Haalderen, Holland 16th May 2015

The idea was that we would have an easier day on the Saturday with less driving planned for Owen. In the evening we were due to attend a part of Eurorock Festival near to Eindhoven. The band that we had travelled to see were the headline act and were not due to take the stage until after midnight that evening. The schedule we drew up was to drive up to Nijmegen and onto the Island before heading further north to Arnhem.

Within Nijmegen I had a specific task to fulfil, retracing the family’s 1973 visit to the town with my Grandfather, but more of that in the pages that follow. For now the plan was to stop off in Haalderen as we progressed towards Arnhem. We deliberately took a route to the brigdes similar to that taken by XXX Corps on ‘Hell’s Highway’ as the Allies struggled to reach the British 1^st Airborne who were pinned down in Oosterbeek. In the early morning spring sunshine it was difficult to relate to that desperate journey seventy-one years earlier for the roads were clear and the fields on either side of the road were nothing but picturesque. Crossing the Maas at Grave, we passed through Nijmegen and crossed Waal to access ‘The Island’.

Passing through Lent before turning off the N325 in the direction of Bemmel where the men of ‘D’ Company 11^th R.S.F. were formed up as the counter-attack company on 4^th December 1944. It was only after driving through a near deserted Bemmel that our navigational problems started. Never mind the proverbial ‘All Roads Lead To Rome’, on this Saturday morning it was more a case of ‘All Roads Lead to Bemmel’ as try as we might to reach the neighbouring village of Haalderen, after several circuits of the area it was nowhere to be found, but we found ourselves driving back through Bemmel from each of the four compass points. Were it not for the assistance of a helpful jogger with a better grasp of the local geography, Haalderen may have never have been reached!

Our approach to Haalderen was from the same direction from which the Fusiliers entered the village that December. Turning right onto the N839, Van der Mondeweg, we headed south east down the road toeards the Church (the original of which is shown at the head of this chapter). The Church, now rebuilt, houses a memorial to the fighing in the village that occurred between September and December 1944.

‘War

Never Forget

Never Repeat

            WWII’

Our time here was limited and with no disrespect to Haalderen, there was not so much to photograph easily with the exception of a view down the main street. The direction from which the German 16^th Parachute Regiment Companies advanced and the direction that the Fusilier’s took to reach the forward positions of the beleaguered Companies of the 7^th Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.

The reconstructed Church in Haalderen.

The main road through Haalderen (Van der Mondeweg) looking in a south easterly direction (facing the German assault).

Street Fighting Haalderen, Holland 3rd – 4th December 1944

The shattered ruins of Haalderen Church.

In the first week of December the tide of war once again broke over Haalderen (literally given the flooded state of this part of The Island). In an attempt to reach the Great Waal Bridge near Lent, the Germans launched an attack which was intended to push through to the bridge via Haalderen and Bemmel.

Before describing in any detail the first engagement for the Fusiliers on The Island it is necessary to recount the situation faced by the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. At the beginning of December The Dukes were positioned on the right flank of the Divisional front in the area of Haalderen. The conditions on the ground were horrendous with heavy flooding throughout the area. To the mud and filth that are a part and parcel of flooding were added the remains of soldiers of both sides killed in the struggles of late September/early October when Allied units tried desperately to the aid of the British 1^st Airborne then confined in the Oosterbeek Perimeter on the western outskirts of Arnhem.

Military operations in the Haalderen area were severely hampered as a result of the conditions. The protection offered by slit trenches was limited as the height of the water table restricted the depth to which they could be dug before filling with water. Moreover, the movement of man and armour throughout the sector was limited to the high ground, i.e. across the top of the dykes. Such movement was perilous for a number of reasons, notably due to the fact that the tracks that topped the dykes were constructed with light agricultural traffic in mind and not the heavyweight trucks and tanks of an Army on the move. Furthermore, the presence of men and vehicles on the top of the dykes offered the enemy something akin to a fairground duck shoot as targets were dangerously exposed in silhouette against the sky.

