For educational purposes
This is the story of 'Operation Market-Garden', the code name of the offensive which was supposed to bring the Allies victory before the end of 1944.
Despite the bravery of the Allied troops, the attack was a costly failure... the war would not be over by Christmas.
Included is expert analysis by Lloyd Clark and Colonel Bob Kershaw of the parachute regiment.
This is the story of 'Operation Market-Garden', the code name of the offensive which was supposed to bring the Allies victory before the end of 1944.
Despite the bravery of the Allied troops, the attack was a costly failure... the war would not be over by Christmas.
Included is expert analysis by Lloyd Clark and Colonel Bob Kershaw of the parachute regiment.
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LearningTranscript
00:00This is the site of one of the most remarkable military operations of the Second World War.
00:14A bold attempt by the Allies to finish the war early, by combining a ground offensive
00:20with the biggest landing of airborne troops ever seen.
00:27The operation failed.
00:32Critical errors were made, both in planning and in execution.
00:40Remarkable courage was displayed by the Allied troops here in Arnhem, and at this one bridge
00:45in particular.
00:49Ultimately, it would not be enough.
01:19In the
01:45late summer of 1944, Germany was in full retreat on the Western Front.
01:52The conquest of Normandy and the liberation of Paris seemed to herald the imminent defeat
01:57of Hitler.
02:03By early September, Allied troops were sweeping forward in three enormous army groups.
02:10Army Group 6, under General Jacob Davies, Army Group 12, commanded by General Omar Bradley,
02:17which included the famous Third Army of George Patton, and Army Group 21, commanded by Field
02:25Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery.
02:29Victory seemed assured, but the Allies knew that a direct thrust into Germany's heartland
02:35would be risky.
02:37The western frontier of the Reich was defended by the considerable defensive fortifications
02:42of the Siegfried Line.
02:45In addition, the sheer size of the Allied battlefront was now causing problems.
02:51To take 21st Army Group, Montgomery's Army Group, as an example, they were advancing
02:56by in late August, early September, on average about 50 miles a day.
03:01And now what you have there is an army group advancing at very great speed, with their
03:07logistics stretching right the way back to the Normandy beaches, about 300 miles.
03:12And in terms of supplies, that meant every single bullet, every piece of uniform, every
03:16piece of equipment, and above all, the fuel had to be drawn all the way along these tremendously
03:23stretched, overstretched supply lines.
03:26So from the start, the Allies were beginning to encounter some severe difficulties.
03:32Montgomery was not the only Allied leader to appreciate the difficulty of fighting on
03:36such a broad front, but his plan to solve the difficulty was remarkable.
03:43Montgomery had always been regarded as a cautious commander, but the strategy he now suggested
03:49was radical and unprecedented.
03:52He proposed that a British corps of troops should sweep upwards from the Dutch border
03:57into occupied territory to the west of the secret line.
04:01Having passed this so-called West Wall, the corps could then turn right and attack the
04:06heartland of Germany itself.
04:11The troops fighting on the ground would be supported by three further divisions.
04:17These would arrive simultaneously from the air and secure a corridor through which the
04:21ground corps could advance in safety.
04:25This airborne component, of approximately 35,000 men, was named Operation Market.
04:33At the same time, Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks would lead north his XXX Corps along
04:39the so-called Club Route.
04:42This part of the operation was codenamed Garden, and the whole enterprise was thus codenamed
04:49Operation Market Garden.
04:52If Montgomery's strategy did succeed, it could mean a speedy end to the war, perhaps even
04:59by Christmas.
05:01No one could dispute the potential prize on offer, but many senior figures had grave concerns
05:07about Montgomery's plan.
05:09I think that there were very many commanders that were anxious, concerned about the Allied
05:15plan for Market Garden.
05:16Some of them were intelligence officers, perhaps the most famous being Major Brian Urquhart,
05:22and he thought that there were great problems with the strength of the Germans that were
05:27in and around the Arnhem area.
05:29They could be justified after the enormous success the Allies had had in Normandy, in
05:34thinking that really the German army was already beaten, the job had been done, but as the Germans
05:39were to demonstrate both on the eastern front and on the western front, this was not an
05:45army which would lie down easily.
05:51Ultimately the decision would rest with Eisenhower and his political masters.
05:56The prize was such that although the risks were great, ultimately he knew that he had
06:02to take the gamble and proceed with Operation Market Garden, because if they had succeeded
06:07with that, it would certainly have brought about a catastrophic collapse in the German
06:12war effort.
06:13So it was worth it in that risk, and Eisenhower eventually acceded to that.
