Operation Market-Garden: behind the enemy lines (página 2)

Partes: 1, 2

4. THE
KAMPFGRUPPE VON TETTAU

The term Kampfgruppe is used to refer to a type
of tactics used by the Germans during the whole war and with wide
success. It consists of the massive employment of groups of
troops of varied nature and with the aim to conquer a precise
point of the front. It was a group of troops ad hoc used
without bearing the origin of the units in mind but yes the power
of fire and mobility. These groups of combat were identified
normally by the name of his commander, but some of them were
taking the identification of its units of origin. The Kampfgruppe
von Tettau, supervised by the lieutenant general Hans von Tettau
had a relevant performance during Arnhem's events.

The Lieutenant general Hans von Tettau, on having shaped
the Kampfgruppe that was taking his name, met a heterogeneous
group of combat, composed principally by novices scanty
instruction for the battle. The units that were integrating it
were including troops belonging to the army, the SS, the
sea-coast and the German air force, many of them of battalions
school, or Lehr, with few preparation for the struggle
that one was approaching. The following list gives an idea of the
conformation of the Kampfgruppe von Tettau:

S.S. Schule Arnheim, School Arnhem Commander:
SS Colonel Lippert, 3000 men.
S.S. Polizei Schule, School of Military
Policeman(Police) of the SS, 600 men. 4 ° Battalion of
Training and Replacement of the SS, Commander: Lieutenant
Labahn
3° SS Watch Battalion . Commander: Colonel Paul
Anton Helle . 600
men.
Schiffsturm Abteilung 10 . 10° Maneuver
Navy Battalion. Commander : Kapitan Lieutnant Zaubzer .600
men.
Schiffsturm Abteilung 6/14 . 6/14 Maneuver
Navy Battalion . 600 men.
Fliegerhorst Bataillon 2. 2 Ligth Cavalry
Battalion . 600 men.
Fliegerhorst Bataillon 3.. 3 Ligth Cavalry
Battalion. 600 men.
Artillerie Regiment 184 . 184 Artillery
Regiment. 450 men.
Regiment 42 Sicherheit . 42 Security
Regiment.
S.S. Bataillon Eberwein. "Eberwein" SS
Battalion
KG Knoche . Kampfgruppe Knoche. Commander:
Major Knoche
Military Police Battalions: Bataillon I,
Sicherheits Regiment 26, (450 men) . Bataillon II, 26
Sicherheits Regiment 26, (450 men) . MG Bataillon 30, (390
men)
AntiAir Battalions: (Luftwaffe): Bataillon I, FlaK
Abteilung 688, (2 x 37L98 FlaK) . Bataillon II, FlaK Abteilung
688, (4 x 20L113 FlaK)
Hermann Göering Schule Regiment . Hermann
Göering School Regiment. Commander : Oberst (Colonel)
Waldemar Kluge

Other Units:

I, HG Schule Regiment, (600 men) . Reichs AD, (300
men) , Panzer Abteliung 224, (French tanks Char B, 17
Vehicles)
S.S. Ersatz Abteliung 4, (450 men)
Deelen Airfield Flak Kompanie, (8 x 20L113 LW
FlaK)
Wach Kompanie (500 men)

Since it can be estimated, the composition of these
troops, as well as it quality, it was very varied. Nevertheless,
they were having a high level of mobility and power of
fire.

On the other hand, the colonel general Kurt Student,
possibly the maximum authority in troops parachutists in Germany,
had been nominated a commander of the First German Airborne Army
(1° Fallschimjäger Armee). Student had the
painful task of bringing together the German dispersed
parachutists for the whole western front, since after the capture
of the island of Crete in May, 1941, these units were destined as
infantry specializing and incorporated into other units of line.
His 59 ° division of Infantry also was in Holland in
September, 1944, in a desperate attempt for repairing the dam of
German defenses, before the enormous one to flow of allied tanks.
The destiny would provide to Student a surprise wire brush: he
would receive in his headquarters a package with you notarize in
English. It was the whole plan
"Market-Garden", found among the corpses of a British crashed
glider. In 1940, during the invasion to Holland, the German plan
of invasion got lost and was found by the allied troops. " The
history repeats itself ", was saying Student continuously. When
the plans were taken to the Marshall Model, this one did not
agree with Student's affirmation. "It is a trick", he said,
"these men come for my Headquarters, and not for another thing".
The Battle for Holland had begun.