To further set the scene, I refer to the relevant sections of the 7^th Dukes War Diaries. From 1^st December, the Battalion positions were coming under heavy artillery fire. German forward patrols were observed to be occupying houses on the main road through the village. At the same time, the diary records ‘water rising about 3” to 6” per day. Daylight supply of Btn forbidden’. The diary elaborates some more on the worsening flood conditions stating that at 2150 hours on the 2^nd ‘’D’ Coy reported that water was rising rapidly in the coy area’. This situation calls to mind the earlier story, mentioned in an earlier chapter, that my Grandfather related of being perched on a stack of bricks armed with a yardstick monitoring the rate by which the water levels were rising throughout the night. William Douglas corrected my earlier assumption that this incident occurred in the Roosendaal area and stated that it was much more consistent with the situation in Haalderen. As recounted a little later, he arrived in the area with the 11^th R.S.F. on the morning of 4^th December.

By the morning of 3^rd December 03 Brigade advised that ‘Dykes may have been breached by weight of water or military action. HAALDEREN, the highest point of the “Island” may be attacked by the enemy. NIJMEGEN is being heavily shelled at an increasing rate. Be on the alert for counter-attacks’.

At 0710 a trip flare was triggered forward of the ‘D’ Company’s position. The Dukes remained vigilent, observing even in this dreadful place mundane domestic activities as it was reported at 0930 hours that ‘1 Boche seen to run out of house S of rd at 763662, chased chicken. Man shot chicken and went back into house’. More Germans were observed on the main Haalderen road throughout the day. In the early evening, enemy flares were spotted and sporadic Spandau fire was reported at 2235 and 2255. Something was in the offing.

At 0315 on 4^th December, Spandau fire coincided with reports coming in from ‘D’ Company of an attack, with 18 Platoon stating that 17 enemy had passed through their positions with more approaching. Some 15 minutes later, more Germans, about a company in strength, also passed through leaving 18 Platoon completely surrounded although holding their position.

The War Diary reported ‘Heavy stonking in the bn area and BEMMEL 7367. It was the 11^th R.S.F. who were on the receiving end of the shelling in Bemmel. The ‘Summary of Operations’ takes up the story and decribes how in the early hours of 4^th December the Battalion was subjected to one of the German’s most concentrated artillery fire for a period of nearly two hours, being the prelude to an attack on the right sector of the Brigade front [i.e. the 7 DWR in Haalderen]. ‘D’ Company under Major Leslie Rowell were to take the role of counter-attack Company in just such an event. In Major Rowell’s words ‘At Bemmel on the 4th December D Coy were in reserve with the task of counter attacking in support of 7 DWR at Haalderen, at approximately 0300 hours the Coy was ordered to ‘stand to’ and later was ordered to move. The Coy commenced to its task at first light at 0730 hours’.

Meanwhile back in Haalderen, the at 0400 the & DWR War Diary described the situation as ‘very confused’ with fighting taking place in nearly every house in the village. The Germans had reached as far as ‘A’ Company HQ and the school buildings on a road junction approximately 100m along the road from the Church. White flares fired at 0500 hours from the new German positions were thought to be signals that the planned objectives had been successfully taken.

At 0515 hours the Commanding Officer, Major Hamilton, ordered the Duke’s Carrier Platoon to re-occupy the school and for ‘C’ Company to counter-attack ‘D’ Company 18 Platoon’s positions in order to close the gap in the line through which the Germans had passed. It was estimated that the German infiltration of the Battalion area was approximately one company in strength. Major Hamilton requested that the 11^th R.S.F. move up, as counter-attack battalion, to the area of Battalion HQ.

In the early hours further German advance along the main road was checked. At 0615, the Carrier Platoon successfully retook the school and ‘B’ Company reoccupied a number of houses. Nevertheless, confused close quarters fighting continued in the area of the ‘A’ Company HQ. At 0620 the 11^th R.S.F. assembled in this area (on the right, that is south west side of the main street) and received orders to attack in an easterly direction, thereby pushing the Germans towards the 7 DWR forward positions.

In darkness and in the confused nature of house to house fighting there was a real danger that the 7^th DWR Company and ‘D’ Company of the 11^th R.S.F. would sustain casualties due to ‘friendly fire’. To avoid such a clash, Major Rowell ordered that ‘D’ Company take responsibility for the clearance of houses on the right hand side of the street as far as the road junction. This was tasked to 17 Platoon under the command of Lieutenant McIntosh. Next 18 Platoon, under Lieutenant Douglas would work their way up the left had side of the street once the situation in the houses opposite ‘A’ Company HQ had been established. At this time my Grandfather with 16 Platoon, under Sergeant Little, took up reserve fire positions protecting ‘A’ Company HQ.

