European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 17, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cimon null Frum i tic 14 West of la Bridge because their pilots were1 leery of possible concentrated anti aircraft fire Al around it thus a vey airborne Rule Landing close enough to the objective to Surprise the enemy was broken my inc paratroopers surprised no one except the dutchmen into whose wide open Fields they fell there War yet another ominous indication of the future Vihti  germans found the Complete plan Lor mail it Garden m a crashed glider enabling them of Greet a Waves of parachutists with to Rentof Tiro on lop of Thi .orneho.v, Der a to their elaborate Quai trooper1 carrying to n than 100 pounds complained Fiat the could hard climb aboard their literal the Lii Itoh soon discovered that i hair radios Wren t we i in it Jet As if  by gremlins All their radios warned of malfunction at once As Throe battalions  Oil the Landing  into wooded and built up areas thine morn battalions stayed behind to guard the drop Rones Goon units were out of touch with each other and win the outside As Well moving eastward by different Mam roads Tho 1st and 3rd battalions were halted by heavy German fire the 2nd battalion led by 11 col John Frost hurrying along a  Road near the River was the Only unit to knife toward the Bridge on the Way. They saw a Railroad Bridge blown up by the germans the unusable Pontoon Bridge the big one the Bridge too far was still there with its great Brown Stone supports and Long approach ramps Over both Banks pros and his men look up positions in big three Story houses and buildings on both sides of fhe Northern ramp their attempts to storm the Bridge s Southern Side were turned Back by the strongly positioned germans and Frost and his men settled in to Wail Lor either their follow paratroopers or the second army to reach them meanwhile they resisted Ever growing ferocious pressure both from is across the River and from those closing in around them on the North Side accounts of the Battle show thai Over the next Days virtually everything that could go wrong went wrong for the red devils of arnhem the weather turned bad reinforcing Waves would arrive hours Days Lale. Dropping into the wrong positions some baled Down in the Middle of Battles and wore blown away by Friend and toe alike some especially the poles found germans wailing to gun them out of the sky Lvery German gun seemed to be concentrating on the  defenceless  wrote Cornelius Ryan in a Bialic Lua of t for an English Captain it was the most  he had Ever seen wrote Ryan German plans a dived Al the defenceless polish transports blasting them out of the air parachutists tied to net of of burning aircraft some of which had nosed Over and were diving to the ground bodies of men tumbled through the a a inert forms int tag jowly Down dead before they hit the ground. The Caplain close to tears wondered " where the hell is our if support. The weather nonsense the germans hew. Why could t v.c7 " hammered in the air the paratroopers had to Duck through a deadly crossfire on the ground. Meanwhile 90 percent of the Para dropped supplies intended for units in dire need loll into appreciative Gorman hands wailing in captured drop zones. During the Early Days radios still would t work units remained scattered efforts confused. Trying to get control of things and Lind out whal was going on himself. Major Gen Robert Urquhart. The commander charged with the Bridge s capture had to leave divisional Headquarters in a drop zone and race about in a Cep under lire to got caught in Street lighting in which his second in command was wounded and taken prisoner had to hide in an attic Lor several hours then went out again under lire trying to relocate divisional Headquarters by now moved. Alter an absence of 40 hours Urquhart Lound his Headquarters at the Hallenstein hotel in Oosterbeek three Miles Wisl of arnhem he also Lound Murphy s Law Rideg hard in the Saddle things were going irom bad to worse fragmented British units were fighting German Tiger and Panther tanks with rifles and Slen guns at the Bridge Frost s beleaguered battalion repulsing one German attack alter another was walking wounded from operation Market Garden. Running out Al ammo Asil waited desperately Lor its own red devils or the second army to break through Al one Point wrote historian Macdonald. An is armoured column of 22 vehicles tried to ram across the Bridge from lha Southern Side the British with bullets ricocheting Oil girders and Chipping Stone and Wood around them shouted the War cry whoa