bridge, they were forced out of Arnhem by strong German counter attacks. In Oosterbeek, more by chance then by design, a perimeter was formed which has it's base at the Rhine and it's top at the railway line. For the moment this position seems to hold against the first German attacks.

 

The attack of the 4th parachute brigade has failed completely and the 4th bridge has virtually stopped to exist. The German positions (supported by tanks and heavy artillery) were to strong as wave after wave of paratroopers threw themselfs into the onslaught. After a strong counterattack the paras were forced to retreat to wards Oosterbeek but to make matter worse, the first Polish gliders started to land exactly in that area. The confusion could not have been worse and most of the polish heavy equipment has been lost. Only a small part of the brigade finally made it to relative safety of the perimeter.

 

To make matters even worse, all of the supplies dropped yesterday were dropped at Supply Dropzone "V" which was still in German hands. The only bright side is that General Urquhart who was missing since sunday evening has suddenly returned to headquarters.

 

At the bridge 2 Para still has the northern end of the bridge under control but the situation gets worse by the hour. Lack of food, water, sleep and above all ammunition is beginning to take it's toll on the troopers. The Germans start to use more and more tanks and use them to blast and burn the small perimeter to smithereens, room by room, floor by floor, house by house. It's not clear how long they can hold out but if XXXcorps does not show up soon it might be too late.

[Joris]

Bumpsytumpsy

 

FYI this is a statusreport for 8AM 20-09-1944.

[LeeEnfield]

Joris,

Cheers for these 'updates'.

 

Make's for interesting reading.

 

All the best,

 

Andy