1st Border moved to the south-west corner of LZ S and crossed the railway line to move quickly to their allotted posiitons. B Company moved off first as they had the furthest to go. The Company set off down Telefoonsweg towards Heelsum for the village of Renkum, where they were to block the main Utrecht road heading toward Oosterbeek and Arnhem. D Company accompnied them for a part of the way as far as the crossroads on the norht side of Heelsum to block the road from Bennekom. A Company remained in the north-west corner of DZ/LZ Z covering the railway line between there and LZ S. C Company were accross to the east, south-west of the village of Wolfhezen, to provide protection from a possible attack from the Arnehm area.
The Battalion position was quiet for the night, for which the men were thankful, being able to get a meal and some rest. The Dutch in the vicinity kept their heads well down, no doubt wondering, as the Borderers were, what the following day would bring. Over towards Arnhem the sounds of firing could occasionally be heard and a red glow could be seen in the sky.
The main body of the Borderers had flown from broadwell Airfield in 44 Horsas piloted by G Squadron of the Glider Pilot Regiment and towed by Dakotas of 512 and 575 Squadrons RAF. C Company and 24 Mortar Platoon (jeeps) were to be lifted from Bakehill Farm in 12 Horsas piloted by F Squadron GPR and towed by C47’s of 437 Squadron RCAF. The Battalion’s two Bren carriers to be flown in one Hamilcar from Tarant Rushton. 19 Platoon D Company was to fly out on the second lift on the following day, 18th September, from Down Ampney, together with five glider loads of the transport Platoon and the Battalion Reserve of ammunition; they were in Horsa gliders piloted by E Squadron Glider pilot Regiment and towed by c47’s of 48 Squadron RAF.
Monday dawned warm and bright. Everyone stood to but there was no real enemy activity. Tea was brewed and a meal eaten from the rations the men had with them. The weather for te second lift was lookinng good. In a few hours time the Battalion would be moving from its present positions to form the outer perimeter around Arnhem itself.
The Germans opposing 1 Border from the west were part of ‘Kampfgruppe Tettau’, one of the hastily formed groups comprising a variety of units that would take on the British. To the north of the Ede-Arnhem railway line was Helle’s Dutch SS Sourveillance Battalion 3, which had already received a bloody nose from 7 King’s Own Scottish Borderers (7 KOSB) to the north on the previous day. It was supported by SS-Battalion Eberwein. In the center was Flieghorst Battalion 2 ( aLuftwaffe unit converted to infantry), which would link the northern units with SS Battalion Schultz and Naval Manning Battalion 10, which had been reinforced by men from two other similar units. In reserve was 184 Artillery Regimetn fighting as infantry.
At about 07.00hrs it was observed that the enemy had established some sort of position in one of the houses on the northern side of the main road about 200 yards immediately opposite B Company. It was quite obvious that they were ignorant of the location of the Borderers. Lt Joe Hardy explained the situation to Battalion HQ over the land line laid the previous evening. Having explained that B Company was surrounded, the curt response was ‘Fight your way out!’
A burst of fire from two Bren guns at a motorcycle which had turned up at the German position at the house opposite (which had encouraged German soldiers to pour out, no doubt wanting to know what was going) was the signal for pandemonium to break loose! It took a while for the Germans to re-organise themselves, but when they did start to return fire, it was obvious that there was a large number of them in the area. A number of fire-fights and minor attacks took place all round C Company perimeter. Two prisoners were killed by a burst of enemy fire.
The sound of breaking glass could be heard as the Germans broke windows to give firing positons…Things became hectic as the enemy opened fire on them and appeared to bring up reinforcements. An attack from the direction of the paper-mill to the west was repulsed with heavy losses caused by Vickers and 3-inch mortars.
However, shortly afterwards a sniper was firing on the vickers section in the hay-loft. his first shot hit the tripod on the gun and split it in two, as two members of the gun team were hit, one in the face and his companion in the shoulder.
Under sniper fire the gun team managed to remove the gun and equipment out of the loft over the roof of the house. With one box of ammunition still to retrieve, a tracer round set fire to the loft. The team then realized there were three horses in the stable beneath, but they were unable to get to them as the stable-door was on the side of the building facing the sniper. Sadly the horses were burned to death. Enemy mortar and artillery rounds ranged in, using the smoke from the burning buildings as an excellent marker.
After some initial succes it became apparent tha the Company was heavily out-numbered and the decision was taken to pull back.
Lt Ted Newport of S Company remained with one of his guns, ‘Cambrai’, whose detachment was in D Company’s position near the crossroads. The detachment dug themselves in and cammed-up, and as they were about to grab a bite to eat, a German tank appeared at the edge of the wood to the right of the Company position, followed by what was estimated to be a Company of enemy. There was a lively engagement in which Newport joined in by turning a Bren gun on about twenty Germans advancing towards his positons - they went to ground after loosing some men. They then attempted to have a crack at the tank, but it retreated after firing one round. The team considered it a rehearsal for what was to come - the tank was probably a French Renault Char B of Tank Company 224.
The anti-tank guns carried a supply of HE rounds, but most of the ammunition was armour-piercing. The main supply was carrieed in the towing jeep with two spare rounds on the inside of the gun shield.