5.
THE BATTLE OF HOLLAND

September 17, 1944

On September 17, 1944, from early hour, big quantities
of bombardiers and planes of assault to the soil, hammered the
anti-aircraft German defenses of the jump corridor of the airborn
allied forces, from Walcheren's Island up to Arnhem.
Approximately at 13.00 hours it began the airborne assault in a
rectangle that was going from Eindhoven on the south up to Arnhem
to the north. At 14.00 hours, and for space of 35 minutes, to the
north of the Belgian frontier village of La Chaude Fontaine, 11
regiments of field artillery and 6 regiments of medium artillery,
belonging to the XXX Army Corps supervised by the Lieutenant
General Brian Horrocks, opened fire on the lines of German
defenses stationed along the highway to Eindhoven, with the
intention of making the way to the forces "Garden", with the
Irish Guards Brigade to the head, of the Lieutenant Colonel
J.O.E. Vandeleur, veteran commander of tanks, and that was coming
attacking from the capture of Paris, practically without
rest.

To the south of Veghel, a speechless Student was
exclaiming before the general Reinhard, observing the step of the
set squares of planes C-47: " Oh, if I had had at some time
average so many people to my disposition!. To have so much
planes, though only it was once! "

Without losing time, and guessing the intentions of the
allies, the general Student arranged immediately the blowing-up
of the bridge of Son, (the bridge flew to the eyes of the North
American parachutists) to cut the armored allied advance, and
sent urgently to 59 ° Division to Best, to reinforce the
LXXXVIII Army Corps of Reinhard. Right here, the Battalion
parachutist Jungwirtt strike up in combat with effective
of 101 ° airborn American division. This battalion, together
with the whole Kampfgruppe Chill, received the order to resist at
any expense.

Among so much, on the North, in Nijmegen, a surprised
colonel Henke, commander of a Kampfgruppe, receives the terse
innovation of the airborn assault. His unit could not be more
heterogeneous: belonging railway police officers and soldiers of
land were shaping it and to the Luftwaffe. The combats are
enraged, but Heumen's bridge, in the locality of Grave, it stays
in North American hands.

To the 13.30, in Arnhem, come the news of the airborne
landing, the mechanics and the service of maintenance of 9 °
Waffen SS "Hohenstauffen", receives the order to unload
the tanks that had been embarked in a train to be moved to German
locality of Sieggen, with the intention of regrouping the
division. In a feverish activity, the men begin to put in
conditions the vehicles.

At this hour, the field marshall Walter Model, convinced
that the parachutists were coming for his Headquarters, moved
hastily up to Terborg, where he had a join at 15.00 hours with
the general Wilhem Bittrich, commander of 2 ° SS PanzerKorps.
In a harsh conference, Bittrich advises the immediate blowing-up
of the bridges of Nijmegen and Arnhem, to which the commander of
the Group of Armies B, answers with the round one not. " We
need the bridges for the counterattack, Willy ", he was run
through by the marshall Model. Bittrich, in ironic tone, answered
him: " to counter-attack?, Herr Feldmarschall, with which we
are going to counter-attack?", refering Bittrich to the
terrible shortage of troops in the Western front. Model only
guarded silence.

Among so much, in the headquarters of the Führer,
this one is informed about the assault in Holland. Hitler arranges
immediately the intrusion of 300 fighters of the Luftwaffe to
offset the invasion, but it is a vain order. Such a quantity of
fighters is very difficult to obtain in the western
front.

In Holland, the general Christiansen begins to mobilize
to the troops that will stay under the control of the
general von Tettau, including the men who were in use of
permission in Wessel's locality, which added to the soldiers in
military instruction approximately 3000 men would add. These
battalions were depending on the Military German District of the
West or Wehrkreis VI.

