An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir November 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 28 | BY LT COL DAN HARVEY RET'D A BLOODY WEEK - THE IRISH AT ARNHEM "I think we may be going a bridge too far" - Lt General Frederick Browning to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery I t was 75 years ago that Operation 'Market Garden' took place, a dramatic but unsuccessful campaign fought by the British Army in the Netherlands from 17th to 25th September 1944 to secure a number of bridges over the Rhine that might provide an Allied invasion route into Germany. Allied airborne and land forces suc- cessfully liberated Eindhoven and Nijmegen, but were repelled by the Germans at the Battle of Arnhem during their efforts to secure the last bridge over the Rhine. The battle for the bridge at Arnhem – of such strategic impor- tance that both forces were desperate to hold it – was a pivotal mo- ment in the final phase of the war in Europe. The intense conflict was famously depicted in the epic war movie A Bridge Too Far, but more significantly its outcome thwarted Allied plans to end the war by Christmas 1944. The sharp staccato sound of rounds being fired, ricochets resounding, and machineguns rattling, adding to the 'crump' of mortars, the 'thump' of artillery, and the signature shrieking scream of the six-barrelled 'Moaning Minnie' (Nebelwerfer) were all heard repeatedly around the Oosterbeek perimeter in a chaotic, clamor- ous cacophony. Raw, raucous and reverberating, a battle is an angry place to be. Fiery muzzle flashes, the arching, stark brilliance of tracer trajectory and vividly coloured sparks of impacts against walls and off cob- bled roadways were dazzling, dramatic and dangerous. There was an almost mad magnificence, a splendid surrealism, and an insane intensity to it all. Vivid, vigorous and violent, the sights, sounds and sensations of frenzied German attack and frantic British defence assaulted the senses. This was a new stage in the week-long fight in the reshaped Arn- hem battlespace. In the midst of all this turmoil, disturbance and confusion was Major Tony Blake, born in County Wicklow, Brigade Major with the 1st Airlanding Brigade Headquarters. Embattled and exhausted, he had faced adversity almost from the very start of 'Market Garden' when on 19th September in the Arnhem area four 1st Airlanding Brigade HQ officers were killed by a German mortar shell, with Major Blake temporarily blinded by the same shell. He refused to go for treatment and remained on duty at the field telephone and radios in a slit trench. His sight did not fully return until after evacuation, but until then he was constantly on duty throughout this period of intense mortaring and artillery fire. With XXX Corps now in close proximity to Arnhem, Major Blake fortuitously found he was able to establish communications with them via a shared radio frequency and this enabled him to direct the artillery fires of 64 Medium Regiment, who were supporting the 1st Airborne Division from a range of ten miles. He carried out this direction of artillery fire quietly and efficiently and its highly accurate fall of shot consistently broke up enemy concentrations A still from the film A Bridge Too Far (1977). General Stanisław Sosabowski (left) with Lt General Frederick Browning (right).

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