superb Soldbücher both of you well done!
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Originally posted by Revellations View Post
Nice Scott
What awards did he receive? Were any for Arnhem?
Best,
RobComment
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Originally posted by Daniele C View Post
Thanks Daniele I'm quite happy with this one 
If anybody else has any StuG.Brigade 280 IDs or documents - especially any related to the battles in Arnhem during Market Garden - please feel free to post them here
Best,
RobComment
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Rob,Originally posted by Panzer Rob View PostNice Scott What awards did he receive? Were any for Arnhem?
Best,
Rob
Will post information later. None from Arnhem unfortunately.
ScottComment
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Rob et al,
I have decided not to post after my recent experience with Ralle84. For everyone's information, I sent an email to Ralle84 expressing my interest in re-uniting the group and then he gave me a selling price. I accepted this price but he wanted to add more money (10 Euro more than original) for insurance as he prefers to send it this way. I have no problem with that. However before I could respond, he informs me that another collector has offered him 100 Euro plus more and asked if I was still interested.
Now some of you probably have no problem with the above however if he had offered me the soldbuch at the increase price (the extra 100 Euro) the first time - I would have said yes. But I hate how some people play collectors against each other to make a buck. Who gives a sh*t about reuniting groups.....it is all about the Euro/$ etc. Anyway rant over.
ScottComment
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Hi Scott,
I see nothing wrong with what you did -- contacting another member about an item they have posted to see if they'd be interested in selling or trading it -- and I doubt the vast majority here would have a problem with it either. Not only is this how so many have bought and sold several items over the years but more importantly it's how I've met some really great collectors who are members here but don't often or ever post.
That said I am very disappointed to hear about your issues with "Ralle84" but to be honest I cannot say that I'm surprised as I have had similar problems with him. I've emailed you the details. I hope you are able to eventually secure the Soldbuch and reunite it with the documents.
Best,
Rob
Originally posted by Revellations View PostComment
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I thought I'd bring this one back to the top as Wehner was wounded 71 years ago today, 19.September 1944, while fighting in Arnhem with StuG.Brgd.280.
Best,
Rob
Originally posted by Panzer Rob View PostComment
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WOW! An absolutely incredible read on the fighting which took place the day Wehner was wounded!The Germans, meanwhile, were becoming more and more aggressive in their defensive maneuvers as they received additional reinforcements. A little after 0800, D Company repulsed its first counterattack, a company-size thrust from the southeast. An hour later the German self-propelled guns (SPs) from StuG Brigade 280 first appeared. Split into two sections of five guns apiece, and supported by mortars and 20mm anti-aircraft guns and infantry, they worked their way into the British on the upper and lower roads. There was little that the lightly armed Tommy could do against the armored behemoths.Thanks very much for posting
‘Up near the museum we were under close attack from tanks, so close that out battalion mortars, using only primary charges, fired almost vertically in their efforts to hit them,’ Cain remembered. From behind the museum he orchestrated the efforts of two PIAT (projector, infantry, antitank) teams to keep the SPs at a distance. ‘Enemy tanks fired their heavy guns into the dell, which we occupied,’ he said. ‘Our antitank guns could not get up the road because of the pelting fire, so we had to use PIATs to cope with the tanks and our Brens to make them close down. We held them up for about two hours.’
McCardie rotated through his company positions to fight the battle. A little after 1000 at Company D he sent Private Edwards as a runner to contact Company C. Heading back to the hospital, he saw the unit moving forward. After briefing Major Wright, Edwards went back to join his headquarters during the move up. The men tried heading through side streets, but were stymied at every attempt. Coming under increasing fire, the major was killed by a mortar blast near the hospital. With Wright dead and most of HQ Company out of commission, Company C fell back into positions west of the hospital.
The British and Germans now played a deadly game of hide-and-seek between the buildings. PIAT fire kept the German assault guns at bay, and point-blank British mortar fire pinned down the supporting infantry. Heavy fire down the major roads, however, effectively isolated British troops in the museum and the houses across the street, preventing their resupply. At about 1050 the PIAT ammunition in the museum area gave out. German halftracks and self-propelled guns boldly drove onto the grounds to help breach the walls, while the accompanying infantry infiltrated the houses across the street. Using brutal and efficient tactics, the Germans snuffed out the British opposition. The StuGs would knock down a house with cannon fire or set it ablaze with phosphorus. Covered by its supporting armor, the infantry sealed the exits and gave the defenders a grim choice — surrender, retreat through machine gun fire or suffer a fiery death. Soon British positions in the wooded dell and the museum were untenable and in danger of being overrun. Orders were given to evacuate the museum.
McCardie ordered Major Cain to fall back about 200 yards to the rear, with Company A covering the withdrawal. As B Company withdrew, the Germans burst into the museum and captured most of the defenders on the second floor. ‘I suppose it was about mid-morning when I saw the outlines of a large tank through the garden gate,’ Lieutenant David Russell remembered. ‘I warned the company commander, who sent a PIAT forward to cover the road; we stayed upstairs. The tank milled around, treating the world in general to bursts of MG [machine gun] and big wallops of gunfire. We were as yet untouched. More tanks appeared to have arrived, as there was now gunfire from the bottom road up into the gully and another was reported on the top road….An assault gun moved slowly along the top road, blowing to pieces and setting on fire all the houses around the museum. Up came another tank in our rear and started on our building [museum], the first two rounds taking off the living room, which I just left. I had a quick conference at the foot of the stairs with Staffords’ company commander and other officers; the ground floor was full of wounded. Were we to fight on with small arms against tanks, try to break out, or surrender? We decided that as our object, to join those fighting at the bridge, was impossible and that the building was being systematically demolished and there was nowhere to break out to, we should surrender. I chucked my Sten over a hedge, buried my pistol, and walked out with a handkerchief.’
