The Last Heroes (eBook)

Arnhem: Veterans and Anniversaries

Operation Market-Garden, 17–25 September 1944, was a massive and very bold undertaking by Allied forces in a two-part plan conceived by Field Marshal Montgomery. The plan was essentially to use three airborne divisions of around 35,000 men, landing by parachute and glider, to capture key bridges in the Netherlands and create a huge salient into German territory, with bridgeheads over the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine River) forming an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. If successful, the plan could eventually achieve a few very big objectives: it would liberate Holland, outflank Germany’s formidable frontier defences, the Siegfried Line, and then facilitate an armoured drive into Germany’s industrial heartland, the Ruhr. This, in turn, could lead to the major and more hopeful goal of smashing Nazi Germany from the West and maybe ending the war by Christmas 1944. But all of these grandiose plans depended on capturing key bridges in the first place; these were tasks for the airborne forces in the ‘Market’ part of the plan.

The ‘Garden’ part of the plan involved the British XXX Corps smashing forward out of Belgium and advancing into Holland to each of the bridges, linking up with the airborne troops and securing those bridges and some smaller ones as they went. They consisted of the following airborne forces at these main bridges (as indicated by the map above):

Eindhoven

US 101st Airborne Division (at around 13 miles (20km) – successful link-up)

Nijmegen

US 82nd Airborne Division (at around 53 miles (85km) – successful link-up)

Arnhem

British 1st Airborne Division

Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade (at around 62 miles (100km) – unsuccessful link-up)

Multiple problems, including bad weather conditions, radio sets that didn’t work and the presence of two SS Panzer divisions (9th & 10th), led to the 1st Airborne Division being surrounded and virtually annihilated. Sadly, of the approximately 10,000 troops (estimates vary) of the 1st Airborne Division, it is widely believed that some 8,000 were killed, injured or missing. That rout essentially meant that the bigger plans outlined earlier were unsuccessful. The tenacity and bravery with which the British airborne troops at Arnhem fought gained them respect from all sides and a place in military folklore. For the British and Polish paratroopers it was ‘a great feat of arms with an unfortunate and sad ending’; for Nazi Germany, ‘the last great battlefield victory of the Third Reich’. Again, as mentioned in the D-Day chapter, the after-effect of this operation would affect the shape of the post-war world; in this case, had Market-Garden not failed and the Western Allies beaten Germany or reached Berlin months before the Russians, this would have forged very different Cold War boundaries.

Despite the unfortunate outcome for the British and Polish airborne forces in Operation Market-Garden, this quote from the person who masterminded it reflectively declares:

The important stories and historical narratives that follow are from army veterans who were part of the airborne forces that served in and around Arnhem during the operation, all reflecting their various perspectives based on the different roles and functions they played, yet all sharing the same experience of tasting the shock of defeat at the hands of a very tough and well-organised enemy. This includes a new interview I conducted just for this special eightieth anniversary edition of The Last Heroes with 104-year-old Raymond Whitwell, thought to be the oldest surviving Arnhem veteran at time of writing in 2024. This is accompanied by a new piece of poetry called ‘Arnhem 80’, but of course, as mentioned before, principally all the stories within its pages will remain preserved here and forever timeless.

Driver Raymond Whitwell

Served with: No. 3 Petrol Company, Royal Army Service Corps (RASC); 250 (Airborne) Light Composite Company, RASC; 1st Airborne Division

Service number: T/122205

Interviewed: Pickering, North Yorkshire, 11 December 2023

Service History and Personal Stories

    Born: 17 March 1919, Rillington, North Yorkshire.

    Ray was called up in September 1939 and was sent to Ramsgate/Margate, Kent, for his basic army training and for driving and vehicle maintenance. By spring 1940 he was a soldier and driver in the No. 3 Petrol Company, RASC, delivering petrol in his 3-ton Bedford truck, and was part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), which was attempting to repel the strong German blitzkrieg as it tore through Belgium and France.