06:18He himself wanted to see as quick an end to the war in Europe as possible with as few
06:23Allied casualties, especially American casualties, as possible.
06:30On Sunday the 10th of September, the decision was made to implement Montgomery's proposal.
06:38On the same day, the British Armoured Guards Division captured this canal bridge near
06:43to the Belgium-Holland border.
06:46Known as Joe's Bridge, this would be the starting point for the operation which would
06:52begin just seven days later.
06:57The key to Operation Market Garden were the bridges located within the corridor.
07:03Five of these were strategically essential, and their capture was the responsibility of
07:07the three Airborne Divisions.
07:10The American 101st Airborne Division was allocated the area around Eindhoven.
07:18Their mission was to capture the Wilhelmina and Zeitwillemswaad canal bridges.
07:25Further north, Brigadier General James Gavin would lead his 82nd Airborne Division to take
07:31the river bridges at Grave and at Nijmegen.
07:35The final bridge would be the responsibility of the British 1st Airborne Division, together
07:41with the Polish Parachute Brigade, part of the newly formed 1st Airborne Corps.
07:47Theirs was the bridge at Arnhem.
07:52Major General Stanislaw Sosobowski harboured grave doubts about the task that lay ahead.
07:58Significantly, his Polish Parachute Brigade would not be launched on the first day of
08:04the operation.
08:06A shortage of transport aircraft meant that 1st Airborne Corps would be deployed over
08:11three successive days, with Sosobowski's men arriving last.
08:16A crucial element of airborne landings is surprise.
08:22You should take people by surprise and turn up when and where they least expect it.
08:27To bring in reinforcements in dribs and drabs meant that if it was not successful, completely
08:32successful on the first day, there was a danger that the air defences would go stronger
08:38as the second and third wave came in, and more importantly, the enemy on the ground
08:42would be aware that there were likely to be other landings and would be prepared for those.
08:47In addition, of course, over three days you've got the vagaries of the weather.
08:51Having been committed, it is quite conceivable that you will not be able to reinforce at
08:56the main point of effort, and in fact this happened.
09:01Those first British troops would not be landing at Arnhem, or even next to it.
09:07Parachutists and gliders need a large open area with firm ground that are clear from
09:13as many obstacles as is possible.
09:15Now the only possible opportunity for the 1st British Airborne Division to land in an
09:20area like that was to choose landing areas that were some 8 miles from the centre of
09:26Arnhem and their major objective.
09:29Landing 8 miles away from the bridge was a very difficult undertaking for troops who
09:35after all would be advancing on foot.
09:37They had very few vehicles and many of those vehicles in the event did go astray.
09:42So the actual choice of the site I suppose would be questionable because of its distance
09:46from the town of Arnhem.
09:49The Germans themselves felt in a post-operational report that came out within days of the landings
09:55that actually the British were quite cunning in dropping where they did.
10:00They were some distance away from the drop zone and they were effectively screened by
10:04the line of trees which lied to the west of Arnhem.
10:07The Germans could not then decide or calculate how strong the landings were.
10:14They could not precisely locate where the Allies had landed, and of course put those
10:19two factors together they didn't really appreciate what the likely objective was.
10:25Late in the evening of Saturday, September 16th 1944, 200 British Lancaster bombers took
10:32off on raids designed to soften up the German defences in Holland.
10:37The following morning, some 800 American Flying Fortress bombers joined the attack.
10:44Meanwhile in England, 22 airfields were a hive of activity as the American and British
10:51troops boarded their planes and gliders.
10:54The briefing, as always, I think was very, very good.
10:59We understood the plan, we knew what it was all about, and we knew the ultimate objective
11:06stood which was to circle around and go into the Ruhr with the XXX Corps when they arrived.
11:13The weather was good, as predicted, and at 0930 the first Skytrain glider towers took
11:21off, followed by the Dakota paratroop carriers.
11:26In the air, two columns of aircraft formed up over the English towns of March and Hatfield.
11:33Each then set off on a predetermined route to Holland.
11:37It was a remarkable sight.
11:40Each column of aircraft was 94 miles long and 3 miles wide.
11:47Over 1,000 trooper carriers were joined by over 500 tug-pulled gliders, a total of over
11:542,000 aircraft.
11:56We'd been fed on success from the airborne landings on D-Day and we were reasonably confident,
12:05especially then, which after all, they were talking about the war being over by Christmas,
12:10this was September, and I think everyone was quite happy and very, very confident,
12:17over-confident going in.
12:19According to our way of thinking, there was no reason why it shouldn't be a success.
12:25Fighter support was also substantial, 371 British Spitfires, Tempests and Mosquitoes
12:33and 548 American Thunderbolts, Lightnings and Mustangs.
