Front Cover: British 1st Airborne HQ The Hartenstein Hotel, Oosterbeek - the paras dig in and await the inevitable German assault. Hotel and grounds (painted by Sue Barrett) are from the Oosterbeek building range by Colin Rumford see page 57. Figures and Jeeps by Raventhorpe, oddfigures by Britannia and Drew's Militia.

Note: unless specifically credited otherwise models and figures are painted by the author from his own collection. The terrain boards are by Malcolm Taylor. Dale Rawson, Tony Chadburn and the author.

Right: the Hartenstein basement with General Urquhart'S HQ group (Britannia) and German prisoners in the tennis court.

1st Airborne on the move towards Arnhem Above: towed 6 pounder. Jeep & figures - Britannia. Other Jeeps from the Raventhorpe 'Ready to Roll' range, marching paras - Raventhorpe painted by Ian Hedley of Belgrave Fine Art. Enthusiastic civilians -Faust Studios. Below: 2 Para march past the Oosterbeek Gas Works - "Are there many of you ?" "Yes there are thousands of us" Building scratch built by Malcolm Taylor. Towed 6 pounder - SHQ. Note the slit trenches disguised with chopped foam until they are required for later battles. Left: A close up of the entrance gate to the Gas Works

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Introduction

References

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

2

2

A Summary of Operation Market Garden

Wargaming Notes

3

6

10 The Campaign Area in 8' x 5' Tables

The Scenarios

1. XXX Corps Breakout 23

2. Groesbeek Heights Counter Attack 26

3. Battle in the Woods 28

4. Charge of the Paras 30

5. Assault on the Waal 33

6. Dash for Elst 36

7. Cutting the Corridor at Koevering 38

8. Siege of Oosterbeek 40

The Organisation Tables

XXX Corps 42

German Kampfgruppe Walther 49

US 101st Airborne Division (Screaming Eagles) 50

German Units in the 101st Airborne Area 52

US 82nd Airborne Division (All Americans) 54

German Units in the 82nd Airborne Area 56

The German Build Up on Betuwe 57

British 1st Airborne Division 58

Germans at Arnhem 62

German Forces Deployed against the Poles on the South Bank 64

Division von Tettau 65

The 1 st Airborne 'Grand Manner' Game 66

Allied Vehicle and Weapon Classifications 69

German Vehicle and Weapon Classifications 71

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INTRODUCTION

The heroic struggle of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem in September 1944 has fascinated post WW2 generations and this battle, and most other historical aspects of Operation Market Garden, have been well documented in books and films. In this book I have attempted to do something different by writing a wargamer's ready reference guide to the campaign.

There are historical summaries and organisation tables (using the normal RAPID FIRE! scale approximations of 1 : 15 for figures and 1 : 5 for vehicles and crew served weapons) for all three Allied Airborne Divisions and the ground forces that were involved in the main drive towards the 'prize' of the Arnhem bridges. More tables provide all the German units that were used against this offensive and which ultimately forced the evacuation of the 1 st Airborne survivors from their foothold north of the Lower Rhine.

There are eight game scenarios based on events within the campaign together with some rule suggestions to recreate the 'feel' of these battles. The whole campaign area is represented by a series of tabletop maps (based on 8' x 5' tables) and there are ready

REFERENCES

reference tables for the equipment used by both sides. A practical 'Grand Manner' game is also suggested to refight the whole British 1st Airborne action.

The research for this book has taken several years and involved a couple of battlefield tours (which I can highly recommend). However, it would be impossible to complete a project like this without the support of fellow garners and it is only right that I express my thanks to those whose shared enthusiasm has spurred me on to write the guide. In particular Malcolm Taylor, Tony Chadburn, Mick Sewell, Dale Rawson and Richard Marsh for making the models/terrain and the play tests; Duncan Macfarlane for the photographs; Jeff Dugdale, Steve Cox, Alan Brown (Airborne Forces Museum), Michael Percy (SHQ) and Dave Howitt (Britannia) who generously provided constructive comment on the unit organisations. A special 'thank you' to Denise Rowntree who persevered in producing the tabletop maps from my rough sketches and finally 'ta' to my long suffer­ing better half, Sue, who has encouraged me throughout and regularly excused me washing up duties so I could get on and get the job finished.

