IT NEVER S N O W S IN SEPTEMBER

tinued the advance beyond the Albertcanal. Only a few battalions had barred theway to the Ruhr. 'What I experienced thenamongst this surge of retreating Germantroops brought back personal memories ofNovember 1918. It became evident to methat the only way of overcoming this situa-tion was to tackle it head on, until it wasmastered.'His task was aided by the fact he hadonly two bridges to control. There was noalternative to crossing the river herebecause of its width, depth and the fast-flowing current. The bridges were moni-tored and regulated by just one platoonapiece.Lippert recalls:

'At both these crossing points thetorrent of German soldiers dammedup, then pushed and shoved across. Ashambles of innumerable vehicles,carrying every conceivable load — andnot always military supplies —exacerbated the situation.'

Lippert's NCOs checked the papers of allcivilian and military personnel who wishedto cross. Within two days 3,000 unattachedstragglers had been assembled in Wouden-burg. Integrated into 'march battalions',they were passed on to the NetherlandsHigh Command, responsible for adminis-tering and controlling the rear combatzone.Lippert was, as one of his section com-manders SS-Officer Cadet Lindemannrecalls, a 'real fair, gentleman-officer type'.He lined up the apprehended soldiers oneSunday morning in the market place inThiel and attempted to remonstrate withthem. Given the chance to explain them-selves, a cross-section of opinion emergedcovering the whole spectrum of unitsfleeing Holland at that time. When askedwhy they had fled, several soldiers repliedthat:

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' . . . they had been obliged to holdpositions at the front without theirofficers, or had been advised to throwdown their weapons because furtherfighting and dying was senseless. Hereand there the same reasons for flightemerged, but could not be checked indetail. I could not blame them, I hadalready experienced officers trying tocross the Waal bridges. The assembledsoldiers were passed on to theNetherlands High Command, where anumber of officers would be requiredto give an account of themselvesbefore a court-martial.'

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These ad hoc march battalions wereimmediately passed on as recruits for the ersatz or replacement training battalions.The front in Holland was composed ofbattle groups formed from the reorganisedremnants of the retreating defeated div-isions, supplemented by these rapidly re-trained replacements.

First FallschirmjägerArmy . . .

First Fallschirmjäger Army was born fromGoering's unexpected announcement toHitler that the Luftwaffe was suddenly ableto offer a pool of 20,000 men to alleviate theacute manpower shortage problem. Recruit-ed primarily into the Luftwaffe-controlledFallschirmjäger regiments, they were thepotential pilots, observers, navigators andsignallers who were emptied from the nowredundant Luftwaffe training schools inGermany. Although completely untrainedfor their role, they were to fight tenaciously,making up for inexperience with courageand zeal. This collection of fresh youth,picked from among the best manpower inGermany, had yet to experience the carnageand disillusionment of combat as infantrysoldiers. Until they did, they were to prove