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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 6:55:13 GMT -7
Ede - Saturday the airborne landings on the Ginkelse Heide in Ede. Traditionally, the Red Berets of the 11 Airmobile Brigade in Schaarsbergen put their best foot forward. They do this together with about 1000 soldiers from twelve different countries during the international paratrooper exercise Falcon Leap.
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 6:56:15 GMT -7
Whitstable - He would have loved to come to the Netherlands again, the 98-year-old veteran Peter Colthub. But he is bedridden in his cottage in the English coastal town of Whitstable. A combination of an old war wound and a worn out knee keeps the old glider pilot going nowhere for the time being.
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 6:58:02 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 7:01:34 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 7:02:44 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 7:03:16 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 7:36:51 GMT -7
Folks,
The large tragedy is that the Poles were dropped on the wrong spot and many of them were shot in the air or on the ground by heavily armed German Waffen SS troops that were stationed near Arnhem. Rather heavily armed SS Panzer brigades (tanks), which were also well armed with heavy machine guns and automatic weapons. The Germans had more heavy arms, elite forces with training on both the Eastern Front and the Western Front (Normandy). The Poles jumped right into the area where Waffen SS divisions were that were resting from balttle in Normandy on the Western front. German MG42 (Maschinengewehr 1942) machine guns, StG 44 (Sturmgewehr 44) and maybe the Maschinenkarabiner 42(W) and the MG 81 (belt fed 7.92×57mm Mauser machine gun). Towards the end of the war many MG 81's were delivered to the army and equipped for use in ground battles with shoulder rest and bipod. Next to that the SS Panzer divisions were armed with heavy armoured vehicles, tanks and artillery.
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery made great mistakes at Market Garden and ingored warnings of the Dutch resistance that these Waffen-SS divisions were there. On 16 September Ultra reports revealed the movement of the 9th SS and 10th SS Panzer Divisions to Nijmegen and Arnhem, creating enough concern for Eisenhower to send his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, to raise the issue with Montgomery on 10 September. However, Montgomery dismissed Smith's concerns and refused to alter the plans for the landing of 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem.
On the German side you had the very experienced and battle hardened 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" (German: 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen") and the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" (German: 10. SS-Panzerdivision "Frundsberg"). The 10. SS-Panzerdivision "Frundsberg" first battles were in Ukraine in April 1944. Afterwards, the unit was then transferred to the west, where it fought the Allies in France and at Arnhem. The division was moved to Pomerania, then fought south east of Berlin in the Lusatian area until the end of the war.
The 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" participated in battles on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The division was activated in December 1942. Many of the men of the division were young German conscripts, with a cadre of NCOs and staff from the SS Division Leibstandarte and other Waffen SS divisions. Hohenstaufen took part in the relief of German forces in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket, the Normandy battles, Operation Market Garden, the Ardennes Offensive and Operation Spring Awakening. The division surrendered to the United States Army on 8 May 1945, at Steyr.1st Independent Parachute Brigade (Poland)The 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade was a parachute infantry brigade of the Polish Armed Forces in the West under the command of Major General Stanisław Sosabowski, created in September 1941 during the Second World War and based in Scotland.
Originally, the brigade's exclusive mission was to drop into occupied Poland in order to help liberate the country. The British government, however, pressured the Poles into allowing the unit to be used in the Western theatre of war. Operation Market Garden eventually saw the unit sent into action in support of the British 1st Airborne Division at the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944.
The Poles were initially landed by glider from 18 September, whilst, due to bad weather over England, the parachute section of the Brigade was held up, and jumped on 21 September at Driel on the South bank of the Rhine. The Poles suffered significant casualties during the next few days of fighting, but still were able, by their presence, to cause around 2,500 German troops to be diverted to deal with them for fear of their supporting the remnants of the 1st Airborne trapped over the lower Rhine in Oosterbeek.
Major General Stanisław Sosabowski, commander of the 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade
Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:38:45 GMT -7
Gene Hackman as Major General Stanisław Sosabowski in the movie 'A Bridge to far'
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:41:08 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:44:43 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:45:11 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:45:57 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:46:28 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:47:46 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 17, 2021 9:49:32 GMT -7
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