Relying on these forces and with the II SS PanzerKorps,
the field marshall Model, known by his incredible aptitude to
improvise defenses in zones under pressure, he drew a plan of
countermeasurements before the critical situation in
Holland:

· In Eindhoven, to the south of Holland, the
general Student would rush forth at the XXX and XIIth Army
Corps, while the CVII PanzerBrigade would attack the positions
of 101 ° airborn North American Division.
· At the level of Nijmegen, 10 Division Panzer
SS "Frundsberg", it would cut the step to the allied
armoured vehicles, protecting the enormous bridge on the Waal
river. The forces of the Wehrkreis VI, supervised by the
general Feldt, and reinforced with the II Parachutists' Corps
comes from Cologne, would occupy Groesbeek's highs, zone of
landing of allied parachutists.
· To The north, in Arnhem, 9 °
Panzerdivision SS "Hohenstauffen", would protect the
bridge on the Rhine river, preventing the occupation of the
same one on the part of the 1 ° Airborn British
Division.

While all that was happening in the feverish
headquarters of the marshall Walther Model, in Arnhem, more to
the north, the Kampfgruppe Kraft hits with the British
parachutists who have begun to approach the city. It is three
o'clock of the evening, while the group Weber from
Luftwaffe, the subofficials' academy SS in Wolfheze and the Dutch
security force, they form and send to the battle a battalion each
one. It is given besides, the order to demolish the railway
bridge on the Nederreihn, which was fulfilled to the 18.30
hs.

At 19.00 hours, the IX SS Panzergrenadiere Recognition
Battalion, supervised by the captain Víctor Grabner, and
with not less than 30 vehicles, crosses Arnhem's bridge to verify
if parachutists' landings had happened. The immense bridge was
left, since the guard had returned to their units of origin
before the alarm of the assault. Likewise, the lieutenant colonel
(Obersturmbannführer), 32-year-old, Walther Harzer,
commander of 10 ° Division Frundsberg, had taken
charge forming the force of blockade supervised by the lieutenant
colonel SS Spindler, the kampfgruppe Spindler, who took
positions along Dreyenseweb, cutting the route between the
landing zones and Arnhem's bridge.

An hour later, to 20.00 the Grabner's first elements
meet troops of the lieutenant colonel John Frost, of the Second
Airborn British Battalion, which had occupied the north side of
the bridge on the Rhine.

Meanwhile, the general Harmel, from 10° Waffen SS
Frundsberg, before the presence of Frost's troops, had to
cross the river for Pannerdern's ferryboat, to the east of
Arnhem, which alone was allowing the step vehicles of up to 40
tons.

September 18, 1944

For September 18, the capture of Arnhem's bridge by the
Germans was of absolute priority. It was commissioned to the
troops assembled in the Kampfgruppe Knaust, to unblock the north
access of the
bridge. Simultaneously, was ordained to the captain Gräbner
to pushing with his battalion from the south. Rapidly,
Panzergrenadiere's armored transport rushed forth at the
obstacles placed in the ramps, but the intense english fire could
more. In an instant, 12 vehicles remained involved in flames
stopping up the access to the
bridge. Among the German falls there was the captain
Gräbner, container of the Knight Cross, who had been
decorated the previous day, in the morning, hours before the
airborn assault.

While, the heterogeneous Kampfgruppe Tettau began
to move from Renkum's locality, including to 224 company panzer,
endowed with captured tanks Renault FT35, French, and the
Kampfgruppe Spindler was throwing an assault against the
positions of 3 ° Airborn British battalion.

Much more on the South, in the surroundings of
Eindhoven, the troops fitted in the Kampfgruppe Walther
aborted successive foolhardy attempts of the armoured vehicles of
the Irish Guard of occupying the village of Helmond, extreme
North of the unfolding of the diminished LXXXVI Korp of German
army, of the general Oberstfelder, which painfully was taking
positions from Weert, on the South. It composition was the clear
demonstration of the German decadence in the western front.
Division of Infantry 176 was composed of 7000 recruits and
invalid soldiers, but in conditions to fight. This way they did
it. On September 18, suffering serious losses, they retained
Best, pushing back assaults of armoured vehicles and of infantry
constant.