Mohammed " from Hir North Africa Days then blamed Back away with , thing they had. Blowing is Hal tracks crashing j through the Bridge s parapet and turning the grit in charge into a smoking. Twisted Jam of Strel Bact Iarj up on i sell but of wednesday time and ammunition were running of Lor Frost a men the germans had a Watt of troops and tank Between them and tin Olhorn paratroopers and the counted on second army. The Garden Parl of the operation that Montgomery had presumed would be a simple Lank Roll up a Road that  tankers were calling hell s Highway had stalled on the last 11 mile stretch Between in Mcgon and arnhem americans of the 82nd, who at British urging risked everything to take the Bridge Al Nijm Egen on wednesday now became enraged at British hesitation. The americans had crossed the Waal in Flimsy boats under lire paddling As Hough possessed some paddling with their rifles As boats were blown out of the water around them they then charged on like earless wild men Over hundreds of Yards of open ground to frontally assault up a 20-loot embankment into the Teeth of Gorman machine gun lire and Ihnn beat the germans backward. They could not understand Why the British did not Rush to arnhem and Rescue their Man Frost s dying battalion do they need to Slop to Lake Damn Lea americans growled. Do they want us to hold their hands and take them up there ii was t their Mission but some of the furious paratroopers wanted to charge on and take arnhem Bridge themselves. Brig. Gen. James Gavin Leader of the 82nd, would say i cannot toll you the anger and bitterness of my men. I Lound col. . Tucker Al Dawn so irate thai to was almost unable to speak. To our men there was Only one objective to save i hair brother paratroopers in arnhem. It was  by Tucker and some of Iho other line of Lucers did not appreciate some of the problems the British had at that  British tankers running Short of Luel and ammo while waiting Lor their other units to come on up Wero aware that germans Wero culling the Road Al Diller enl Points fearing an ambush debacle Between Nijm Egen and arnhem unless infantry had cleared the Steep Banks and ditches along the roadsides they proceeded More cautiously More sanely As some put in. British commanders gave Frost s predicament first priority but de Merminod that in would be another 18 hours before icy could Crank up a Lank attack toward arnhem far Loo Lale pressing Forward Block by Block House by House Iho germans unleashed Savage barrages sending tank and artillery Shell alter Shell pumping into houses Whoso whole Walls pooled away As suddenly revealed brits inside scrambled to stay alive. Houses shuddered burned irom phosphorous shells collapsed like dollhouses. I did not see How anyone could live through this inferno a German Soldier later told Cornelius Ryan i truly Lell sorry Lor the  with Frost wounded the remnants of his battalion Down to their last rounds and no help coming the germans overran and captured the valiant tip of the British Spear late wednesday Manloo Briery s daring stroke had also been blunted to the West at oos Lerbeck. Urquhart pulling in his balloted units to form a defensive perimeter Iron the altered Harlens Cin hotel southward to the River a Lew Kilometres away wailed Lor the second army to punch through. Artillery Morlar and machine gun lire inundating the perimeter grew so intense that men were calling it Iho  on neat after action report maps Ryan wrote each unit has its car Lully inked in place but survivors would recall. Thai there was really no perimeter no front Lino no distinction Between units no lighting As integrated groups there Wero Only shocked bandaged bloodstained men running to fill gaps wherever and whenever they occurred outnumbered four to one without ground to air communications running out of everything British troopers spread and happen parachutes on the hotel grounds frantically trying to attract the attention of Allied planes still dropping the bulk of supplies into the hands of germans. Whatever was coming however like the second army was too late. Even the radios that started working Oil and on were too Lale. On Iho night of sell. 25. Alter nine Days of Battle. 2,163 exhausted survivors of the 10.095 men of the 1st airborne division who had gone in with such spirit made it through the Strong wind and rain and raining steel to the Bank of the lower Rhine and were lorried by Small boats 400 Yards Over the Shell bursting River to the Olhorn Side. Even then. Murphy s Lav applied. Not expecting so Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday september 17,1989