Al Murray and James Holland are in Wolfheze west of Arnhem where the British 1st Airborne’s advance off the drop zones met unexpected and fierce resistance from German troops under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Josef “Sepp” Krafft on the first day of Operation Market Garden. ✅SUBSCRIBE / @ww2walkingtheground ” On September 17th 1944, Kampfgruppe Krafft’s hastily organised battle groups ambushed the jeeps of the 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron as they made a race for the bridge at Arnhem and scuppered Brigadier Lathbury’s plan for the 1st and 3rd battalions to make a rapid advance on the town via the “Lepoard” and “Tiger” routes. There is no smooth path to Arnhem.
Chapters:
00:00 Crafty Krafft springs an ambush on the Recce Squadron at Wolfheze
04:55 Lathbury’s plan for 1st Parachute Brigade to advance on Arnhem along three routes
05:40 1st battalion’s failure to reach Leopard route, fighting in the woods
09:16 The killing of General Kussin on the Tiger route by 3rd Battalion
Other popular episodes of the Operation Market Garden series of WW2 Walking the Ground:
Riding on a Sherman for the 80th anniversary of XXX Corps:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mcey_GCQSw
What went wrong in Nijmegen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad9MJOhb1pQ&t=1s
John S. Thompson’s quick action at Grave Bridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dfA8T5yQoU
504th PIR’s epic Waal river crossing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8dybxqv4LM&t=2s
#ww2 #operationmarketgarden #almurray #jamesholland #ww2walkingtheground #wehavewaysofmakingyoutalk #dropzonetactics #battlefield #abridgetoofar #arnhem #ww2youtube
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I'm enjoying this but the two together are just interrupting each other. A better format would have been to have Al describe one part then shift to James, then back to Al at the next step of the battle. And at key points you could bring the two together to discuss the progress so far.
Another fascinating episode guys, keep them coming 👍
Source ww2gravestone : "General Kussin decided to personally advance to the front to get a better picture of what was happening. He drove to the command post of SS-Sturmbannführer Sepp Kraft Hotel Wolfheze where he arrived at roughly 17.15hrs. The General was briefed on the situation with the latest information. When he wanted to return to Arnhem Kraft told him to return via a northern route as it was very likely that British paratroopers now occupied the southern route. Kussin ignored the advice and departed the same way as he came." The General, his driver, Gefreiter Josef Willeke, and his batman/interpreter, Unteroffizier Max Köster paid with their lives for that error.
Just brilliant stuff yet again gents! Keep this up, we of the Ind Co are loving it! (Ex-Gordon and now history teacher, ex-pat in Oz).
0:25 – Reconnaissance Squadron – 41 Jeeps in the Squadron, minus 8 in the seaborne echelon. War establishment less 1st reinforcements on 29 July 1944 was 24 officers plus two attached, and 208 other ranks. The Squadron was formed by removing the Reconnaissance Platoon from the three Airlanding Battalions and adding an HQ Troop with 12 Jeeps and a Support Troop with 5 Jeeps equipped with two 3-inch mortars and two towed 20mm Polston cannon (Polish development of the Swedish 20mm Oerlikon). Each of the three Reconnaisance Troops (A, C, and D Troop, B Troop was disbanded in Italy) had an HQ Section and three Recce Sections, two Jeeps and ten men in each Section – usually four in a radio fitted Jeep and the other six men riding in the other Jeep (or five plus one on a motorcycle – it's not clear what was actually used). Each Jeep was fitted with a single Vickers .303 'K' gun – Gough wanted a Troop of Tetrarch tanks to spearhead the assault or heavier armament of .50 cal or twin Vickers fitted to the Jeeps, but was refused, so he had each Jeep carry a Bren gun in addition – giving each Section of ten men two Vickers and two Brens.