Crossing the start line at 0700 hours 17 Platoon cleared the first house as the 7 DWR arrived in the houses opposite and 18 Platoon set off up the left hand side of the street. In this manner both of the Fusilier platoons advanced up the street offering mutual support as far as the road junction objective. The enemy were being pushed back down the road from where they originally advanced.

At this point, I am reminded of my Grandfather, who would break off from one of our regular Saturday night games of darts in the kitchen to describe, with the aid of an invisible, but poised, Lee Enfield, just how soldiers on opposite sides of the street would cooperate in house clearing actions! I wonder whether at such times he was mentally transported back to Haalderen.

The men of ‘D’ Company received additional information about houses along the street that were German occupied as 18 Platoon of the Fusilers further advanced from the north east towards the crescent of Kolkweg. In this they were assisted by 16 Platoon Bren Corps and 17 Platoon who also provided covering fire. The 18 Platoon assault was successful. The men of ‘D’ Company were still coming under fire from houses on the street when the final phase of the attack commenced which was to clear all houses on the north eastern side of the street. The attack was led by 16 Platoon supported by covering fire from both 17 and 18 Platoon. At the point of reaching the send house off the street, the enemy surrendered. The remaining Dukes laid down smoke to aid the advance of 16 Platoon on the last objective before consolidating the ground taken on either side of the road.

As Prisoners of War were taken back, it was established that the units engaged with the Dukes and Fusiliers were men of the German 16^th Parachute Regiment of the 6^th Parachute Division (6. Fallschirmjäger-Division).

By 1215 the original 7 DWR Battalion positions had been restored and the Dukes claimed a total of 108 P.O.W.s and many enemy dead. For their part, the 11^th R.S.F. accounted for 77 P.O.W.s with one Fusilier killed and two wounded. Those Germans not killed or captured retreated across the fields back towards their frontline. 4^th December closed with a heavy artillery bombardment on the battalion area.

On 5^th December, ‘D’ Company were located at the south eastern end of the village located in the ruins of some semi-detached houses that overlooked fields that stretched out in the direction of the German frontline positions. Of that time William Douglas, then commanding 18 Platoon recalls a deadly game of ‘cat & mouse’ with a German railway gun. ‘So I ended up at the far end of the village in some ruined semi-detached houses looking out across the open fields, the Germans of course knew exactly where we were because they’d been there and somewhere up in the Arnhem area they had a very big railway gun and you could hear the confounded thing, you knew when it was going to fire, so you were fairly safe, you could hear it going tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, then the most tremendous bang and you could practically see the thing coming through the air. Of course, when it landed it would destroy several houses, and they started firing at the village with this confounded thing and of course we had positions in all the windows looking out across the fields. But fortunately all these Dutch houses had cellars, so into the cellars we go and as soon as the firing stops we rush back into the positions, you hear him fire again, back down into the cellars, this confounded gun, every time it fired it seemed to come closer and closer to the house that we were in. Roofs were disappearing on the other side of the road, entire houses going down, oh God! It was one of the most frightening times of the whole thing, there was nothing that you could do about it, you just sat there, 10 chaps down in this cellar, you as the officer, trying to appear frightfully brave and not the least bit worried and getting ready to shout ‘Go!’ the moment you thought he’d finished firing and your back up top in case they were coming again. This went on for a couple of hours, it was not amusing. I always remember when they say ‘Were you ever frightened?’ and I say ‘Yeah I was pretty frightened down in that cellar I have to say! The next one’s gonna land on us!’.

Later ‘D’ Company of the R.S.F. were relieved by ‘C’ Company who entered the area for this purpose and to reinforce the tired Dukes. Between 1700 and 2130 on 6^th December, the rest of the Regiment moved into the village to relieve the 7 DWR who moved back to Bemmel.