It Never Snows in September Robert 1. Kershaw Ian Allan Publishing (1994)

Viking (1994) Arnhem 1944 - The Airborne Battle Martin Middlebrook

The Devil' s Birthday Geoffrey Powell

September 1944 - Operation Market Garden Korthals AlteslMargryl ThurlingN osskuil

Arnhem: A Tragedy of Errors Peter Harclerode

Men at Arnhem Geoffrey Powell

Arnhem 1944 Operation Market Garden Stephen Badsey

Papermac (1984)

De Haan (1987)

Arms and Armour Press (1994)

Leo Cooper (1998)

Osprey (1993)

Various Battle Reports and Extracts from Unit Histories, After the Battle Magazine etc

The film classics, 'Theirs is the Glory' and 'A Bridge Too Far'

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A SUMMARY OF OPERATION MARKET GARDEN

The Plan

The overall objective of Operation Market Garden was to establish a 21 st Army Group bridgehead across the Lower Rhine river at Arnhem which would allow an Allied thrust into Germany and the Ruhr in the autumn of 1944. To achieve this XXX Corps (Guards Armoured Division, 43rd 'Wessex' Infantry Division and supporting units) would advance at full speed from their forward positions at Joe's Bridge in Belgium to Arnhem, passing through 100 km of enemy-held Holland along the way.

Field Marshall Montgomery's plan was to capture five major flver crossings along the road to Arnhem (which came to be known as 'The Corridor') by dropping a 'carpet' of three airborne divisions on or around bridges, and then to drive XXX Corps at speed up the road and over the bridges using an armoured column reinforced by artillery and air support. The airborne part of the Operation was 'Market' and the ground forces involvement was 'Garden'.

WIst US Airborne Division (The Screaming Eagles), commanded by Major General Maxwell D. Taylor was ordered to drop between Veghel and Eindhoven and to capture, and keep open, XXX Corps' corridor over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son and the Zuid Willems Vaart Canal at Veghel, as well as to secure crossings over the smaller rivers Dommel and Aa.

GERMANY

• Ij ssels teyn

Ven a

10 miles15 ! I

The Market Garden corridor

82nd US Airborne

Division (The All Americans), commanded by

Brigadier General James M. Gavin, was tasked to drop

between Grave and Groesbeek,

to take the bridges over the

river Maas at Grave and the

Waal at Nijmegen, and

to dominate the high ground, known as the

Groesbeek Heights, between

Nijmegen and the German

border.

The job of 1st British Airborne Division, commanded by General Roy E. Urquhart, with General Stanislaw Sosabowski's Independent Polish Parachute Brigade in support, was to capture the bridges at Arnhem and to establish a bridgehead north of the Lower Rhine. They were to be relieved by XXX Corps within two days.

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Opening Moves

The operation began at 1300 hours on Sunday, 17th September 1944 with simultaneous airborne landings along the whole Corridor. By the end of the first day the bridges at Veghel, St Oedenrode and Son had been captured by paras from 101st Airborne, though the Son bridge had been destroyed.

The following day Eindhoven was liberated and, although there were several interruptions from German flank attacks, 101st Airborne kept open their 25 km of road (which they named 'Hell's Highway'), throughout the operation.

Further north, in 82nd Airborne's area, Grave bridge had beyn taken by 504th Para­chute Infantry Regiment and the Groesbeek Heights area occupied by the 505th and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiments. The Nijmegen bridges were not taken until the arrival of XXX Corps on 20th September. From then onwards 82nd Airborne kept the Corridor to Nijmegen open with assistance from XXX Corps as it advanced.