12:39Once we were airborne, things went reasonably well until we were running in over the canals
12:47on the continent, where the Germans had a certain number of barges with anti-aircraft
12:52guns on.
12:53We were flying fairly low at about 1,500 foot, 2,000 foot, so there was a certain amount
13:00of confusion by the anti-aircraft fire coming up amongst the stream of aircraft.
13:06In the early afternoon, the gliders began to land and the paratroopers began to descend
13:12into their strategic drop zones.
13:15Here we are on Drop Zone X, where the 1st Parachute Brigade and the Brigadier Lethbury
13:22landed, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions.
13:28They didn't know what to expect, a hairy experience, but there were hardly any Germans here.
13:33So the landings went, as they say, like an exercise.
13:39Operation Market had begun well.
13:44This Allied deployment for Market Garden was totally unprecedented.
13:47We've got to remember, and perhaps few people do remember this, that airborne warfare was
13:51in its very earliest years.
13:54The British and the Americans had been toying and playing with the airborne concept for
13:58a few years, but really the idea had only been taken up by the Germans, the Italians
14:03and the Russians, early in the war, and they'd had some disasters.
14:07From the German perspective, what one should really realise is that this drop occurred
14:11in its rear combat zone.
14:14Where these troops were stationed and were suddenly faced with this unexpected enemy,
14:19it took some two hours' drive to move from where they were to the front line.
14:24So they were not anticipating in any shape or form a drop of that magnitude on their
14:30positions.
14:32At 1400 hours, the battle began in earnest, as Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks ordered
14:39a huge artillery barrage here at Joe's Bridge, opening the way to Arnhem.
14:48At 2.35, Cromwell tanks of the Armoured Guards Division began their journey north, supported
14:55by a brigade of infantry on the sides of the road.
14:58To the north, the American troops of 101st Airborne Division were quickly into action,
15:05capturing the Zeit-Wilhelmswade Canal Bridge, and forcing the Germans to blow the nearby
15:10Wilhelmina Bridge at Sonn.
15:13Meanwhile, James Gavin's 82nd Airborne were able to capture the Grave Road Bridge, and
15:19now prepared to take the giant bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen.
15:26This would be a far more difficult objective.
15:29It would take the Allies three days to take this half-mile structure.
15:35On the second day of the operation, men from the 508th Parachute Infantry were close to
15:41capturing it on no less than three occasions.
15:45On each occasion, they were beaten back.
15:50Further north still, the British 1st Airborne Division were also keen to pursue their objectives
15:56but soon found themselves hampered.
16:00During the flight from England, a number of gliders were lost through broken tow ropes.
16:06Some of these craft had contained precious motor vehicles.
16:11Their loss would greatly hamper British mobility in the race to Arnhem Bridge.
16:17Perversely, the local civilian population also became a problem when, delighted at their
16:24apparent liberation, they rushed out of their homes to greet the British troops, offering
16:29them food, drink and other gifts.
16:33It was entirely understandable, but it served only to slow the British advance.
16:40Many of the maps supplied to the paratroopers were also inadequate, and it was quickly apparent
16:46that there were serious faults with the radios supplied.
16:50Either they failed to work at all, or their range was feeble and their reception poor.
16:55There were a great number of technical problems with the radios at Arnhem, and those radios
17:01that were used had been shown to be unreliable before the Battle of Arnhem.
17:07I think a likely reason for the faults was the fact that there had been so many aborted
17:13airborne operations prior to this one, it could well have been that many of those radios
17:19had not had their batteries replenished, and when the drop occurred for real, to their
17:24horror, people were probably discovering that they were having battery problems rather than
17:29straight radio problems.
17:31Which meant that at vital times during the battle, commanders couldn't communicate forward,
17:36sideways, rearwards, or to their headquarters back in England.
17:41And this meant that the plan lacked the coordination that it initially had.
17:49On the morning of the 17th of September, a senior German officer sat in his headquarters
17:54here at the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek, just three miles west of Arnhem Bridge.
18:03The soldier concerned was Field Marshal Walter Model.
18:08Field Marshal Model, the German, and his staff was in this building, and when the British
18:16landed, they fled, and they left the tables laid out for lunch with smoked eel and salmon
18:24and things we hadn't seen for years.
18:28And the British tucked in, but they were chased out by their commanding officers.
18:33They decided to stay here for the night only, and then go on to Arnhem, but the next morning
18:38it was too late and they couldn't get through.
18:41So this became the headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division until the 25th.
18:47The British troops were led to believe that the Arnhem area would be only lightly defended.
