´óÏó´«Ã½

The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Gord and Leslie Davison.

On the eighth of September we were briefed for an operation, which had it come off, would have been the biggest debacle in British army history. The first airborne division was to be spit into its three brigades and each brigade was to be sent to secure three bridges in Holland. The bridges were at Grave, on the river Maas, Nijmegen on the Waal and Arnhem on the Rhine.
These bridges were on a main road running from south to north in Western Holland with U.S. Airborne troops capturing other bridges further to the south around Eindhoven. The plan was that as these bridges were secured, the main land forces, namely the Second Army, under General Horrocks would be able to advance without hindrance. It was a pretty wild idea and fortunately it was cancelled.
However on the fifteenth of September we were assembled in the briefing room once more. The plan was basically the same except that the whole concept had been upgraded. Now the whole first airborne division was going to take the Arnhem bridge and the 82nd American the bridge at Nijmegen. The 101st American Airborne was to take the bridge at Grave and some smaller crossings to the South.
D-Day was Sunday the 17th of September, only 48 hours away.

°ä´Ç²Ô³Ù¾±²Ô³Ü±ð»å….
'This story was submitted to the People’s War site by ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Merseyside’s People’s War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.