A commentary separates deserves the performance of for
then lower Luftwaffe. The German air force, reduced to a pilots'
handful endowed with unimaginable experience and supporting
pressures in every sense, they fought as lions hurt in the skies
of Holland. But soon they saw that almost they were not have
opposition. Really, few ones were the allied fighters that went
out to defend to the solitary " air trains " of parachutists, due
to an incongruous order of the British command, which it was
ordering to RAF and USAAF to not to intervene during the air
landing. The bridge of La Chaude Fontaine, in the Belgian border,
acquaintance as " Joe's bridge", is so for the second day of
combats, the Germans could bombard almost without enemy response.
This action, and others throughout the days of Market-Garden, did
of this battle the first one from Normandy in the control of the
air on the part of the Germans. And also the last one, up to the
fall of Berlin.

While, in the landing zone of Groesbeek's, near
Nijmegen, German troops of 406 division Landesschützen
(regional troops), tried to occupy the area, but they were pushed
back before the arrival of the second big wave. At the same time,
they began to approach Nijmegen, the troops mounted in bicycles
for 10 ° division Frundsberg.

More to the north, the battle was making feel in Arnhem.
The landing of the IV Brigade of British parachutists was bloody.
They were getting down on 3 ° Battalion of Military Policeman
of the SS, which produced numerous falls among the english
men.

September 19, 1944

Already from the dawn of the 19th, the civil Dutches
could verify how hardly of roer it would be the bone in Holland
for the allies. There was constant the arrival of troops and
German vehicles to the zones of battle. Several trains came this
day from Germany and from other zones, transporting cannons and
tanks. The whole armored brigade, 207, was coming from Denmark.
It was formed for the fearsome StuG III, self-propelled very
versatile cannons and that were unfusing fear of the infantry.
They were not tanks, in strict sense, but it aspect was very
similar. They were vehicles to caterpillar on which there had
been mounted a cannon of 75 mm by a very low profile and anguled,
which was making it very difficult to neutralize. For it side,
the Luftwaffe proved to be very active, realizing 125 flyng only
this day.

Spindler and his group had taken positions, including
cannons of rapid shot, financing the river Rhine, aborting any
attempt of the lieutenant colonel Frost of taking the side South
of Arnhem's bridge, while the groups of Knaust and of Brinkmann,
they were approaching from the North and from the
East.

In this, the forces panzer SS of the lieutenant colonel
Harzer and the infantry of the general von Tettau was making move
back to the British parachutists in the side North of the
bridge.

The general Heinz Harmel, commander of 10 Waffen SS
"Frundsberg", established his headquarters in
Doornersberg's locality, to 9 Km to the north of Nijmegen, from
where he was directing the assaults the forces of 101 °
American division. The North Americans suffered such losses,
which decided to cross the river Waal in barges, instead of
crossing the bridge. The problem is that the little boats were
too much to rear, this way that did not have other one exit for
that to hope that they were coming.

More on the South, at Son, near Eindhoven, the battle
had taken bleeding dimensions. 107 brigade panzer threw to the
assault supported by 59 ° division of infantry, in a tries of
blocking the highway to Nijmegen, but the assault was stopped at
the end of the day in the surroundings of the headquarters of 101
North American division.

September 20, 1944

For the morning of the 20th, the things were indicating
that the battle was slow down, in such a way that to the assaults
the counterattacks were corresponding, totally bleeding and with
serious losses for both decrees. From Oosterbeek, in the North,
even Son, in the South, were produced continuous clashes that did
not come to anything, only more dead and injured men. The only
exceptions were the noisy step of Bittrich's Panzer Tigre across
Arnhem's bridge, in the North, and the bloody step of the North
Americans in boats, in Waal river, which to the end had come to
the line of fire.

At 21 hrs. of this laconic day, one took to end a truce
to the effect of which both decrees them injured men were
gathering and were giving them the due attentions. The picture
that would exist before the eyes of the men entrusted to
transport and attend to the injured men surprised them
exceedingly. They met a field of terrible battle, framed by the
ruins of the nice Dutch cities, diminished to rubbles for the
artillery and the tanks. Multitude of German and English corpses
they were merry everywhere, and the vehicles of all kinds, were
burning between the ruins. The German soldiers who had fought in
the distant Russia, could not less that to compare this with that
one. Some of these soldiers even would comment then, that the
combats in Arnhem had been more violent than that they had
suffered in the Russian front.

