IT NEVER S N O W S IN SEPTEMBER

Kampfgruppe - namely five armoured carsand three half-tracks mounting flak guns. Afourth Kampfgruppe, 'Goebel', supportedby the battalion south-east of Mook,moved off from the south, heading north-west with a further 350 men. Includingunits securing a thin line behind theadvance, a force totalling some 3,400 menwas hastily assembled and flung into theattack - 24 mortars, 130 light and heavymachine guns in addition to small detach-ments of flak were intermingled with themand supported the effort.Any American complacency or concernover the relatively muted reaction of theGerman defence in 82 Division's area wassoon shattered by the arrival of this force.Feldt himself remarked 'to our surprise, atthe beginning, the attack made slow pro-gress everywhere. The results south-east ofMook were remarkable.' Yet there was nodisguising the problems of the attackers,they were pressed amateurs, untrained con-scripts, up against seasoned veteransfighting their third campaign. Difficultiessoon developed. Major Rasch, observingthe main attacks toward Groesbeek withGeneral Scherbening, saw that their own'soldiers were armed only with Czechoslo-vak machine guns'. One of the replacementbattalions forward of their location radioedthe divisional commander and reportedthey were unable to continue their advancedue to flanking fire. Scherbening, knowinghis adjutant was infantry trained, turned tohim, having quickly made up his mind andexclaimed: 'Take over his task. If we don'tget Groesbeek inside half an hour, thewhole attack will have had it!'

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'Remarkable' progress was initially madeby three hastily gathered Kampfgruppen ofuntrained conscripts. The village of Mookwas penetrated. (Bundesarchiv)

'These were all old boys lying here,veterans of the First World War, whohad just been called up to relieve theyounger soldiers manning POW campbattalions. Now they too had been putinto the front line. Somebody in theline called out to me "Captain, we'vealready stormed the Craoneer Heightsin 1914!" "Ja," I was able to answer."Can't you see that it's up to us oldboys to run the whole show again; andwe will do it exactly as we did then.First of all we have got to get Tommy[they thought they were fighting theEnglish] on the run, then we'vecracked it!".'

Rasch moved forward, having detached amachine gun section from the staff foradditional protection, and took over Cap-tain Gruenenklee's battalion. When hearrived he found the battalion pinned downon the edge of a wood. He quickly assessedthe situation:

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