18:53Children, invalids, old men on bicycles.
18:58The exact opposite would prove to be the case.
19:02Field Marshal Model quickly convened a meeting with his colleague, Willi Bittrich.
19:09Willi Bittrich knew exactly the forces that he had available just a few miles to the north
19:14and east of the Arnhem area.
19:17This was no ramshackle army.
19:19Withdrawn after the fighting in Normandy, it was the 8th and 9th SS Panzer Divisions.
19:27Dutch intelligence had warned the British that panzers were situated in the region.
19:32The warnings were ignored.
19:34The consequences were severe.
19:37The amount of intelligence that was flowing into various headquarters during this rush
19:42out of the Normandy beachheads through to Berlin was astronomical, and it would have
19:47been very difficult to assimilate, to collate, to disseminate all of that information.
19:53But what is true is that the Allies knew exactly what they would be facing in Arnhem.
19:59I suppose what took them by surprise was just how quickly the Germans had been able to refit
20:05and re-equipped two panzer divisions in particular, the 8th and 9th SS Panzer Divisions, which
20:12were full of what you would call, I suppose, fanatics.
20:15They were troops who were dedicated to the Nazi cause, and these were the men who were
20:19to demonstrate that they were by no means a beaten enemy.
20:25Three hours after the British began to land, German defensive strategy was in place.
20:31Bittrich dispatched his 9th Panzer Division towards Arnhem, and his 10th towards Nijmegen.
20:39Troops already in the Arnhem area were put on battle alert, including three infantry
20:44battalions and two SS depot battalions under the command of Major Sepp Kraft.
20:53This gifted soldier quickly deployed his troops into defensive positions around Arnhem, knowing
20:59full well that the panzers would soon arrive to take up the fight.
21:04By contrast, the nearest British heavy armour was over 50 miles to the south.
21:11The British paratroopers would not have an easy ride, and their chances of success were
21:16soon compromised further.
21:20Shortly after the insertion of the first airborne wave, one of the probably American Waco gliders
21:25was shot down, and one of Student's feldwebels, a senior NCO, found, apparently, a copy of
21:32the orders for Operation Market Garden.
21:34And from that point onwards, although the Allies don't know it, the Germans are acutely
21:40aware of every single move that's about to be made.
21:43It's a very complex operation, and so many things are already in chain, that even had
21:48the Allies the inkling that the plans had fallen to the Germans, it's very doubtful
21:52whether they would actually be able to stop the operation anyway.
21:57The men of the 1st British Parachute Brigade were unaware of the true strength of their
22:02enemy as they set off towards Arnhem Bridge just before four o'clock that afternoon.
22:09But they were soon to find out.
22:12In command was Brigadier Gerald Lathbury, with his divisional commander Roy Urquhart
22:18also in attendance.
22:20Three battalions of the Parachute Regiment were now engaged, taking three separate routes.
22:26The Battle of Arnhem was underway, and the speed of the British advance would be vital.
22:35North of Wolfheser, Lieutenant-Colonel David Doby of the 1st Battalion soon discovered
22:41that the German defences were considerable.
22:44Soldiers were deployed alongside keen infantrymen, who were certainly not old men on bicycles.
22:51These were the so-called Verruckter Helmets, or Crazy Helmets.
22:56These were people who'd lost their families, probably in Eastern Prussia, or as a result
23:02of the bombing, so there was nothing left for them to live for after the war.
23:08So these people fought as fanatics.
23:10They had nothing to look forward to, and they had a sort of slogan which roughly translated
23:17means, enjoy the war while you can, because the peace is going to be terrible.
23:22One para's losses were high, and Doby was forced to halt in the woods with no chance
23:28of reaching the bridge that day.
23:33To the south, Lieutenant-Colonel Fitch encountered similar difficulties leading the 3rd Battalion,
23:41despite their success in killing Arnhem's German Commandant, General Cussen.
23:47Shortly afterwards, they too were stopped by mortar fire.
23:52Only the 2nd Battalion was able to make significant progress, as the streets of Arnhem resounded
23:58with the impact of the battle.
24:00Fighting is not easy, because if you go down a main route, and then you get mortared and
24:07shelled at the same time, the soldiers tend to disperse either side, and it becomes a
24:13sort of mix-up.
24:15And so much so, I think probably one para and three para at one stage were possibly
24:20shooting each other, having gone into the back garden, and three para were on their
24:25right.
24:26You lose control, and then you've got to find out where the shelling has come from,
24:32and try and deal with it.
24:33It's not easy, and it's much easier for the defence than the attack.
