This weekend I played a Memoir '44 scenairio regarding the Arnhem bridge. I was curious as to the accuracy of the scenairio.
On the Allies right in the setup there were two artillery units dug into town hexes. (one was in a particularly advantageous position straddling the right and center sections of the board for those familiar with the game.)
Is this at all accurate? Did the paratroops at Arnhem have artillery pieces with them? And what sort were they if so? And how did they get them there? Gliders?
I figure someone here can clue me in faster than I can get to the library the next few days. And that sort of detail isn’t something you usually find in web content.
I don’t have a verifiable sourse off handand it has been years since I studies the battle, But I know they used Gliders and I believe I read that they had a couple hunded artillery pieces. Along with scout vehicles. As to having good position, that would be questionable. The only thing the 1st Allied Arborne Army had going for them was some damn hard fighters.
I don’t have a verifiable sourse off handand it has been years since I studies the battle, But I know they used Gliders and I believe I read that they had a couple hunded artillery pieces.
A couple of hundred IN Arnhem to take the bridge or dedicated to the offensive up the road?
I’m okay with a few liberites for gameplay but any artillery at all came as a bit of a surprise.
This is the setup we were playing.
I was very surprised to see artillery in the setup at all is why I was asking.
For the Arnhem mission, “Operation Market-Garden”, The 1st A/L Anti-Tank Battery was again under command of 1st Parachute Brigade. B Troop, along with the Battery HQ of 1st A/L Anti-Tank Battery and HQ 1st Parachute Brigade were assigned to accompany Lt. Col. John Frost’s 2nd Battalion on the river road into Arnhem. Due to confusion at the landing zones an additional gun of C Troop also joined the 2nd Battalion column by mistake. The guns arrived at the bridgehead sometime after 8pm on Sunday the 17th and were parked in a builders yard until the troop officer could decide on where best to deploy them. One gun was deployed to the East of the bridge in an industrial complex, two others were deployed to the rear of the Brigade HQ building (The Arnhem Municipal Works) which left two guns to cover the bridge ramp and approaches from the north. It was these two guns who were the major players in the destruction of “Graebners Column”, forever immortalized in “A Bridge Too Far”.
Firing a combination of APDS and Solid Shot these two guns were credited with 12-14 AFV’s knocked out or damaged, including a PzKfw VI (Tiger I). As the perimeter around the bridge collapsed the guns and crews fell victim to incessant mortar , artillery and small-arms fire which prevented the guns from being served. All of the guns & personnel at the bridge finally succumbed to the same fate of the 2nd Battalion and were taken prisoner when ammunition finally ran out.
The other troops of the battery were deployed as follows: A Troop was assigned to accompany the 1st Parachute Battalion. C Troop was assigned to accompany the 3rd Parachute Battalion. D & P Troops (the 17 pdr’s) were assigned to HQ Royal Artillery for deployment within the divisional perimeter and Z Troop was assigned to the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment as gun position security.
This information was sourced from the excellent book on the exploits of the Royal Artillery titled “Gunners At Arnhem” , by Peter Wilkinson MC.
Thanks, Fish. :-)
Just imagine being one of those guys, you, your gun crew, a jeep, a 6 pounder and 40 some rounds behind enemy lines…
Is that crazy brave or just plain brave?
lol, I think it’s Bravery mixed with gulibility:
“Don’t worry fellas XXX corp will be there in two days, plenty of time to relieve you.”
I know they were resupplied by air a couple times, so maybe they got more ammo, but I read that the usual trailer for ammo wouldn’t fit in the glider so they were limited to the amount of ammo they could cram in the jeep. I supose when the ammo for the gun ran out they became under equiped Infantry…
Was Arnhem the 82nd, 101st or the British 6th’s set of bridges?
LT
Frimmel,
I started making a scale map of the entire “Operation Market Garden.” If you go to pace 1 of WWII History here there is a topic I started. It has the entire scenario so you’ll want to just focus on you piece of it.
LT
lol, I think it’s Bravery mixed with gulibility:
“Don’t worry fellas XXX corp will be there in two days, plenty of time to relieve you.”
I know they were resupplied by air a couple times, so maybe they got more ammo, but I read that the usual trailer for ammo wouldn’t fit in the glider so they were limited to the amount of ammo they could cram in the jeep. I supose when the ammo for the gun ran out they became under equiped Infantry…
I suppose so. Undertrained as well as under equiped infantry probably without a medic or enough rifles to go around.
I think about Shelby Foote in the Burns Civil War documentary. He was talking about Picketts men and said something on the lines of “They couldn’t not go.” With as haunted a look as I’d ever seen from someone who hadn’t lived thru the event.
Thanks LT04. I’ll check it out.
When I Googled before posting I saw the link Fish posted but I’d only read the top paragraph and went “This isn’t what I need.” But it did answer the question of how much ‘liberty’ the scenario designer had taken which seems to be not very much.
I would say when you consider the number of actual guns with the number of actual men you might have been a bit heavy, but there is a base for it…
@LT04:
Was Arnhem the 82nd, 101st or the British 6th’s set of bridges?
LT
Arnham was the British Objective, the 101st landed near Eindhoven and the 82nd landed near Nijmegen
The 101st was closest to XXX corp and the british were at the “bridge to far”
Dezrtfish,
That’s what I thought. Then you may also need to consider the free Polish ABN REG. They landed in the open field across the river from the British. They were supposed to comindeer a farry there but it was destroyed before they got there. The Germans had an elevated position with the cover of the town and shreaded the Polish. Also the Pol’s didn’t get there till a day after the British.
Frimmel I hope that helps.
LT
Yeah, the Poles major contribution to the effort ended up being a distraction for a few days. I think I rememeber reading that like 8 of the Polish made it out with out being captured or killed.