    He ended up at Dunkirk, where he witnessed the carnage unfolding there and for a time was involved in rearguard actions as a regular soldier trying to help hold back encirclement by Nazi forces, an experience that would repeat itself over four years later at Arnhem in Holland. After being told it was every man for himself, he commandeered an Austin car and drove to Lille, and from there made his way by train to Le Havre, from where he managed to escape on a Dutch fishing boat to the eventual safety of Southampton.

    After return to England, Ray was posted on 29 July 1940 to the newly formed 250 Light Composite Company, RASC, in their Headquarters Platoon. Initially raised from the previous 31 Independent Infantry Brigade Company, RASC, the 250 became an airborne formation in December 1941, with airborne training taking place at and around RAF Ringway, Manchester.

    Ray was sent with the 250 to Tunisia for the closing stages of the North African campaign in late 1942 to May 1943, as part of the seconded logistics support reinforcements for the new Allied First Army. In that same year, his unit (which in May 1942 had become 1st Airborne Division Composite Company, RASC) went on to be involved in the invasions of Sicily (Operation Husky) and mainland Italy (Operation Slapstick).

    By 1944 Ray was serving in the Headquarters, RASC, at 1st Airborne Division HQ, and his next mission would take him right back into the heart of Western Europe. On Monday 18 September 1944 he flew in a Horsa Glider from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire as part of the 2nd airdrop in Operation-Market Garden, landing at Renkum Heath LZ ‘X’ in the Horsa Mk 1 Glider LH346 with nine other men, a Jeep and a trailer full of supplies directly into battle.

    As the operation began to go to pieces, just like at Dunkirk four years earlier, Ray and others of the RASC had to adopt an infantryman role in a ‘Defence Perimeter’, this time around Oosterbeek near Arnhem and were engaged in fierce battles there until, under immense pressure and mounting casualties, they had to completely withdraw and escape over the River Rhine towards Nijmegen in order to evade capture by the enemy forces that were overwhelming them.

    Once the remnants of the very badly mauled 1st Airborne Division had made it back to Britain, recovered and been reinforced they were deployed to Norway at the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, as part of Operation Doomsday, where they were involved in the disarming of the sizable occupying German forces that were still present there.

    Finally, after six years and four months of loyal service in the British Army, Ray Whitwell was demobbed in Deal, Kent, in January 1946, and returned home to his beloved Yorkshire to a far quieter existence doing his pre-war job in horticulture as a seedman, with his wartime memories still poignantly within him. Ray has returned to Dunkirk and Arnhem numerous times since then, rightly enjoying the warm welcomes of grateful French and Dutch citizens.

The incredible story of Raymond Whitwell is one that stretches across the entirety of the Second World War. He served from start to finish in many theatres of war and places throughout that conflict, doing a very dangerous job as a driver in supply convoys that were and still are seen as major, important and legitimate targets by both sides (in any war). They moved through hotly contested territory in very difficult terrains in all sectors of the war, being subjected to direct attacks from ground and air forces, often with devastating outcomes. They worked their way to the furthest Allied defensive and offensive positions at any given time in order to keep vital supplies flowing to the troops in those places.

‘Alone among the Services’ (i.e. rear-echelon support corps), RASC personnel were considered to be combatant personnel, as they had received army training and were armed, and also, at times of deep crisis as it was for Ray at Dunkirk and Arnhem, they were pressed into action as infantry soldiers, as well as having to defend their vital supplies: they often found themselves in the thick of it! When I had the honour to meet, spend time and talk with Ray (seen in the intro holding a picture he had just signed for me) in December 2023, he was an incredible 104 years of age, and this ‘Airborne Warrior’ was potentially the oldest surviving veteran of Arnhem in the United Kingdom at that time, and as a result I thought what a perfect and great inclusion for this special edition of The Last Heroes to represent Operation Market-Garden. So here are some of...