24:392nd Battalion took the southernmost route to Arnhem Bridge, near the lower Rhine River,
24:45and carefully made their way through streets infested with snipers.
24:50In command was Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost, one of the most respected para troopers in
24:55the British Army.
24:58Unfortunately for Frost, German troops were able to blow up Arnhem Railway Bridge before
25:03he could capture it.
25:06But by 8 o'clock, two para had arrived at the northern end of the road bridge.
25:12Two British attempts to take the southern side were repulsed by German armour, though
25:17the British did destroy a German generating room isolated on the northern side of the
25:22bridge in a flamethrower attack.
25:27They get to the bridge on the evening of the 17th of September, and quickly find that the
25:33water is cut off.
25:35They only have the amount of ammunition that they themselves can carry to sustain them
25:39throughout the battle.
25:41The same goes for their medical supplies and their food.
25:44So after a few German counter-attacks, they are low on ammunition, they are low on food,
25:49they are low on water, and they've got no prospect of any support until the rest of
25:54the division can get through to them, which of course they never do, or XXX Corps relieve
25:58them coming up the corridor and crossing the bridge.
26:03As Sunday turned into Monday, Frost dug in and awaited reinforcements.
26:11The following morning, the attack resumed before sunrise with the British paratroopers
26:17in action against an ever-strengthening enemy.
26:20John Frost and two para continued to hold position at the bridge with a force of some
26:25500 men.
26:28An armoured German attempt to attack from the south side with armour was also dealt
26:33with by two para's anti-tank mines and guns.
26:36The anti-tank artillerymen were able to knock out three German Mark IVs, Panzer Mark IVs,
26:43as they advanced to assault the para's positions in that area.
26:48A standard British issue 6-pounder anti-tank gun was able to take on most of the German
26:54armour, but once they started to introduce things like the Tiger tank and the later marks
26:59of Panzers, this weapon system was not capable of destroying those vehicles from the front.
27:05It might have been able to damage their wheels or their tracks, but to take them head-on,
27:10their armour was too thick.
27:12Ultimately, it was German artillery that proved most effective.
27:16It would have been hell on earth.
27:19The German Tiger tanks pounding away at the houses, the wounded screaming as they were
27:24being burnt alive in the houses, the self-propelled guns, the mortars, damaging the houses beyond
27:32recognition.
27:33The physical conditions were terrible.
27:38Meanwhile, desperate attempts were being made to get through to Frost's position, but one
27:44battalion found itself held back in heavy fighting near the railway station, and many
27:49British para troopers fell victim to German snipers as the street fighting intensified.
27:57Nearby, in the area around the hospital, three para attempted to break through, but here
28:03it was the bigger German guns that prevented progress.
28:08Once again, the Panzers proved their devastating effectiveness.
28:13Four battalions had been sent to reinforce Frost's troops at the bridge.
28:20They were not in contact because of the difficulties with the radios with the headquarters at the
28:25Hartenstein.
28:27So General Urquhart and Brigadier Lathbury decided to go and have a look, and they drove
28:34up here, which was still possible then, and there was heavy fighting going on, and all
28:41of a sudden they were chased by the Germans and had to flee into a house.
28:47They came into this house behind me, and they went into the attic, and then a German tank
28:54appeared and it stopped right here, and the crew got out and it stayed here.
28:59Brigadier Lathbury was seriously injured by a sniper's bullet and had to go into hiding,
29:05later to be taken captive.
29:08General Urquhart would be trapped here the whole day, unable to contact his colleagues.
29:13As it had now become painfully apparent, the British radio sets were little better than
29:18useless.
29:20You will never achieve the communications that you wish to achieve in battle.
29:24Because of the total chaos that you're surrounded with, you do the best that you can.
29:29And I believe that those problems that the forward platoons and companies would have
29:34had in communicating to the rear are not unique, even in the modern age.
29:39Now, those early problems were eventually ameliorated.
29:43The problem is, of course, is that by the time the communication situation is enhanced,
29:49we do see commanders talking locally to each other, there's very little that communications
29:54can do to ameliorate the situation.
29:57By the stage that the communications are enhanced, the situation is already lost.
30:04At the divisional headquarters near to the landing zones, Brigadier Hicks took over in
30:08the absence of General Urquhart.
30:11Hicks was commander of the air landing brigade, which comprised the three other three British
30:17battalions dropped on the first day.
30:20The inadequacies of the radios meant that Hicks could do little to relieve Frost and
30:252 Para at the bridge.
30:27But the new commander knew that reinforcements were due to arrive that day, in the form of
30:32the 4th Parachute Brigade, with the Poles to follow 24 hours later.