[Freddie Gough's Specials at Arnhem, Rob Hilton 2017]
2:00 – 36-year old Josef 'Sepp' Krafft was appointed commander of SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs-und-Erstaz-Bataillon 'Germania' on 1 April 1943, and on 23 June 1943 the battalion received a new tasking changing designation to '12' to train recruits for the new 12.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 'Hitlerjugend', and changed again in August 1944 from '12' to '16' to train replacements for 16.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 'Reichsführer-SS'. This led to 1st Airborne taking prisoner some Hitler Youth recruits from battalion '12' and training staff identified as battalion '16', leading to confusion as to how many units they were facing. Krafft had previously spent 8 months working in the office of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in Berlin, and after the battle sent a self-serving after action report to Himmler instead of his tactical superior, army General Hans von Tettau of the Netherlands occupation forces (WBN). Before the war he served in the German police, where he knew Luftwaffe Generalmajor Walter Grabmann, the commander of the 3.Jagd-Division at Deelen airfield north of Arnhem.
[Arnhem, a Few Vital Hours: The SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs-und-Ersatz-Bataillon 16 at the Battle of Arnhem September 1944, Scott Revell with Niall Cherry and Bob Gerritsen 2013, revised 2021]
2:44 – Krafft's half battalion was stripped out of the coastal defences, leaving four companies behind as 'Bataillon Hansen' on 4 September, and was ordered by von Tettau to occupy a reserve position near Gorinchem for the newly forming Waal defence line. Knowing that he was expecting 1,000 new recruits from Germany to train for the 16.SS-Division, he requested a swap with Fritz Fullriede of the 'Herman Göring' Training Regiment so he could use his own depot barracks in Arnhem for the recruits, and this was agreed. After moving to Arnhem, he caught up with his old friend Walter Grabmann at Deelen for dinner, who warned him the fields around Wolfheze made ideal landing grounds for airborne forces and Krafft moved his two training companies out of Arnhem and into Oosterbeek. When Model moved into Oosterbeek, Krafft reluctantly moved a little to the north to Oosterbeek Hoog and occupied the Villa Waldfriede, with the men camping in the woods near Johannahoeve. The 2.Kompanie was on an exercise in Wolfheze when the landings began, and Krafft was able to move up his 4.Kompanie and Battalion HQ quickly to join them. He also had the men of the 7.Stamm (reception) and 8.Genesenden (convalescent) Kompanien formed into a 9.Marsch (march) Kompanie in Arnhem and Velp, joining a little later to bring the total to 435 officers and men.
[ibid]
6:42 – Leopard Route (map) intended to pass to the south of Landing Zone 'L' before turning left and joining the main Amsterdam road, but then was to turn left at the Supply Drop Point 'V' and not take the dotted route into town – that was the intended Recce Squadron route to the bridge. Two Company strongpoints were to be established to block the Amsterdam road at SDP 'V' and on the Apeldoorn road (the main road going north from Arnhem towards the ( i ) in the top right corner of the map. This arc between the two main roads occupied by 1st Para Bn was intended to block the most likely routes for German reinforcements arriving from the north and Deelen airfield, and would be relieved by 4th Para Brigade the next day. The diversion north from Wolfheze towards the Amsterdam road was the actual route taken after the Recce Jeep ambush, and when this alterntive was also blocked by some Luftwaffe signals troops and SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 9 comng from Beekbergen (Apeldoorn), Dobie paralleled the main road south of the woods and then headed south towards Oosterbeek to head for the bridge when he received a message from Frost asking for help.
9:18 – Generalmajor Friedrich Kussin was the regional Feldkommandant (Feldkommandantur 642 in Arnhem) of the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, and was also the town Ortskommandant (Ortskommandantur 778) of Arnhem. He was out visiting his units, of which Sepp Krafft's battalion was one, and had just come from Krafft's HQ in the Hotel Wolfheze intending to return to his headquarters at the Villa Heselburgh in northern Arnhem, but he ignored a warning by Krafft not to use the main Utrecht road as he had reports British paratroops were moving along it. Kussin's car reached the crossroads as the leading B Company of 3rd Parachute Battalion were passing it and the car was riddled with Bren and Sten gun fire, killing all four men in the car.