Exceeded by the events, and pressed for his proper
personal
officers, the field marshall Walter Model finished for arranging
the blowing-up of the gigantic bridge on the river Waal, in
Nijmegen. Too much late. The English armoured vehicles had passed
already, thanks to the bold North American assault across the
river. Of all forms, the attempt of blowing-up failed
inexplicably, and it constitutes until today a
mystery.

September 21, 1944

The High German Control was restructured, of such form
that was taking as reference the axis of the allied advance. The
forces that were fighting to the west of this axis, were staying
under the control of the general Gustav von Zangen, commander of
the XV° German Army , a powerful force, but not taken
advantage suitably. The troops placed to the east of the axis of
assault, would depend directly on the general Kurt Student. Model
did something more: he put all the troops that were fighting in
Arnhem, under the control of the general Britrich and of his II
SS Panzerkorp.

By the end of the day there had come mas German troops,
expert in street combat, and on the part of the allies, to the
end there could land the Polish airborne Brigade, supervised by
the general Stanislaw Sosabowski, who had the effect of
unbalancing the scale around Arnhem. Sosabowski, expert in
airborne troops was a sceptic of Market-Garden. When he landed in
the areas semiflooded of Gelderland, his worse dreads made real.
The things were not since his English chiefs believed. The
Germans, he was thinking, they are very far from being
defeated.

September 22, 1944

During the whole day increased the pressure on the First
Airbone Division in Arnhem, submitted to the permanent assault of
artillery, tanks and infantry. The fence on the lieutenant
colonel Frost was becoming increasingly small.

While, on the South, the forces of Student, they
achieved to close the highway in the bridge on the Aa river, in
Veghel.

September 23, 1944

More German troops continue coming to the zone of Arnhem
and of Veghel, on the South. In a rather desperate order, the
field marshall Model orders to general Bittrich to clean Arnhem
in 24 hours, but the Britishers resist fiercely.

In Veghel, bleeding combats stop to the German forces,
but they do not manage to open the route towards Nijmegen. Model,
with his staff, has planned Nijmegen's fall effecting
counterattacks of such form of opening a corridor up to the
bridge and to block it.

September 24, 1944

The commander in chief of the western front, field
marshall Gerd von Rundsted, communicates to Berlin his intention
of making move back the forces in Holland, up to behind the river
Mosa. Hitler differs bitterly against this idea. On the contrary,
the Fuhrer is a supporter of sending more troops and reinforcing
the line in the river Aa, in Veghel. As many other times, Hitler
had reason as for the disposition of the forces, in opposition to
the opinion of his marshalls, many of them lacking in enthusiasm
for the victory. On the other hand, von Rundsted, general who had
never lost a battle, was absolutely fed up of the war and of
Hitler, and was more partial to a German surrender, that to the
maintenance of an offensive. This is reflected in his continuous
messages to Berlin, requesting such-and-such retreat.

In June, 1944, while German troops was fighting fiercely
in the zone of Normandy, von Rundsted sent a message to Hitler
requesting the immediate retreat of troops towards the North-east
of France, liberating Paris and centering there. The marshall
Rommel, a born soldier, criticized Rundsted for not having
attacked efficiently the allies in the beaches, which it was,
according to Rommel, the only place where an invading force is
weaker and with more possibilities of being destroyed. " When the
enemy landing – said the hero of the North of Africa-, and they
consolidates their beachead, we will never be able to throw them
to the sea, less if they are supplies from a country as United
States ".

September 25, 1944

The Kampfgruppe Allworden provided with immense tanks
KönigTiger (Royal Tiger), bursted for the positions of the
First Airborn Division, in the first hours of the evening, being
contained by the intense fire at the end of the day.

While all that was happening after the German lines, the
British already had resolved the " Operation Berlin ", the forced
evacuation of what was staying of they forces in Arnhem. This
retreat was going to be realized during the whole night from
September 25 to September 26, and it can be said that it was a
success. Little before 10 p.m., two companies of the Royal
Canadian Enginners, using 21 boats manage to transport to most of
what was staying of the First Airborn British Division. For the
British the " Operation Berlin " had same importance as
Dunkerke's evacuation.

