Airmen Of Arnhem

A history of the airborne portion of Operation Market-Garden during World War II, from the perspective of the airmen fighting the battle. Martin Bowman presents an unparalleled account of events as they unfolded in the skies above Holland during Operation Market-Garden in September 1944. Market-Garden was a heroic failure conducted at great cost; combined losses—both airborne and ground forces—in killed, wounded, and missing amounted to more than 17,000. “Market,” the airborne part of the operation, spanned ten Allied lifts in a calamitous nine days of operations, often in foul weather. Over the course of Operation “Market,” 4,050 aircraft saw employment; most of them towed the 1,205 Hamilcar and Horsa gliders and were confronted by an unknown number of Luftwaffe aircraft. This is narrative is punctuated with stories of individual heroism such as that of David Lord, a RAF Dakota pilot who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. There is no doubting the gallant and valorous contribution of the airmen of Arnhem—the RAF Dakota, Stirling, Halifax, Albemarle, Horsa, Hamilcar, and Glider Pilot Regiment crews together with those of the USAAF C-47 Troop Carrier Groups of the IX U.S. Troop Carrier Command, the Waco and Horsa gliders, and the B-24 Liberator resupply crews. All their incredible, illuminating, and often understated accounts of extraordinary courage, camaraderie, shared terror, and encounters with the enemy offer a more personalized view of “Market” and are complemented by the author’s background information that give an overall picture of each air operation.

The fierce struggle between the British 1st Airborne Division and the superior German forces in and around Arnhem is well documented. This book tells of the role played in the battle for Oosterbeek and the bridge at Arnhem itself by the men of the Glider Pilot Regiment (GPR). These men were already experienced soldiers who volunteered to join the airborne forces and take the fight to the Germans in a totally new regiment.The men of the GPR were predominantly SNCOs trained to fly wooden assault gliders into occupied territory. Once on the ground they were expected to go into battle with the troops they had delivered onto the Landing Zone. During the Arnhem operation they were involved in the initial defense of the LZs, before fighting house to house leading mixed groups of infantrymen, engineers and medics. In so doing they suffered extensive losses from which the Regiment never fully recovered. This book tells their story in their own words from the moment they landed on Dutch soil through the fierce fighting all around the ever shrinking perimeter until the survivors of the GPR proudly marked the route out for the battered survivors of 1st Airborne Division as they escaped over the Rhine.

On September 17th, 1944, three Allied airborne divisions - two American, one British, totaling 30,000 men - landed at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem in Holland. Their task was to lay an 'airborne carpet' across Holland to the Rhine, seizing vital bridges and opening up a route for an advance into northern Germany by the British Second Army. This book covers all aspects of that massive operation, which was code-named "Market Garden" and deals with the German side as well as the British and American. Above all, it tells of the epic and heroic stand of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, where the paratroops fought against increasingly hopeless odds for nine days. They were supposed to have held on for only two, until the ground offensive reached them. It never did.

Arnhem - it was the last major battle lost by the British Army, lost not by the men who fought there but by the overconfidence of generals, faulty planning and the failure of a relieving force given too great a task. If the operation of which Arnhem formed a part had been successful, the outcome of the war and the history of post-war Europe would have been greatly altered. Yet is it worth another book? I had fulfilled all my literary ambitions by researching and writing thirteen full-length books and was ready to retire from that laborious craft when Peter van Gorsel, head of Penguin's Dutch office, asked me to write a book on Arnhem for the fiftieth anniversary in 1994. It was the first time that my publishers had requested a book; all previous subjects had been my choice. I eventually agreed for several reasons. I had not previously researched and written about the British Army in the Second World War and had not previously done any work in Holland; so two fresh fields were opened up to me. I also felt that the fighting in and around Arnhem had still not been described in the detail that it merited.

This book tells the story of the search for the men aboard a huge Horsa glider that sailed into the Battle at Arnhem on 18 September 1944. In the early phase of the battle the pilots of the British engineless plane wish their passengers good luck in their race for the Arnhem bridges, probably never to see them again. 54 years later one of the pilots, Sergeant Morley 'Taffy' Williams, visiting the Netherlands for the annual commemorations of the battle, meets a Dutch journalist and expresses his deep wish to find out what happened to his passengers of that fateful flight to Arnhem. Together they decide to start a search for them. Over six years later this investigation has resulted in a moving personal story of the Battle at Arnhem. The captivating stories of the airbornes give the reader a surprising and gripping view on the events. As a fascinating consequence the search has led to several unexpected renewed personal contacts between the pilot and some of his passengers and their relatives. It also rekindled the search for some of Morley's passengers that are still missing.

The third volume of this four-part series on Operation 'Market-Garden' in September 1944 draws on many individual soldiers and airmen's narratives to tell the story of the ongoing fight to keep the Hell's Highway' open to relieve 1st Airborne at Arnhem, and the brave attempts to re-supply them from the air. As in previous volumes, this account offers a unique perspective on all aspects of aerial activity during this pivotal operation. This volume tells of the Allied effort to retain supremacy in the skies. Individual tales of gallantry work to humanize the account, rooting the action very much in the human experience of conflict. Such tales include the never to be forgotten story of the 'Angel of Arnhem' and the acts of chivalry that existed on both sides - even among battle hardened units such as the SS Panzer Grenadiers. All are unique in the annals of war. These and the other personal recollections of Allied soldiers and airmen and their German adversaries tell of extreme courage, camaraderie and shared terror under fire. And they are complemented by the author's background information that puts each narrative into wartime perspective.

Over sixty years ago a battle took place that, if it had succeeded, could have shortened the Second World war by six months. The operation to take the bridges at Arnhem was given the code name 'Operation Market Garden', Market being the air side of the operation and Garden the subsequent ground operation. The main problem was communications between the ground forces and the re-supply aircraft of the Royal Air Force.Its their efforts and the courage on evident display at Arnhem that the book is based upon. Over a period of seven days troops of the 1st Airborne were taken by the RAF in towed gliders and then in subsequent days showed courage of the highest order to make sure that the ground troops were supplied with ammunition and food to sustain them in their efforts to take the bridges at Arnhem. Their efforts were costly, 309 aircrew and 79 Air Dispatchers were killed and 107 aircraft, which included the men and aircraft who supported the main re-supply armada.One of the re-supply aircraft, flown by F/Lt David Lord DFC, was shot down. Lord was later awarded the Victoria Cross. His courage and dedication are exemplary of the efforts of the men of Transport Command to make sure the men on the ground were re-supplied. The men of the Air Dispatchers, or AD's as they were known, must always be remembered when regarding Arnhem. Their efforts to make sure the supplies were released from the aircraft, and on to the besieged men on the ground, was a vital factor in getting vital supplies to the troops successfully.This is their story, vividly told, and serves a commemorative purpose, memorialising both the events and, most importantly, the men who participated.