PR photo that almost stopped operation Market-Garden

[Frank Olynyk]

A stub for the original article by Brian Urquhart can be found at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/arti...rticle_id=4678

From the New York Review of Books, Vol 34, No 14, Sept 24, 1987. For a $3 fee the full article can be read, and I assume saved to one's computer.

A bibliography of his writings in the NYRofBs is at http://www.nybooks.com/authors/83

A comment on the original article, and his response to it is at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4560

Frank.

[Six Nifty .50s]

I have to wonder exactly what was photographed, and where. It's not clear if any of the few panzers that fought in Arnhem belonged to the 9th or 10th SS Panzer Divisions (I do not refer to those photographed after the battle). Elsewhere a company of non-SS heavy tanks (Tiger II) fought at Oosterbeek, with another company at Elst, but these units were in Germany when the battle began.

The film A Bridge Too Far fails to appreciate that Bittrich's Panzer Korps was almost completely destroyed in Normandy. The 9th and 10th SS divisions had more tail than teeth at that point. Most of their heavy equipment was wrecked or abandoned during the retreat to the Netherlands. Casualty reports suggested that division rear services and support units survived largely intact, but technicians and noncombat troops lacked the training to be employed as infantry. Bittrich was authorized to have about 400 tanks and self-propelled antitank guns. By 17th September 1944 he had about 35 panzers in working condition, and it appears that most if not all were re-tasked to Nijmegen, Elst or the Albert Canal area. The panzergrenadier battalions were also shattered in France and did not get many replacements. The armored recon battalion from the 9th SS was probably the only combat unit in good shape to intervene at Arnhem, but not for long thanks to bad leadership. In summary, Bittrich had a Panzer Korps only on paper and was so weak that he needed help from many other German units that were not mentioned in the movie.

[Dennis Peschier]

Adriano,
It is indeed strange that Middlebrook didn’t do more research on the PR missions. During his distinguished career he wrote many excellent books on WW2 air operations so he must be familiar with this material.

Chris, Amrit1, Frank
Thanks for sharing this with us. It would be interesting to know what he remembers about these photographs.

For those of you that are interested in the German tanks etc. I would advise “German Aroured Units at Arnhem, September 1944”by Marcel Zwarts. A 72 page book which lists numbers and types of vehicles for all units, many photographes that I had not seen before and some nice colour profiles.

Dennis

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Dennis Peschier

I would advise “German Aroured Units at Arnhem, September 1944”by Marcel Zwarts.Dennis

Robert Kershaw's "It Never Snows in September" (Ian Allan) is also very good on the German side of the fighting, including the many "scratch" units involved.