Iain Ballantyne - Arnhem: Ten Days in The Cauldron

Although he has written several naval history books, including those on the Second World War and the Cold War, Iain Ballantyne has, during the course of his career as a journalist, editor, and author, also covered the activities of land forces. Work assignments took him to Kuwait, Oman, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Hong Kong, sometimes during times of conflict.

Iain has visited WW2 battlefields in company with those who fought there as young men, while also spending hours in conversation with Arnhem veterans. As a teenager, Iain embarked on an expedition to follow the course of the Rhine, including a pilgrimage to Oosterbeek and Arnhem. He retraced the route of the British Airborne soldiers in 1944 as they tried to take the famous bridge too far. Arnhem: Ten Days in The Cauldron is his second title for Agora Books, following on from Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom (2016).

THE DEADLY TRADE:

The Complete History of Submarine Warfare

from Archimedes to the Present

BISMARCK: 24 HOURS TO DOOM

The Final Act in the Mission to Sink Bismarck

HUNTER KILLERS:

The Dramatic Untold Story of the

Royal Navys Most Secret Service

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Agora Books Agora Books is a division of Peters Fraser + Dunlop Ltd

55 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1BS

Copyright Iain Ballantyne, 2019

Maps and Pegasus Emblem Paul Slidel, 2019

Cover Image Imperial War Museum (BU 1124) All rights reserved

You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.

General

Non-Commissioned Officer.NCO

Commanding OfficerCO

Royal Air Force Flight LieutenantFlt Lt

Army Ranks Private / TrooperPte / Tpr Lance Corporal.L/Cpl Corporal.Cpl

Lance Sergeant..L/Sgt Sergeant..Sgt

Staff SergeantSSgt Sergeant MajorSgt Maj Provost Sergeant.Provo Sgt Regimental Sergeant Major..RSM

Army Officer Ranks LieutenantLt

CaptainCapt

Major.Maj

Lieutenant Colonel..Lt Col ColonelCol

Brigadier (US Brigadier General).

.Brig (US: Brig Gen) Major GeneraMaj Gen Lieutenant General.Lt Gen General..Gen

Field MarshallFM

Navy

Lieutenant Commander.Lt Cdr

General Unit Abbreviations BattalionBn

Brigade.Bde

Company.Coy

DivisionDiv

RegimentRegt

Specific Unit Abbreviations 1 st Border Regiment

..Border Regt / Borders

Air Landing Brigade.Air Ldg Bde Airborne DivisionAirborne Div Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron.

.Airborne Recce Sqn Army Air Corps.AAC

Dorsetshire Regiment.Dorsets

Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry

.DCLI

Independent Parachute Company

Indep Para Coy

Kings Own Scottish Borderers..KOSB

Office of Strategic Services.OSS

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry...Ox and Bucks

Parachute Brigade..Para Bde Parachute Field Ambulance..PFA Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers.

..Para Sqn RE

Royal Air ForceRAF

Royal Army Medical Corps...RAMC

Royal Artillery...RA Royal Engineers.RE

Special Air Service...SAS

Special Operations ExecutiveSOE

South Staffordshire Regiment.

South Staffs / Staffs

Tactical Air Force.TAF

United States Army Air Force.USAAF

*with British Rank Equivalent

Rottenfhrer..L/Cpl Scharfhrer.Sgt

UntersturmfhrerLt Hauptsturmfhrer..Capt Sturmbannfhrer..Maj Obersturmbannfhrer.Lt Col Standartenfhrer...Col ObergruppenfhrerLt Gen

OberstleutnantLt Col Generaloberst..Gen GeneralfeldmarschallFM

And the Germans themselves had coined

their own name for our tiny perimeter.

They were calling it The Cauldron.

Major General Roy Urquhart,

Officer Commanding,

1st Airborne Division

For those who fought,

along with their families and loved ones

and for the civilians caught in the middle of it all

The symbol of all British Airborne Forces since 1942 is often referred to as the Pegasus emblem but in fact shows both the famous winged horse of Greek mythology and the warrior Bellerophon said to be swooping through the air to destroy a monster.

alone and unheralded,

like thieves in the night.

By Air to Battle: The Official Account

of the British Airborne Divisions

T he roaring four-engined Halifax bomber has towed the Horsa glider up into the sky from Tarrant Rushton airfield in Dorset, southern England. It is one of six such combinations taking off at around 10.30pm on 5 June 1944.

Thirty soldiers belonging to D Company (Coy) in the 2nd Battalion (Bn), The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, are crammed into the lead glider along with their weaponry and equipment.

They sit down the sides of the Horsa, facing each other and enduring uncomfortable, hard wooden seats for their flight into history. Lieutenant (Lt) Den Brotheridge, 26-year-old commander of 25 Platoon, sits opposite 31-year-old Major (Maj) John Howard, the assault commander of Operation Deadstick. They, and 150 men carried in the other five gliders, will be among the first if not the first Allied troops to touch the soil of enemy occupied France on D-Day.

After many months of planning, training and gathering of military might across the British Isles, the Ox and Bucks are going in ahead of many tens of thousands of Allied soldiers, airmen, and sailors. They are all engaged in a massive, multi-dimensional military enterprise filling the air, covering the sea (even lurking under it) and soon also to be projected ashore.

Most of the soldiers in the lead glider come from London and during the flight they sing cockney songs, puff on cigarettes, chatter, and joke. It does not entirely succeed in covering up the unnerving screaming wind forcing its way through the plywood covering of the timber-framed fuselage.

The troops watch Maj Howard closely to see if he will, as usual, succumb to airsickness and vomit. Tonight, he disappoints them, for he is so keyed up with adrenalin his mind buzzing with thoughts about the mission to come that he forgets to follow his usual custom.

Looking out a window as the glider is towed over the Channel, Lance Corporal (L/Cpl) Edward Tappenden, the company radio operator, sees invasion shipping below when the moon shines on the sea through a break in the cloud. He feels it looks as though you could step from ship to ship to France for certain