IT NEVER S N O W S IN SEPTEMBER

established to deny the enemy afurther advance.'

Moeller had already linked up with the 87-man force of the anti-aircraft battery underSS-Lieutenant Gropp. By midnight Krafft'sSS battalion, numbering 300 men, and someheavy weapons were also taken under com-mand. Spindler was obliged to conduct a'fight as you arrive' war. It was a broad,almost indistinguishable front line, formedby the 'no go' areas established betweenthe mix of British and German fightinggroups manoeuvring to gain advantage. Bythe middle of the night Spindler hadachieved the first part of his mission. Anirregular block of strong points had beenestablished, from Krafft on the Ede-Arnhemroad in the north-west, through Groppon the railway cutting, south via Moeller,from the railway junction to Utrechtseweg.Spindler's artillery companies covered thegap from here south to the lower Rhine.Additional units were used to reinforce andextend these focal points. These includedsome Reichsarbeitsdienst (pioneers) whoarrived without weapons or equipment,and had to be armed from captured Britishstocks.

The influx of so many diverse and in-experienced platoons and companies meantthat the Kampfgruppe had to be restructured.To achieve this, two more Kampfgruppenwere formed from within Spindler's originalorbit. One focused around the remnants ofthe Hohenstaufen's 'tank-destroyer' bat-talion, Panzerjäger Abteilung 9. This wasnamed after its commander SS-CaptainKlaus von Allworden. The other was formedfrom the original Panzer Regiment 9, led byone of its previous company commanders,SS-Lieutenant Harder. Kampfgruppe Har-der consisted of three infantry companies,one of dismounted tank-crewmen, anotherof fitters and logistic personnel, and thethird from a hastily formed naval unit. Theremay also have been three 'Panther' Mark V

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SS-Captain Klaus von Allworden,Commander of the Kampfgruppe vonAllworden, infantry formed from thedismounted tank destroyer crews ofPanzerjäger Abt. 9 of the 9SSHohenstaufen. (Fuerbringer Collection)

panzers, but these were quickly lost early inthe fighting. It was a totally improvisedfighting force.Kampfgruppe von Allworden had 120men, previously armoured self-propelled guncrews, supplemented by naval personnelsufficient to form three infantry companies.There were in addition two self-propelled(SP) guns and some 75mm towed PAKanti-tank guns. Von Allworden's 'Panzer-j ä g e r ' had been billeted the furthest awayfrom the landing-zones - 21km, just southof Apeldoorn. Even so, part of it, includingthe two SPs were in action along theDreyenseweg, north of Arnhem, during the