The 11th R.S.F. move up to the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal 21st to 24th September 1944

After three days in the Dieppe area, the Battalion started the move north early on the 21^st September and crossed the border into Belgium at about 1600 hours. By 1800 they had reached the outskirts of the town of Tournai where they spent the night. The movement into Belgium continued the following day via Brussels, through Malle and onto Turnhout on the Antwerp – Turnhout Canal.

The progression of the Battalion was unglamorous even by Army standards. Colonel William Douglas described the move in the following terms:

‘I think it was about 10th September we moved into Belgium and it was a comic old move because we’d had to lend all our transport to other divisions in the Corps when we swung left to Le Havre because they were heading on as fast as they could towards Brussels and Antwerp and swinging right, keeping on the flank of the American advance and all our transport went on and we were either marching or travelling in the most awful collection of German junk, French civilian junk, these trucks that had gas tanks on the back, they worked on some kind of gas, frightful things, you were all rather embarrassed to be in these things. Anyway, there wasn’t a great deal of fighting going on so it didn’t greatly mater’.

At the time of this movement into Belgium, the men of the Battalion were cheered at the spectacle of hundreds of aircraft, many towing Horsa gliders, passing overhead as they flew north bound for Arnhem. This was of course the Market Garden armada and such was the scale of the operation, that soldiers reported that the skies above were full of aircraft for a full ten minutes or more.

146 and 147 Brigades of the 49^th Division crossed the Albert Canal on the 22^nd and 23^rd September and the 11^th R.S.F. moved up with the right hand column of the Divisional advance. The Battalion moved up towards Turnhout at approximately 1100 hours on the morning of the 24^th, advancing from Herentals to Turnhout.

Based upon information contained in 147 Infantry Brigade Operational Instruction No. 19, issued at 0200 hours on the morning of the 24^th, the Brigade were to anticipate resistance from the enemy in the environs of Turnhout. The following instruction was issued ‘147 Infantry Brigade will advance on 24^th September with the object of capturing or investing the town of Turnhout’. In this endeavour, the Fusiliers were to take the lead. The task was to be achieved by the infantry with support from 756 Fd Coy R.E., a battery of 143 Fd Regt R.A., 160 Fd Amb (Casualty Clearing Post) and a Detachment of Provost (a Military Police unit assigned the responsibility of bringing order to the chaos of moving large volumes of men and armour). The 7^th Duke of Wellington Regiment (DWR) of the 147^th Brigade were ‘to be called forward when required’. The task of the 49^th Division was stated in the following terms ’49 Div is to establish a bridgehead across the canal 24 Sep with 147 Bde RIGHT and 146 Bde LEFT’.

The first elements of the 49^th Recce Division entered the centre of Turnhout on the afternoon 24^th September with ‘A’ and ‘D’ Companies of the 11^th R.S.F. passing into the town in the late afternoon. By 1845 hours, both companies were positioned on the southern bank of the canal, but no suitable crossing points were found, all bridges having been destroyed. Troop movements brought down accurate fire from the German defenders of the opposite bank. One 19 year old Fusilier,a Robert Marshall Pratt,  was mortally wounded by mortar fire in these exchanges on 24^th September. Fusilier Pratt lies in Geel Cemetery. Two further Fusiliers were also injured at this time.

One of the original wartime documents that I have in my possession is a postcard, written by my Grandfather to his wife, June, in the week of the fighting over the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal.

The photograph features a photograph of the Grote Markt in which St. Peter’s Church is visible. A visit to the same location in May 2015 showed the Square to be little changed, although the building on the left, which then served as the Town Hall is long gone.

On the reverse of the postcard, my Grandfather describes how his unit passed through the town on Sunday morning [24^th September], however, as already described this is an inaccuracy since ‘D’ Company did not arrive in the centre of Turnhout until the afternoon of the 24^th. He goes on to briefly describe the reception that the Fusiliers received from the newly liberated townsfolk, and more tellingly of the perils of coming under shell-fire having secreted gifts of tomatoes and cigars inside one’s battledress!

‘We came through here on a Sunday morning, all the people turned out to greet us, giving us cigars tomatoes, which I stuffed in my Tunic Blouse, which I regretted later. The Germans holding the other side of the river held us up we had to dive for cover. I had a Blouse full of Tomatoes & Cigars you can imagine what a mess that made. Later met a woman from Manchester who married a Belgian.

JIM XXX