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 1st 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 7th
Dukes War Diaries. From 1st 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 2nd ‘’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 11th
R.S.F. on the morning of 4th December.
By the
morning of 3rd 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 4th 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 11th
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 4th
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 11th 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 11th 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 7th DWR Company and ‘D’ Company of the 11th
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 16th Parachute
Regiment of the 6th 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 11th
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. 4th December closed with a heavy artillery bombardment on
the battalion area.
On 5th
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 6th
December, the rest of the Regiment moved into the village to relieve the 7 DWR
who moved back to Bemmel.
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