Operation Market Garden, 1st Airborne Division, September 18th, 1944, Part 5

Part 5 of our Operation Market Garden series follows the units already on the ground at Arnhem through Monday, September 18th, 1944, from midnight until midnight.

At the northern end of the road bridge, Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost holds on with a mixed force of paratroopers, sappers, anti-tank gunners and glider pilots. Around them, SS-Sturmbannführer Ludwig Spindler builds a blocking line across the western approaches to the town. Brinkmann’s reconnaissance troops probe the perimeter, and SS-Hauptsturmführer Gräbner leads an armoured column at the bridge. West of the perimeter, the 1st and 3rd Parachute Battalions fight along the river road to reach Frost. Brigadier Lathbury and Major-General Urquhart, the divisional commander, go missing in the streets of Arnhem.

Part 5 draws on the war diaries, battalion accounts and eyewitness testimony of the men who were there.

Welcome back to The Special Forces in World War II Podcast, hosted by Maikel Weyers.

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