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Longread: The blood-curdling battle account of a British paratrooper

in Longread
All officers of the 2nd Battalion. Lieutenant Colonel John Frost sits in the front row wearing Scottish trousers. The second officer from the right in the front row is Major Stanley Panter.

Major Stanley C. Panter was one of the British paratroopers who fought at the Rhine Bridge during the Battle of Arnhem. After the war, Panter wrote an extensive battle report. In this factual and blood-curdling story of 4,000 words, Panter meticulously recounts his experiences from the airborne landings on Sunday, September 17, 1944 to the…

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The failed race to the Rhine Bridge by the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron

in Arnhem/September 17
A jeep of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron. (Photo: Imperial War Museum.)

In addition to John Frost’s battalion, there was another British unit that managed to reach the Rhine Bridge on Sunday, September 17, albeit badly damaged. Those were the men in the jeeps of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron. The 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron was known within the British airborne forces as the ‘Freddie Gough Squadron’,…

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John Frost’s Battalion captures the Rhine bridge, but not the railway bridge and the ship bridge

in Arnhem/September 17
German prisoners are taken away by British paratroopers in the woods near Wolfheze.

After the airborne landings on September 17, three battalions with approximately 2,700 British paratroopers left for Arnhem via three different routes. 1st Battalion , which advanced to Arnhem via the north, came into contact north-east of Wolfheze with the first troops of the 9th SS Armored Division that the Germans had sent to Arnhem. During…

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Video: The British took control of these buildings near the Rhine Bridge

in Arnhem/Photos/September 17

None of the original buildings that the British held on the north side of the Rhine Bridge during the Battle of Arnhem survived the war. In addition to drawn maps of the situation around the bridge, several illustrative films have been made in recent years that clearly show what the area around the Rhine Bridge…

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Another company of soldiers managed to reach the Rhine Bridge after the landings

in Arnhem/September 17
British paratroopers pose together with Dutch civilians on a cart track near Wolfheze.

Many people are aware that the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion led by John Frost managed to reach the Rhine Bridge via a route along the Rhine on Sunday, September 17. Much less known is that approximately fifty British soldiers from the 3rd Battalion also arrived at the bridge on Sunday night. Because the British…

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Colonel Frost is on his own at the bridge

in Arnhem/September 18
A British RAF reconnaissance plane took this photo of the Rhine Bridge on Monday afternoon, September 18, 1944. The remains of the destroyed column of armored vehicles are clearly visible on the bridge.

The early morning of Monday, September 18. That was the last moment when it was quiet for the British at the Rhine Bridge. But from half past nine in the morning there was almost continuous fighting at the bridge. Because the British army units could not maintain contact with each other via radios , the…

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British at the bridge destroy Viktor Gräbner’s SS Armored Column

in Arnhem/September 18
An RAF reconnaissance plane took a photo of the destruction of the SS Armored Column by the British. (Photo: Imperial War Museum.)

A Dutch garbage collector who unsuspectingly made his rounds near the Rhine bridge on the early morning of Monday, September 18, 1944, was probably the first victim of the fighting that would take place that day. His garbage truck was fired upon by British paratroopers as soon as he entered their sector. The British were…

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British at the bridge hold out, under heavy German pressure

in Arnhem/September 19
The Van Limburg-Stirumschool on the eastern driveway of the Rhine Bridge. After the Battle of Arnhem, little was left of the school.

The 700 soldiers of 2nd Battalion who occupied approximately thirty buildings on the north side of the Rhine Bridge had no illusions. The day before they had easily survived the attack of a German SS reconnaissance battalion and had also repelled several small attacks on their positions. But now, on Tuesday, September 19, the Germans…

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September 20: Germans smoke out the British at the Rhine Bridge

in Arnhem/September 20
British paratroopers captured at the bridge on Wednesday, September 20, are taken away via Steenstraat. (Photo: Federal Archives.)

If Operation Market Garden had gone according to plan, the ground troops of XXX Corps would have reached the south side of the Rhine on Tuesday, September 19, in the afternoon. But on Wednesday morning, September 20, the tanks and troops of XXX Corps were still in Nijmegen, where the Waal Bridge had yet to…

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Rhine Bridge: 130 British soldiers try to break out

in Arnhem/September 20
This aerial photo from 1939 shows the battle scene. At the bottom left of the photo is the Walburgis Church with the Walburgisplein. The H-shaped building directly on the west side of the Rhine Bridge is the brigade headquarters from which the 130 soldiers attempted their breakout. (Photo: Gelders Archives.)

On Wednesday evening, September 20, the British soldiers had to give up their position at the Rhine Bridge in Arnhem. About 130 British tried to break out via the Walburgis Church. Despite their relatively light armament, the British paratroopers defending the north side of the Rhine Bridge proved to be able to withstand the attacks…

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