30:39But by now, the worst Allied fears were beginning to come true.
30:44Bad weather in England meant that the transports did not arrive until mid-afternoon, and the
30:50Germans knew they were coming.
30:53Heavy anti-aircraft fire combined with a substantial Luftwaffe presence made it a difficult deployment.
31:00Twenty Allied escort fighters were lost, ensuring that Brigadier John Hackett's three battalions
31:05made it to the ground safely.
31:09The deteriorating weather conditions in England had a disastrous effect on the ground.
31:15It meant that the paratroops already engaged were going to be deprived of reinforcements.
31:21This was particularly the case with the Poles, who were further delayed.
31:24Major General Sosabowski's Polish Independent Brigade is dropped not on the 19th, but actually
31:31on the 21st, and it fulfilled many of the fears that he'd had about the operation.
31:37They really needed to have been concentrated into a shorter space of time, and what we're
31:41finding is it's taken longer and longer to get reinforcements in to support these already
31:47very lightly armed troops in the first place.
31:51Early in the morning of the 19th of September, 1 Para and 3 Para made a final, desperate
31:57attempt to reach their colleagues at the bridge, moving along the lower Rhine, using the morning
32:03fog as cover.
32:06When it lifted, they were exposed to massive German fire from both north and south.
32:13The two battalions were virtually wiped out.
32:17To the north, Hackett's 4th Brigade also suffered heavy casualties around the railway line.
32:25Perhaps worst of all, the ground troops to the south were still far from the Arnhem battle
32:29zone.
32:31As many had feared, the advance through the corridor was proceeding too slowly.
32:38At Nijmegen, the American 505th Parachute Infantry tried once again to take the bridge.
32:45Despite support from British guards who had finally reached the battle zone, the attack
32:50was repulsed.
32:52The only good news for the British was Roy Urquhart's escape from his hiding place, and
32:58his speedy return to his headquarters, now established at the Hartenstein Hotel, the
33:03same hotel evacuated by his enemy, Field Marshal Mordl.
33:09But it was Mordl and the Germans who were now winning.
33:13And at Arnhem Bridge, the British were suffering.
33:16They were in a very desperate situation, they were exhausted, they would have been defending
33:21houses that were literally piles of rubble, and the wounded were being tended in terrible
33:27conditions.
33:28Supplies dwindle, casualties mount, the enemy is much more aware of where the positions
33:33actually are, so the longer they have to wait, the more and more difficult that already difficult
33:39task becomes.
33:42It was a desperate situation.
33:45But when Frost was formally invited to surrender by a German officer, he dismissed the idea
33:50out of hand.
33:52His battalion would fight to the end.
33:59The following day, Wednesday, at Arnhem Bridge, the German shells continued to rain down on
34:05two Paris positions.
34:07There was one respite when Freddy Goff, who had taken over from John Frost, because he
34:13was wounded, had a truce.
34:17So he could evacuate some of the wounded, the Germans took them away.
34:21It even had its problems because the Germans then established even more secure positions
34:25while the truce was going on.
34:28On the morning of Thursday, September the 21st, 1944, the Germans launched their final
34:34assault on Arnhem Bridge, knowing that victory was theirs.
34:39But the tenacity of the surviving British soldiers was remarkable.
34:42They were hardened soldiers, and the Germans respected them so much so, they never did
34:51sort of concentrated attack on us, they did it in ones and twos.
34:56The British paratroopers had to be flushed out, literally room by room, in gritty close
35:02quarter fighting.
35:04The British defenders were by now being systematically blasted out of the buildings by the German
35:10combat groups, who were now a lot more organized than they had been earlier in the battle.
35:15And the sequence of events would follow a pattern of direct engagement by heavy artillery
35:22that simply blast holes into the buildings.
35:24Having achieved the hole, the flamethrower teams would then come forward and douse the
35:28lot with petroleum and set everything on fire.
35:33By midday, both sides of Arnhem Bridge were in German possession.
35:39Despite the bravery of John Frost and his men, it really had been a bridge too far.
35:45Frost holds out at Arnhem Bridge from the 17th right the way through to the 21st.
35:51And what we see as a result of this tenacity and this bravery for the whole division is
35:56the award of four Victoria Crosses and hundreds of other decorations for bravery.
36:02And I think it's remarkable just how long they managed to hold on in that position,
36:07and it's why it's still celebrated as a great feat.
36:12The German capture of the Arnhem Bridge may not have been inevitable if the situation
36:17to the south had evolved differently.
36:20The American airborne forces had performed extremely well, despite their mobility being
36:25hampered.