The
Epilogue

The battle of Holland had ended. The field marshall
Walter Model estimated in 3300, the falls produced in the B Army
Group, though other fountains were declared later by
approximately 2000 dead men and about 6000 injured men. The
famous II PanzerKorps, the divisions Hohenstauffen and
Frundsberg, occupied Holland in a time, for then be re-supplied
and envoys after the German border. They would take part in
January, 1945 in the Offensive of the Ardennes, being almost
annihilated on having remained without fuel for their tanks, in
the middle of a particularly rigorous winter, since it was that
of beginning of 1945. The survivors, welded very trained, would
move back slowly and would form a part of the dispersed forces
that defending Berlin of the Russian harassment. The commander,
general of division SS Wilhem Bittrich, was brave for the North
Americans on having finished the war, and submitted to a partial
enough and coarse judgment, for supposed entail with the
slaughter of Jews and other ethnic groups, but the evidences were
showing that Bittrich was a born soldier and that he never had
participation in slaughters of civil, for what was liberated,
retiring to the particular life.

On his part, the North Americans had lost in their two
airborne divisions approximately 3660 men and the Poles 378
trained parachutists. While, the losses of the British II Army
belong 5354 men of which only 1480 they concerned to the XXX Corp
of the general Horrocks. Also the loss is devastating in
supplies: only 7.4 % of the whole came to British
hands.

With regard to the terrible defeat of the Battle of
Holland, the field marshall Montgomery would write then: "In
my -prejudiced- view, if the operation had been properly backed
from its inception, and given the aircraft, ground forces, and
administrative resources necessary for the job, it would have
succeeded in spite of my mistakes, or the adverse weather, or the
presence of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps in the Arnhem area. I remain
Market Garden's unrepentant advocate."

Final
commentaries

The Operation Market-Garden was a very well
well-considered airborn operation, which of being successful,
would have opened " the door towards the kitchen " of Germany,
the industrial region of the Ruhr. In a little time, the Third
Reich had remained immobile to mercy of their enemies. And maybe,
the bloody European war had ended before the Christmas of
1944.

But Market-Garden was slightly more. It was the cruel
demonstration of the internal competitions in the bosom of the
Allied General staff, affirmation supported by several
historians. The marshall Montgomery wanted to take Germany alone
he, and only possessing a support of his principal rival, the
LieutenantGeneral George S. Patton, of the American III Army.
Patton had managed to make way for him to top of cannon in the
south of the battlefront and was rivalling with Montgomery for
the acquisition of supplies and for the speed of the advance.
They are not any secret the numerous verbal skirmishes among both
commanders, as whom it would have to have the gravit center of
the assault. Montgomery wanted to aim a mortal blow at the enemy
and Market-Garden was his hammer.

But since it is in the habit of happening lengthways and
width of the History, not everything is like is programmed and is
planned. It is known that the British intelligence scorned
several reports of the Dutch Resistance that were reporting with
luxury of details (that there were including the numbers and the
emblems of the German regiments) the presence of a powerful body
armoured in the surroundings of the zones of landing. The climate
also would play an important role, since the evil time prevented
that the soldiers were supplied correctly and the suitably bombed
enemy. The conjunction of a good number of mistakes provoked what
would be Market-Garden: a bloody battle in a sector that it was
not leading nowhere. The words of the Prince Leopold of Belgium
were forceful: " My country cannot give himself the luxury of
another Montgomery's victory ".

For the Germans, the battle of Holland was one more
test of what
there could do fed well, rested troops and under a firm and
supported control. But already it was late, so Germany was
disintegrating. Harassed by several fronts, with their industrial
power crushed day and night, with a civil population fed up with
seeing to die to their young men, Germany could not wait for
another thing that was not the defeat. Personally, it is worthy
of a thesis in sociology the study of because the Germans stuck
so much to the war when this one already was lost. After
Market-Garden, the world and Germany especially, they had to wait
six long months in order that the war was ending. The response,
possibly, is after a long study, buried in the ruins of smoking
Berlin, in the first days of May, 1945.

Ramon Antonio Padilla, Tucumán's National
University.

San Miguel of Tucuman, Tucuman, Argentina February
2006.-