Across the street, the house held by Lieutenant A.E. Barker’s platoon caught fire, but the troops returned fire as best they could from unburned portions of the building. At the same time, Cain tried to get his men into the buildings behind Company A, but the advancing SP guns made that impossible. With no place to make a stand, Cain and several of his men pulled out and headed back to the hospital. Lieutenant Colonel McCardie and most of Battalion HQ were run down and captured around the house across from the Crystal Lyceum, about 200 yards west of the museum.
It was now every man for himself, and the few surviving South Staffs fell back through Major Gilchrist’s lines. Caught by surprise and without PIATs, Company A was hit by the same self-propelled guns that had just rolled through the South Staffs. The Germans were on them so quickly that supporting antitank guns were not able to depress low enough to engage the StuGs.
Quickly surrounded, Major Gilchrist and about 30 survivors were isolated in slit trenches just east of St. Elisabeth’s Hospital. After holding up the Germans for about a quarter of an hour with Gammon bombs, they broke out to the north, across the railway cutting, where most were taken prisoner. Only one officer and a few men got away.
After the collapse of the British perimeter around the museum, a short quiet period ensued as the Germans secured the wooded dale and the area east of the hospital. The British used the time to reorganize and form blocking positions behind a thin screen of antitank guns and defended by support troops at the road junction west of the hospital. The losses in the South Stafford line infantry companies that had fought near the museum were devastating. The survivors numbered only about 100 men. Major Cain, the sole surviving officer, assumed command and assembled the remnants into two composite platoons. Built around the uncommitted platoons from C Company, these troops were placed in positions back near the prison to the rear of the 11th Parachute Battalion, which was in the process of pulling out of the hospital area and heading back to the residential area around the intersection of Utrechtseweg and Oranjestraat.
In order to secure his left flank, Lt. Col. Lea now ordered Major Cain to capture and clear Den Brink and then act as a pivot for the attack north. Near the prison, the South Staffs moved forward at approximately 1230. First the platoon commanded by a Lieutenant Badger occupied the northwest corner of the prison compound. Supported by a section of Vickers medium machine guns, Major Cain then captured the wooded hill with the remainder of the battalion, and Badger rejoined the main body. ‘It was a good old-fashioned bayonet charge,’ remembered Sergeant Ken Woolridge. ‘At the start we were shouting, but soon had to keep our breath to get up the slope and into the wood. The enemy fell back quickly from our charge. At the top we were immediately saturated with mortar fire, which burst in the trees like air-bursts.’ The exhausted men then found themselves under a shower of mortar shells. While they were exposed and unable to dig in on account of the earth and thick roots, mortar bombs bursting in the trees inflicted a number of casualties, including Lieutenant Badger.
Also around 1230, the 11th Battalion started heading north. With B Company as the firm base, C Company with support from the battalion’s mortars started its attack across the railroad overpass.
Everything started to go wrong about 1430. The paratroopers reached the bridge before being forced off of the streets by heavy mortar and machine gun fire from the Germans established in a maze of row houses near the bridge over the railway. Boxed in, the British were dispersed in alleyways and gardens and then pinned down while the enemy infantry crept closer. No one knew whether the Germans or the British occupied houses. Soon the German opposition proved too much, and the battalion was forced to pull out, followed by StuGs that had crossed the bridge over the railway. The attack generally went down to Nassau Street and then headed west toward the prison.
Lieutenant Colonel Lea was wounded and taken prisoner. The few survivors fell back across the main road and headed to Oosterbeek. Any isolated pockets were overrun when ammunition gave out. The majority of C Company was captured, but some of B Company escaped. Altogether only about 150 men got away.
The Germans kept the pressure up on the South Staffords. Supported by another round of mortar fire, they sent in tanks from the road just north of the prison. The company from the 11th Battalion fell back and withdrew through Major Cain’s positions, taking a good number of South Staffs with them. Isolated by the heavy enemy fire, Major Cain could not hold on in the face of the new German threat and was forced to withdraw the remaining South Staffs from Den Brink and rally in the general area of the Oosterbeek Laag Railway Station.
‘It would have been a sheer waste of life to stay there,’ Cain bitterly remembered. ‘I had no orders to retire, but I remembered what had happened at the monastery. I felt extremely dejected. I knew that our particular effort to get through to the bridge was a failure and that we had been thrown out of the town.’
By late afternoon a general retreat was underway out of west Arnhem. Anyone not immediately threatened began leaving by foot or vehicle and started to gather in Oosterbeek in small groups. Those trapped in houses or left behind were mostly taken prisoner.
By the evening of the 19th, the remnants of the South Staffs and the 11th Parachute Battalion occupied a small built-up area on the east side of the perimeter. A Vickers platoon and the remaining antitank guns supported them. Apart from intermittent mortar fire, the Germans did not press their attacks for the remainder of the night, and the troops were able to snatch some desperately needed rest.
RobComment
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Excellent Thread Panzer Rob!
Panzer Rob,
What a great job (and a whole lot of work) you did on this most excellent and informative thread! BIG TIME BRAVO!!!
Outstanding Soldbuch & documents as well.
Just an observation but on RALLE84 #22 entry and REVELLATIONS #102 entry and as a "insignia nut" it appears to me that Johannes Hubert worn two different branch colors on his wrapper. Red piped straps and rose-pink or maybe white piped collar tabs. Welcome others opinions...
Best regards,
MichaelComment
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