36:27The road to Arnhem was reserved for the British, so American paratroopers were compelled to
36:31move out across country.
36:34But by the 20th, all the American target bridges had been taken, including the mighty road
36:40bridge at Nijmegen.
36:44This giant construction was finally captured the day before the fall of Arnhem Bridge,
36:50and only after a magnificent operation in which the Americans joined forces with their
36:55British allies.
36:57That day, the 20th, saw the 504th Parachute Regiment of the US 82nd Airborne Division
37:06cross the river in stormboats, despite the closest attentions of enemy gunners.
37:11Having succeeded in crossing, they paused only to signal their success across the water
37:17and began to fight their way towards the northern end of the bridge.
37:22At that point, British army intervened.
37:26Over the previous three days, General Horrocks had led his XXX Corps from Joe's Bridge
37:32north along the road known as the Club Route.
37:35By Tuesday, the spearhead of XXX Corps had reached Nijmegen.
37:42But it was Wednesday at 6 o'clock when the first British Cromwell tanks began to cross
37:46the bridge.
37:48What followed was a moment of high drama that can rarely have been rivaled in the history
37:54of war.
37:56Field Marshal Moodle had issued specific orders that the bridge should not be blown.
38:02It would be too valuable in the event of a German counter-offensive.
38:06But Brigade Führer Hamel had decided to disobey his orders and set up the explosives to blow
38:13the bridge.
38:15As the tanks made their crossing, he gave the order to detonate.
38:20But the charges failed to go off.
38:25Nijmegen Bridge, just 10 miles from Arnhem, was in Allied hands.
38:32But it had all taken time.
38:34General Gavin had arrived here on the first day of the operation, but was prevented from
38:39crossing that day, and the next, by stiff German resistance.
38:44When the British arrived from the south on the Tuesday, the way north was blocked, and
38:49would remain so until the bridge was eventually taken.
38:54Subsequent progress was also slow.
38:57The battle-weary guards could not advance further that night without infantry support.
39:02And it was Thursday morning before the Irish and Welsh guards set off towards Arnhem.
39:07The Americans who had gone to so much trouble to capture the railway bridge, and the other
39:12bridge, the traffic bridge as well, were livid.
39:15When the British finally captured the Nijmegen Bridge, there were no German forces between
39:22it and Frost, who still at that time had remnants holding out on the bridge at Arnhem.
39:29They didn't know there wasn't a single German.
39:32But there was a question that the Grenadier Guards Division had to stop for refuelling,
39:37and they said they didn't have enough infantry, so they stopped for the night.
39:42And if they hadn't done that, they would have reached Frost, certainly.
39:49News of the capture of Nijmegen Bridge boosted the morale of Urquhart and his surviving troops,
39:55who had now drawn themselves into a pocket at Oosterbeek, to the west of Arnhem.
40:01British heavy artillery fire could now be deployed from the south against the encircling
40:06Germans to the north.
40:09They started firing, supporting us on the southern side of the Vau at Nijmegen, and
40:15it was very heavy firepower they could give us, and couldn't always do that because
40:20ammunition supply had its problems, because the route was cut by the Germans on two occasions.
40:26I think we'd gotten down to three rounds a gun at one stage, but then ammunition fortunately
40:31came through and so we continued.
40:34It was not a moment too soon.
40:36Thursday saw the Germans capture the high ground at Westerboving, to the west of the
40:41British pocket.
40:44That afternoon, the Polish paratroopers also arrived.
40:48They land into terrible conditions.
40:51The Germans have the Westerboving Heights, they're mortaring, machine gunning the Poles
40:56whilst they're still in the air, and immediately they get on the ground.
41:00And it's a horrendous situation for the Poles.
41:05Sosubowski was quick to get into the fray, deploying his 500 men to the immediate south
41:11of the Lower Rhine, at Driel.
41:16Immediately the Germans responded by placing 2,500 men between Sosubowski's troops and
41:22the British position.
41:24The Poles would have to cross the river to give support to Urquhart in the pocket.
41:33On Friday the 22nd, XXX Corps made further efforts to advance the final miles to Arnhem,
41:39but found itself held back once more.
41:43At Elst, the combined efforts of the Irish Guards and the British 129th Brigade failed
41:49to break through the German lines.
41:52The 214th Brigade and the 43rd Division were also deployed, but only one battalion from
41:59this latter division succeeded in joining up with the Poles, along with a small armoured
42:05detachment of the household cavalry.
42:08Urquhart and his men remained encircled on three sides.
42:13Now they too began to suffer, as their manpower and their supplies began to dwindle.
42:20It was a case of scrounging through the houses and getting whatever you could get.
