Parts of 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg successfully blocked the highway between Nijmegen and Arnhem, and thus effectively sealed the fate of the Allied paratroopers trapped in Arnhem. After the battle, food, medical supplies and personnel to look after the 2,000 British casualties were in short supply. Despite their status as Prisoners of War, German Commanders agreed to let the Airborne medics treat these casualties. German resources were also stretched dealing with their own casualties. What emerged was a British-administered Hospital established at Apeldoorn, near Arnhem which would later become known as the 'Airborne Hospital'. German forces soon established an evacuation chain by ambulance and truck from Arnhem to Apeldoorn. Whilst SS troops guarded the hospital initially, they were soon replaced by regular German soldiers - many of whom were rather old and were quickly nick-named the ‘Bismarck Youth’ by the British. The Germans also agreed more serious cases to be transferred by German ambulance into local Dutch hospitals with more acceptable surroundings. Colonel Graeme Warrack of the British 1st Airborne Division later reported the Germans provided a great deal of help after being impressed by the fighting spirit and gallantry of the British 1st Airborne. Credit: ParaData. Top image: a StuG III of the Frundsberg, with one road wheel missing, another partially destroyed, and with a good chunk of the left mudguard gone, pictured in Maaseik on its way up north towards the Arnhem area in Sept. 1944. FU. Second image: Kriegsberichter Leutnant Erich Wenzel is seen here standing in a Luftwaffe paratrooper splinter camouflage smock in the corner of Johan de Wittlaan and Boulevard Heuvelink in Arnhem. Luftwaffe correspondents Wenzel and Jacobsen of Luftflotte 3 arrived in Arnhem on Sept. 19 1944, and spent the next 48 hours in the area subordinated to the 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen. They shot several rolls of film of which six have survived more or less intact. Photo by KB Jacobsen. Credit: Jakob Lagerweij. c. Bundesarchiv. Third image: a StuG III of the Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280 attached to the Hohenstaufen have stopped just before the junction of the Utrechtseweg and Onderlangs in a mop up operation with SS-Kampfgruppe Harder against British positions. The helmeted officer standing in the cupola is believed to be the highly decorated Austrian Oberwachtmeister Josef Mathes. The 36-year-old Mathes was killed in action later the same day in west Arnhem on Sept. 19 1944. Photo by KB Jacobsen. Credit: Jakob Lagerweij. c. Bundesarchiv. Fourth image: SS-Kampfgruppe Harder of the Hohenstaufen evacuating wounded Brits outside a British main dressing station in Arnhem on Sept. 20 1944. One of the POWs have been identified as Platoon Commander Robson Foster of the Glider Pilot Regiment. Foster died on Nov. 2 1994. Photo by KB Erich Wenzel. Credit: Julius Backman. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: British Major John Timothy of 'R' Company of 1st Parachute Battalion, with Lieutenant Vladimir Alexandrovich Britnev of Russian origin and Lieutenant Anthony Driver shortly after being caught by the SS hiding in a house in the Arnhem area. On the extreme right is the veteran SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Möller, the Kommandeur of Hohenstaufen's SS-Panzer-Pionier-Abteilung 9. As a former volunteer with the Austrian SS-Standarte Der Führer, Möller had been part of the
Westervoort crossing east of Arnhem back in May 1940. When he returned with Hohenstaufen to the Arnhem area in early Sept. 1944, he stood on well known turf. He later wrote that his men fought from room to room, from garden to garden and from tree to tree in
der Hexenkessel, the Witches Cauldron, as the Germans called the Arnhem perimeter. Möller died aged 93 on Nov. 16 1998. The pictured POWs also survived the war, Timothy died on Oct. 24 2011, Britnev died on April 28 1994 and Driver died on Jan. 7 2002. Photo by KB Jacobsen on Sept. 19 1944. Credit: Doug Banks. c. Bundesarchiv.
My father was an mg42 gunner at Arnhem and caught two Paras fence hopping there. He says he made them drop their weapons and he pointed his thumb down the road and they walked off. He says they didn't really have facilities where he was to take prisoners so he just 'buggered them off'. He was captured a month later at Nijmegen.
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ReplyDeleteThe townhouses still stands. The very same location today (Onderlangs in Arnhem): https://www.google.com/maps/@51.9838752,5.8839799,3a,75y,138.21h,86.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suLRdfMFKgJDmsYQFZ89y_A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
ReplyDeleteOnly 10 vehicles of Brigade 280 were used at any one time at Arnhem. Three guns were lost.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking Western POWs were treated well by the Germans. My grandfather was one of them. Said he was treated with respect. Don't believe everything you see in the movies.
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