Allies forces suffered more casualties in
Operation Market Garden than in the mammoth
invasion of Normandy. In the nine days of Market Garden combined losses-airborne and ground forces-in killed, wounded and missing amounted to more than 17,000. British casualties were the highest: 13,226. The British paratroopers had the shock of finding unexpected resistance, particularly from SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich's II.SS-Panzerkorps, consisting of elements of 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen and its sister formation 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg. American losses are put at 3.974. German casualties are harder to determine, as the records are incomplete. The official casualties estimated by Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt were 3,300 but most historians agree that the number is probably somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000 in total casualties in the entire Market Garden battle area. The Irish-American journalist and author Cornelius Ryan claims Dutch civilian casualties in the Arnhem area were less than 500, while several thousands were killed and wounded in the whole Market Garden operation area. British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery said 90 percent of his objectives were achieved, but Market Garden was a failure. Top image: the bridge at Nijmegen after it had been captured by the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. A dead Waffen-SS pioneer lies where he fell during the attack. He was most likely a soldier of SS-Pionier-Abteilung 10 of the Frundsberg, or of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 19 of the Hohenstaufen. Delays caused by hastily-organised German reinforcements at Nijmegen ultimately led to the failure of Market Garden. The Allied crossing of the River Waal finally took place at 15:00 on Sept. 20 1944, about two kilometres downstream from the bridge, and too late to relieve Arnhem. U.S. official photog. PD. Middle image: freshly-captured British airborne forces of the South Staffordshire Regiment are taken away by the Hohenstaufen. The photo was taken by Luftwaffe KB Leutnant Erich Wenzel in front of the Musis Sacrum in Arnhem on Sept. 19 1944. Credit: Royston Leonard. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: the Germans erected this silent tribute to an unknown British airborne soldier who had fallen during the Battle of Arnhem in Sept. 1944. The photo was taken by Allied forces on April 15 1945. On the cross is written in German, 'Unknown English soldier'. Credit: Paul Reynolds. Public domain.
All they achieved by their tenacious defence of the fatherland was to allow the Russians to gain more territory in the East.
ReplyDeleteThe Germans were faced with dealing with nearly 6,500 British paratrooper POWs in a fortnight; many of them seriously wounded. But the failure to secure Arnhem was not the fault of the airborne forces but of the operation.
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