The British 1st Parachute Brigade and 1st Airlanding Brigade landed northwest of Arnhem and while the Airlanding Brigade deployed to defend the landing and dropping zones for later 'lifts' the three parachute battalions and supporting elements began their moves towards the bridges. 1 st Battalion took the northern 'Leopard' route, 3rd Battalion the middle 'Tiger' route and 2nd Battalion the lower 'Lion' route. 1st and 3rd Battalions progress was quickly blocked by a 'scratch' German force from Training and Replacement Battalion 16 under SS Captain Sepp Krafft.

Setbacks at Arnhem

Although the railway bridge was blown by the Germans, by nightfall the northern end of

the Arnhem road bridge was in the hands of elements of 2nd Parachute Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel John Frost who had slipped into Arnhem relatively unopposed.

However, German reaction to the landings had been swift and although 4th Parachute Brigade arrived on 18th September, counter-attacks, particularly by veterans from the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, prevented reinforcement of 2nd Parachute Battalion.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR THE MOVIE

'1 'm not sure if it's a case of us comingfor

you or you comingfor us"

"Well we'lljust wait for xxx Corps

then"

"That would probably be best"

Sean Connery

(Mqjor General Urquhart)

&

Anthotry Hopkins

(Lieutenant Colonel Frost)

The British were unable to hold onto Arnhem Bridge and by 0500 hours on Thursday, 21st September, Frost's men had all been killed or captured. Meanwhile, in the face of relentless German pressure, the remainder of the Division had withdrawn into an area backing onto the north bank of the Lower Rhine at Oosterbeek, 5 km west of the bridge. This area became known as the 'Cauldron', and here the British dug in and awaited the arrival of XXX Corps.

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XXX Corp~

At 1435 hours on 17th September, shortly after the first airborne troops landed, XXX Corps began to advance from Joe's Bridge.

The German defenders resisted more than expected. By the end of the first day the Guards had advanced only 12 km to Valkensward. It was not until 0615 hours on Tuesday, 19th September that the first tank rolled over the repaired bridge at Son. At midday ground forces crossed the Grave bridge held by 82nd Airborne and following a detour east via Heumen, reached the outskirts of Nijmegen. The first assault on the Nijmegen road bridge began at 1500 hours. German resistance was fierce and 9th SS Division contested every building. In Hunner Park, a heavy fortified area near the ancient Valkhof and Belvedere Tower at the southern end of the road bridge, they stopped the attack.

That night, units of 10th SS were ferried in by the Germans to reinforce the Valkhof area. Not until dusk on Wednesday, 20th September did tanks from the Grenadier Guards cross the Nijmegen bridge, following a courageous river assault by the 3rd Battalion of 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment commanded by Major Julian Cook. When resistance by Frost's 2nd Parachute Battalion collapsed at the northern end of the Arnhem bridge on Thursday morning, German tanks and supporting units moved south over the bridge towards Nijmegen.

The ground between the Rhine at Arnhem, and the Waal at Nijmegen was known as 'The Island' and it was there, on Thursday, 21st September, around the small village of Elst that XXX Corps moving north met the panzers of 10th SS moving south.

The End

XXX Corps' advance was blocked and despite a bold parachute drop between Elst and Driel by the Polish Parachute Brigade on 21st September, and subsequent night­time river crossing attempts, only marginal reinforcement of 1 st Airborne proved possible.

During the night of 24th/25th September the 4th Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment attempted to cross the Lower Rhine in assault boats. The Germans had been alerted and brought down heavy fire from mortars and machine guns. By daybreak only 239 men had reached the north bank in small groups. However, the vast majority landed outside the 1 st Airborne perimeter and most were quickly killed, wounded or captured.

On the morning of 25th September it was decided that the besieged survivors of 1st Airborne Division should be evacuated across the Lower Rhine. The withdrawal began at 2145 hours and heavy rain, wind and an artillery barrage helped conceal the movements of the paras.

By the time the operation (called Operation Berlin) ceased at 0550 hours on the 26th about 2,400 had made it to the south bank. They left behind about 300 (mostly wounded) men in the perimeter. In total 1st Airborne lost over 7,200 killed, wounded and missing.

Gern1an units fighting in Arnhem and Oosterbeek had lost on average 50% of their strengths with some being virtually wiped out.

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