Waal Crossing

File:Crossing1.jpg

Paratroopers on the bank

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The situation

On September 17, 1944, the Allies of World War II attempted to cross the bridge on Rhine near Arnhem, using the American 101st Airborne Division to capture and secure Eindhoven, the 82nd Airborne Nijmegen, and the British 1st Airborne to capture and secure the objective itself. The British XXX Crops would try to rush up 64 miles along the countryside to link up with the 1st Airborne. This act could have end the war early, maybe before Christmas. The airborne troops drop on the morning of September 17. Due to the anti-aircraft guns the drop was made rather far from the bridge. As a result the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, who were supposed to capture the bridge of Nijmegen, unfortunately had to carried out in the afternoon. General James M. Gavin gave the 508 order to circle around the build-up area but Colonel Roy E. Lindquist thought he had to secure the area first. When they arrived the original 800 Wehrmacht soldiers were already reinforce by a small amount of 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg. A recon battalion of 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen was also send and encountered no Allies but turned by to Arnhem and suffered heavy losses by the 1st Airborne. Victor Gräbner, the battalion commander, was killed during the cross. The whole 10th SS Panzer was send by the path was blocked by the 1st Airborne again, so they took the ferry and made slow work. The XXX Crops arrived on the 19th and Gavin had ordered to capture the bridge as soon as possible. General Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army and Gavin met at Overasselt and decided that an assault on the bridge should be carried out today. The 504th left some men to defend the secured bridges. The rest went to Nijmegen with the Grenadier Guards and the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment launched an attack on the traffic bridge. The assault was in vain, and so Gavin came up with a idea- amphibious assault.

The plot

The cross would use the 3rd Battalion, under command of Major Julian Cook, of 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment to cross first. Then the 1st Battalion of William Harrison would follow. The 3rd would go right while the 1st to the left. 'G' Company would go north and 'H' Company would secure the railroad. Lastly the whole 504 would flank the defenders of the traffic bridge. Supplementary forces included 'C' Company of the 307th Airborne Engineer to ferry the 504 across, the Grenadier Guards and the 505 to retry their cross on the traffic bridge simultaneously. Before the landing began (1430) the RAF Second Tactical Air Force would shell the Germans' positions on the other bank with rockets and guns. The Royal Artillery's No. 153 Leicestershire Yeomanry Field Regiment and Irish 2nd Guards tanks to provide artillery support would get up the remain artillery support and to launch a smoke curtain across the river, preventing any accurate fire from the Germans.

Delay

It was 0730 of D-Day and the boats still had not arrived. So the crossing was postponed to 1100, so the paratroopers would be going the 160 meters to the other side of Waal river without the cover of darkness. The H-Hour was postponed three times in total. H-Hour would be 1500, 7 hours later than originally planned. At last, at 1430 the XXX Crops trucks brought them in. They brought 26 collapsible canvas boats without significant quantities of paddles. Using their rifle butts as paddles would be the only choice.

The Assault

The crossing didn't turn out well. Some boats were caught by a strong current and started spinning around. Some were either leaked from machine-gun fire or shells fragments, or both. Some were too heavy that they sunk. To make it worst, the wind blew away the smoke curtain, giving the Germans full sight of them. The 3rd, however, managed to survive the slaughter and overran the Germans with fixed bayonets. 11 out of 26 boats managed to maintain serviceable and ferry the 1st across. With the 1st in the rendezvous point (900 meters north) together, the main assault began. At around 1700 the northern access road of the rail bridge is taken. As a result some Germans were trapped. The railroad were now generally secured. However, the 505th and the Grenadiers hadn't broken through yet. So the 1st stayed to clear remaining Germans and the 3rd to help out. By the time the 3rd made it through, the Germans started to crack under pressure. Several Shermans tried to cross but were knocked out by Panzerfausts and Panzerschreck, until at 1900 four Sherman tanks of No. 1 Squadron, 2nd Armored Battalion, under Sergeant Peter Robinson rumbled towards the traffic bridge. The squad destroyed a Flak 88 and moved on. Again they were harassed with a 88, but again it was blow and the small column reached the northern ramp.

Aftermath

The German commander, Heinz Harmel of the 10th SS, was well prepared and to blow the bridge. In doing so, he would disobey the order of Field-Marshal Walter Model. Model needed them for any subsequent counter attack. Harmel fear a successful allied advance on Arnhem, and maybe ultimately Germany. Harmel arrived at Lent after Robinson. After he had reviewed the situation from his bunker in Lent, he gave the order to blow the traffic bridge; but the bridge didn't blow, either due to artillery fire, cutting wires action, or Jan van Hoof, the Dutch student and a member of the Dutch Secret Service who was to slipped through the Germans and cut the wires on the bridge some days before the river crossing. German fighters attempted to destory the bridge almost every day and night between 25 and 30 September. The night bombings involved Stukas, FW-190s, Ju-88s, and others. During the day jets, including the famous Me 262 and others, shelled the bridges. The bridges, and especially the ramps, were hit several times. The Germans didn't try to sole the attack from air; the bridges were also threatened from the water. Floating mines, torpedo-boats, and Biber one-man submarines were used. On September 28th German frogmen swam several kilometers and placed explosives on the piers of both bridges. Early in the morning these charges exploded, causing the middle arch of the railway to collapse. To ensure a safe passage to cross for XXX Crops, British engineers constructed a Bailey bridge across the Waal. However, despite this effort, Operation Market Garden due to the uneffiency of the XXX, the lack of anti-tank weapons, the drop zones and the bridge of Arnhem, had proved to be 'a bridge too far'.

Links

A more detailed account of Market Garden and Waalcrossing