10:54 – 3rd Parachute Battalion are attacked by Krafft's men at the crossroads with mortars as this was the southern end of his defence line, but further on they encounter armoured half-tracks from Gräbner's SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 9. Six vehicles (1 x SdKfz 250/3 command vehicle and 5 x SdKfz 250/9 with 2cm kanon that were the only survivors of 2.Kompanie from Normandy) had been detached from the battalion to patrol the western suburbs of Arnhem while the rest of the unit went south to Nijmegen to investigate reports of airborne landings there. Also, Krafft's 9.Kompanie arrived around this time and launched a counter-attack up the main road, supported by a Jagpanzer IV/L48 – one of two belonging to von Allworden's SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 9 from Apeldoorn, the second vehicle was operating on the Amsterdam road by this time.
13:20 – "oh my God, they're everywhere!" – Krafft's battalion was a motorised infantry (panzergrenadier) training unit and the training companies had truck transports, but he mobilised his 9.Kompanie reserve in Arnhem by having them use the 7.Kompanie's pool of bicycles from the Menno van Coehoorn battacks. Oosterbeek is just a short ride, even on a bike…
Fascinating insights but with the benefit of hindsight how frustrating is this operation! Makes you want to scream at the moment and turn the clock back to get it done properly…..maybe too much gung ho, too much arrogance but clearly everyone thought they were doing the right thing at the time….unfortunately for all those who didnt return or had months as a POW…
One the absolute best series I have watched in a very long time … more please.
These historians have that magic when working together that May, Hammond & Clarkson have. Rare.
Two very interesting blokes looking very at home in the rain. What a great series, thankyou chaps 😉
Really engaging and really well done. And so refreshing to see people finally talk frankly about the surprising bad decisions and bumbling mistakes. Battlefields are the realm of confusion and uncertainty…but a lot of this is less than easy to understand, as Al and James capture so succinctly
Holy! Gen Urquhart is very "Lucky" compare to Herr Kussin.😲
This one was great. Thanks for what you and your crew are putting out there for us.
Was Holland a bit tipsy?
Fascinating recounting of this phase of the battle gents. Mystifying though why the top brass on both sides would throw caution to the wind and ‘have a gander’ at what was going on. Didn’t they think of sending people to recce first? Excellent history lesson as usual gents, really brought home by those grim photos. Sobering but gripping stuff, and all done in the piddling rain. Thank you
Thanks chaps, excellent, informative and to the point, just what I like. A great series👍🏻. All the best from Somerset 🍺🍺💯✨
Thanks
Very well-made and interesting video. Great series.
Spot where Kussin died, view feet away 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment private F.W. Hopwood was killed, there is a photo of his fieldgrave with Lee Enfield as a marker and sign with his name to it.
So informative, Gentlemen thank you for keeping this going. Truly fascinating 👍👍
If you re a general , don’t walk around Willy nilly….. ( every officer believing himself to do like Rommel commanding from the frontlines..)😂
Thanks for the in depth analysis on the ground, love it. Has anyone been reading the Traitor of Arnhem, very interesting, not finished it yet, new perspective from Robert Verkaik.
I CANNOT believe this programme was interrupted by an advert for "a dental supplier to the trade" . For fucks sake YouTube, sort your Algorithms out and stop fucking up our viewing pleasure.
Done it again. So bloody informative. It’s the detail. Names, companies, regiments. Obviously both speak Dutch, German and English fluently! 😂 And they manage to achieve all this whilst behaving like two fellas having a bevvy together. They stand on the spot where names are made famous and infamous. I think at some point James had had enough of being knocked about by the brolley hence Als perfectly perched headwear. More please Heir Generals!!!
Just got back from 5 days in Oosterbeek. My second time there this year. I blame this series and Al’s new book!
Is it raining, or is Al just worried he might forget the password?
That last part of the video 😆 Question: during one of the podcasts James was mentioning a movie/show he really liked watching and was historically well done. I cant remember which episode it was. But do you now what the name of the movie/show was?
Thanks for posting this, James and Al you explain everything very well. By the way nice hat Al 👍
12:00 only a Brit would casually use kilometers and miles in one sentence like it’s nothing. The imperial system is outdated and illogical but at least the Americans are stubbornly sticking to one system.
Another cracking and interesting piece, keep it up lads 👍
Thanks guys!
As a dutchman, I love these videos!
Lol….they couldn't have got 2 umbrellas? The whole video, I'm picturing the between scene conversation about who gets the umbrella…lol