4/23/2013

Following the breakout from the Normandy beachhead in July 1944, Allied armies drove forward much more swiftly than had been anticipated. General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army quickly overran Brittany, Allied forces liberated Paris on August 25 and from there, the British Second Army surged through Belgium to the Dutch frontier. Although they had penetrated deep into German-held territory with stunning speed, as Sept. 1, 1944, approached, Allied armies were still being supplied from the Normandy beaches 300 miles behind them. As lines of supply grew longer and longer, major logistical problems began to haunt the Allies.

In early September, British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery approached Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, with a plan to push the northern flank of the Allied front forward to secure the channel ports of the low-countries—Belgium and Holland. The move would, in theory, open those ports, shorten the lines of supply and make it possible for the British XXX Corps to force the right flank of Germany’s defensive line, cross the Rhine River and drive into the heart of the Reich. The boldness of the plan even contemplated a swift capture of Berlin and a swift end to the war. Eisenhower remembered that, “Montgomery suddenly presented the proposition that, if we would support his Twenty-first Army Group with all supply facilities available, he could rush right on into Berlin and, he said, end the war.” Although it meant slowing Patton down, Eisenhower approved Montgomery’s plan.

To secure the way for the overland thrust toward the Rhine, Montgomery recommended the use of Lt. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton’s 1st Allied Airborne Army. According to the Montgomery plan, these divisions would be dropped in broad daylight as much as 64 miles behind enemy lines in Holland, where they would have to seize objectives critical to the success of the battle. Codenamed “MARKET,” the 1st Allied Airborne Army’s role in the operation would be to secure bridges over major waterways in the vicinity of the cities of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem.

With those bridges securely in the hands of Allied airborne forces, the British XXX Corps would advance from its front lines along the Albert Canal in Belgium, first to Eindhoven, the southernmost of the three cities. From there, XXX Corps would continue north to the city of Nijmegen and finally on to Arnhem where it would cross the farthest bridge over the Lower Rhine River.

Because of where they were based in England, the British 1st Airborne Division and the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade were best positioned for the assault on Arnhem. Since Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor’s 101st Airborne Division was based at a series of airfields west of London, it was assigned the southern bridges near Eindhoven. The job of securing the bridges in the center was given to the 82nd Airborne Division, under the command of 37-year-old Maj. Gen. James M. Gavin. As the day of battle approached, Allied sky soldiers, tankers, engineers and infantrymen prepared for their rendezvous with destiny among the dykes and levees of Holland, and young Brits, Poles, Canadians and Americans would confront their enemy with the guns that made World War II famous.

In the morning on Sept. 17, 1944, a total of 1,545 Douglas C-47 transports and 478 gliders departed from 24 airfields in England. After taking off and forming up, the transport formations proceeded out over the English Channel under the protection of 1,130 fighter escort aircraft. At 1 p.m., the men of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment began jumping. On Maj. Gen. Gavin’s C-47, all 18 men went out the door “without a second’s delay.” In his World War II memoir On To Berlin, Gavin described his Holland jump vividly:

“We seemed to hit the ground almost at once. Heavily laden with ammunition, weapons and grenades, I had a hard landing while the parachute was still oscillating. At once we were under small arms fire coming from a nearby woods. I took my .45-caliber pistol out of its holster and laid it on the ground beside my hand.”

The M1911A1 .45 ACP pistol was a gun that came in handy for a number of soldiers that day. Remembering how paratroopers in Normandy had needed an arm that was ready to fire immediately upon landing, a number of 505th men drew their .45s and began firing at Germans on the ground as they drifted downward under their open parachute canopies. Although the men engaging the enemy with their pistols could not have expected their fire to be particularly effective, they must have been pleasantly surprised when most of the Germans broke and ran.

While most high-ranking airborne officers jumped armed with M1A1 Carbines or pistols, Maj. Gen. Gavin jumped that day just as he had for Normandy—armed with the 9 ½-pound M1 Garand rifle. Nearby, Sgt. Dick Wolch of the 508th Parachute Infantry swore as he threw himself out the door of his C-47. Descending under an open canopy, Wolch turned his attention to the ground below when he heard the unmistakable “sharp barks of M1 rifles.” He then watched as seven German anti-aircraft gunners attempted to flee across the DZ toward the shelter of the trees beyond it. Moments before they had been firing anti-aircraft shells at low-flying troop carrier aircraft, but now they were attempting to escape with their lives from a score of 508th paratroopers who had already landed and were beginning to deliver accurate rifle fire. Bullets from the barking M1s quickly stopped the fleeing German gunners and they “fell to the ground and lay still.” Although the M1903 rifle was still in use in the U.S. Army at that time—even in the airborne—it was the M1 Garand rifle that armed most of the Americans in Holland.

Once on the DZ, Sgt. Wolch swiftly retrieved his personal arm—the rugged M1A1 Thompson submachine gun. Designed for, but never used in, the trenches of World War I, the .45 ACP “Tommy Gun” continued to serve the U.S. Army in the autumn of 1944 despite the availability of the M3 “Grease Gun.” As Wolch moved off the DZ, he found that he had landed near a German 20 mm anti-aircraft gun. Both its barrels were “shattered” by hand grenades and the crew lay nearby dead—the “All Americans” had arrived and were already fighting like lions.

Thirty-nine miles to the south, near the Dutch city of Eindhoven, the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division were fighting heroically as well. At about the same time that Dick Wolch and the men of the 508th Parachute Infantry were locked in a vicious battle to secure their DZs near Nijmegen, the “Screaming Eagles” were up against heavy German opposition in the Zonsche Forest near the town of Best. The division’s assigned mission called on it to seize and hold nearby bridges spanning the Wilhelmina Canal, but the opposition was not about to give it up easily. German units streamed up from Eindhoven to attack the Americans the following day, Sept. 18, and a pitched battle swiftly developed in front of H Company, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, leaving the unit’s 2nd platoon surrounded by an enemy force of superior size.

In an urgent attempt to slow the enemy assault, a 22-year-old scout, PFC Joe E. Mann, grabbed a bazooka and crept within range of a supporting German field gun. After knocking out the gun and its supply of ammunition with a pair of rockets, PFC Mann then reached for the greatest battle implement ever devised: the M1 Garand rifle. From his isolated position well out in front of the platoon’s foxholes, he directed a continuous stream of accurate Garand rifle fire at the enemy in complete disregard for the great danger involved. As the German onslaught continued to intensify and PFC Mann continued to burn through en bloc clips of .30-cal. cartridges, he ultimately reached a point where he could no longer hold them off single-handedly. He soon received four serious wounds—two of which were to his arms—so the fearless young paratrooper was returned to his platoon and patched up by a medic.

Although unable to use his arms due to extensive bandaging, PFC Mann refused evacuation and insisted on standing guard on the line overnight. At first light on Sept. 19, the Germans launched another attack that pushed to within a few feet of H Company’s foxholes. Grenades soon began to fly as the assault was pressed home, and one of them landed in the foxhole occupied by PFC Mann and several of his comrades. Without hesitating, Mann acted: since he could not throw it back at the enemy because of his field dressings, he yelled “grenade!” and rolled his body over on top of it. The explosion that inevitably followed moments later ended Joe Mann’s life, but his selfless sacrifice saved the lives of the men nearby. That action also resulted in a posthumous award of the Medal of Honor.