42:24Some of the supplies that actually were dropped opened the big panniers and you found berries
42:31and cap badges and underclothes.
42:35There wasn't food or ammunition or water or anything like that.
42:39They were still working on Plan A, which was to invade Germany.
42:46And after the fifth and sixth days, they were still dropping stuff for the grand triumphal
42:52entry into Germany, capture Germany.
42:56That night, on the banks of the Lower Rhine, the Poles attempted to cross the river in
43:01small rubber boats, in a brave mission of support for their British allies.
43:07Frustrated for so long, they now showed their enormous courage, as they took to the water
43:13in the full face of withering German fire.
43:18Of approximately 50 men who made the crossing, 35 made it to the British positions on the
43:24north side.
43:28The following day, Saturday the 23rd, a crossing attempt was made by men of the Dorset Regiment,
43:34who had fought their way to the river.
43:36It too resulted in substantial loss of life, although a second Polish crossing that night
43:43got 200 troops safely to the other side.
43:47Throughout Saturday, Urquhart's forces were only able to hold their position because of
43:52artillery support from the south.
43:57In spite of the fact that XXX Corps had at last achieved its objective and secured the
44:02Allied corridor from the border to Arnhem, the operation was over.
44:08By Sunday the 24th, it was increasingly clear that the battle at Oosterbeek was lost.
44:15Just like John Frost's troop at Arnhem Bridge, Urquhart's troops, the remainder of the division,
44:20were having similar problems.
44:22Tanks, self-propelled guns and infantry, German infantry infiltration, had meant that the
44:27whole area around his Hartenstein headquarters was, as the Germans called it, a witch's cauldron,
44:32in which very many casualties were being taken.
44:36And very soon, those men would become wounded or would lose their lives.
44:41In the end, the number of troops here at Oosterbeek dwindled down to a very small number, about
44:462,000 of them.
44:49They had no supplies, no ammunition, no water, no food, so a plan was made to withdraw with
44:57the help of the 43rd Wessex Division, which was on the other side, and Canadian and British
45:04engineers with boats.
45:07On the evening of Monday the 25th of September, the escape from Arnhem, codenamed Operation
45:13Berlin, began.
45:16Under cover of an artillery barrage, 35 boats shuttled back and forth across the Lower Rhine,
45:22bringing the survivors to safety, all the time harassed by machine gun and mortar fire.
45:28We all pulled out at the appropriate time.
45:31I didn't see an awful lot of it, because I had two signals with me, and we took a wounded
45:36soldier to a dressing station, which I'd seen in the morning, that morning, which was a
45:41British dressing station, but when I arrived it was in German hands, so I was invited to
45:46stay.
45:47And I managed to skip the dressing station, got down to the river in daylight, and managed
45:53to be lucky and swim across with another Royal Signals officer of the light regiment.
46:00We swam together, and they were firing at us, and he got hit and drowned.
46:04His body was picked up about three or four miles downriver later on, and I was lucky
46:09and got across.
46:11The urgency of the withdrawal meant that the badly wounded had to be left behind, as the
46:16panzers rolled towards the river.
46:19The Germans were completely taken aback by this.
46:21They thought the British were actually reinforcing the bridgehead and not withdrawing.
46:26The Germans could not believe that having taken such losses that the British would actually
46:31give it up.
46:32So when they pulled out that night, they were completely taken aback.
46:37The withdrawal succeeded in its objective, and 2,163 men were rescued, among them the
46:45exhausted General Urquhart.
46:48It was a remarkable plan.
46:50It was perhaps one of the best run things about Operation Market Garden.
46:56It was a remarkable success, showing great flexibility of mind on Urquhart's part.
47:042,163 men may have been rescued during Operation Berlin, but this was out of a total of 10,000
47:13men deployed.
47:17Around 1,200 British and Polish troops had lost their lives.
47:23To the south, American total losses approached 4,000 dead, wounded or captured, and the objective
47:32of Operation Market Garden had not been achieved.
47:37The city of Arnhem remained in German hands.
47:41The war would continue well into 1945.
47:47What if the radios had worked?
47:49What if the enemy hadn't been quite so strong?
47:52What if XXX Corps had got to the bridge?
47:55Would the war have ended during the Christmas of 1944?
47:59It was really a glorious failure on the part of the British and the Poles in Arnhem.
48:05And there are so many things that go into making it one of the most famous battles that
48:10has ever been fought, and the airborne troops are at the centre of it, and they have a great
48:15deal of mystique about them, and Arnhem was one of the key battles that went into giving
48:20them the fighting spirit that airborne troops are now world-famous for.