Version 1.2 During the editing of this episode, we accidentally duplicated one segment, resulting in approximately 25 minutes of repeated audio. We apologise for the mistake. This has now been corrected in Version 1.2.
On Sunday, September 17th, 1944, the largest airborne operation in history begins. This episode follows the first lift of the British 1st Airborne Division from the runways of southern England to the heaths and farmland west of Arnhem.
It starts in darkness. Almost 1,400 Allied sorties strike German airfields, flak positions and barracks around Arnhem, Deelen and Ede. At Wolfheze, the bombs fall on the village and on the psychiatric institution, Stichting Wolfheze, killing 87 civilians.
Then the sky fills with aircraft. Over 650 gliders, towed by Stirlings, Halifaxes and Dakotas, cross the North Sea behind their tugs. Pathfinders of the 21st Independent Parachute Company mark the zones at 12:40 hours. The 1st Airlanding Brigade comes down on Landing Zones S and Z. The 1st Parachute Brigade drops on Drop Zone X on the Renkumse Heide. Within minutes, hundreds of gliders are on the ground, some of them wrecked, with their pilots trapped inside.
We follow the men who stay behind to hold the landing area: the 2nd South Staffords at Wolfheze, the 1st Border towards Renkum and Heelsum, the 7th King's Own Scottish Borderers on the Ginkelse Heide, and the sappers of the 9th Field Company in their fight for the Hotel Wolfheze.
And we follow the German response, which comes faster than anyone expects. SS-Sturmbannführer Sepp Krafft throws a training battalion across the woods between the landing zones and Arnhem. At Doetinchem, SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich sets the 9th SS-Panzerdivision Hohenstaufen against Arnhem and sends the 10th SS-Panzerdivision Frundsberg south toward Nijmegen. In Oosterbeek, Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model looks up from his lunch to see British paratroopers descending three kilometres away.
This is Part Three of our Operation Market Garden series.
For maps, photographs and the full source base behind this series, visit worldwar2-sof.com
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