The anti-tank teams were not a little agrieved back in the Uk to be issued with new ammunition called ‘Sabot’. Why? One might ask. This was solid shot of high-quality tungsten encased in a hard plastic, the shot being somewhat smaller than the bore of the gun. When the shot was fired bits of plastic fell away and the velocity was increased by some 35 per cent. The trouble was that the bits of plastic falling away were often mistaken by the gun-layer for the fall of shot, and corrections were made with totally inaccurate results. The gun-teams had been issued with the ammunition a week before Arnhem and had only one day on the ranges to practise with it. The gun-layers had reached a high degree of efficiency with the old ammuniton and to send them to war with this new ammuntion, they all believed, was an error of judgement.
At about 11.00 hrs. the LZ’s and DZ’ were attacked by 30 ME 109 fighters, which flew over and machine-gunned the area. A Company suffered casualties because the men thought they were their own aircraft. Seven men were killed and a further fourteen were injured. Two of the aircraft were brought down by small-arms fire.
Both A and B Companies came under intermittent fire during the morning as the enemy fired at anything that moved on the DZ and LZ.
The second lift, which had been expected to arrive during the morning, eventually came in at about 15.00hrs. The delay was caused by fog in England.
As the second lift came in, there was increased enemy activity and LZ Z came under fire from MG 34’s in the area fo ‘Laura’ in the south east of D Company’s position; the Vickers and mortars with C Company managed to silence much of this. Nevertheless there were some casualties among the incoming troops. All the Battalion glider loads that were due on the second lift, together with those that had failed to arrive with the first lift, with the exception of that of the C.O. Lt Col Haddon.
Captain Barry Ingham of B Company, saw a large Hamilcar glider landing on fire
“Here they come. Christ! Why don’t they throw the kitchen sink at them? Six hours late and now they’ve bought it. I’ve never seen a Hamilcar in flames before. It’s going into those trees. Over and over and over, three somersaults with two Bren carriers inside.”
A platoon from A Company moved out, leading the battalion to its new positions around Arnhem. The platoon moved accross a large field to some woods, but forty yards from the woods one of the men was dropped by a sniper. The platoon moved forward again, but ten yards further on they met with heavy fire from all along the edge of the wood. Sgt Ker, the platoon sergeant of the leading platoon, could see a couple of badly sited MG 34’s in front of him. He leapt up to fire his sten, but it jammed, so with a 36 grenade in each hand he ran shouting a the guns and the crews and threw both grenades, killing the crews and putting the guns out of action. The Company were held up for about an hour in this posiiton, out in the open without any cover, and every move meant that mortar fire would be brought down on them. Eventually the firing died down, and by now it was becoming quite dark. The Company were ordered to reform on a track at the edge of the field, where a quick check revealed only one casualty with some close shaves.
Borders crashed gliders and soldiers defending Oosterbeek.
The airborne troops seen marching along the road from Oosterbeek to Arnhem, are the South Staffs.
Those airborne troops seen dug-in with walkie-talkie, Vickers and mortars, are Borderers.
your informations about the landing are very interesting!
My Association, Impavidus, collect info about this argoments, you can find some photos on our web site. if we can be of some help about your memories please do not exsitate to conctact me!!
Thank you.
The Ponte Grande Bridge Battle was one of the most important during the Siracusa’s landing. Still now is possible to see the pillboxes near the old bridge, near anapo river.
Thank you, Impavidus. Some, late freinds of mine took part in Operation Huskey, and had mixed experiences of success and failure. Not least, being fired upon by allied ships and being ditched into the sea by their tugs.
I’ll post more on this when I have the time to do it justice.
OK! I’ll be glad to know more… if you like, for the moment, you will find more info and some experiences of other veterans in our own web site.
To 32 Bravo,
Thanks for all your posts on Operation Husky. I am fascinated and intrigued with the info above on Glider 57…most of which corresponds with an entry in my father’s diary. He was an RAF glider pilot in the operation, his diary recording that he had on board " Lt Col Britten 1st Borders as well as Adj, M.O, Sigs Offr+ 4 sigs. Inf Offr+3 Inf and a 2nd Pilot F/O Ran or Rau (writing obscure) USAAF". However my father’s name is not Lougham but he was a Lt at that time. He does not record the number of his glider. I am also researching the truth why his glider ditched in the ocean 300 metres offshore. Most of the rest of Lt.J Hardy’s report corresponds with my father’s account. Do you have access to any more info on this operation? Thanks Tooks
To Impavidus,
Thanks for your contribution and photos of Syracuse. Do you know where the caves are which British soldiers and pilots sheltered in at Capo Murro di Porco? Are these shown in the photographs which you have already contributed? Thanks again. Tooks
For further info conctact me on the web site or on fb. Well be a pleasure for me to help you.
Regards
Roberto
Thanks for your quick reply Roberto/Impavidus. Do you mean this web site or are you referring to another?
Hi www.impavidus.it we are also on fb, next mounth I will guide the son of a soldier that died here during the landing '43. We are also on fb Associazione Impavidus, and there is a video on Utube.
Regards
Roberto,
Thanks for your help. Maybe I will get to Sicily one day. If so I will contact you or your association.
ciao
Tooks