CHAPTER XIX

The Missed Opportunity

Why did they not drive on to Elst instead of staying in Lent? At this instant there wereno German armoured forces available to block Elst.

Commander, 10SS Panzer Division

Plugging the gap.Betuwe, 'the Island'. . .

Karl-Heinz Kracht, the young tank gunnermoving with Knaust's armoured column,used a golden opportunity to take photo-graphs as his Mark III panzer, grindingthrough its gears, began its ascent to thehigh point of the Arnhem road bridge. Hislens began to take objective stock of allaround him. Silhouetted against the skyahead was the majestic span of the bridge'ssuperstructure. To the left and right, burnt-out vehicles had been bulldozed or towedto the side of the road, the debris of Graeb-ner's failed attack. As they passed the rudi-mentary barrier erected by Frost's men,they observed curious SS soldiers siftingthrough the tangled wreckage. On the mainspan the wind, whistling through the gir-ders, brought some of the stench of burningfrom the battle now raging in the westtowards Oosterbeek. Kracht took a shot ofthe ruined church by the market place,whose towers were now burnt out. Withthe 50mm tank barrel pointing down theroad toward Elden he took another pictureof the southern ramp of the bridge. Thisshowed the built-up area where Graebnerhad formed up and rushed to the high pointof the bridge before coming under fire fromthe north bank. There was no wreckagehere. This had been a blind spot. Comingtowards Kracht's vehicle was a simplehorse-drawn cart, carrying refugees back

toward the wasted city centre. The focus ofGerman activity appeared now to be movingsouth towards Nijmegen. Many of thesevillagers wanted to be spared the horrorsthat had already engulfed the citizens ofArnhem. In the far distance, separated fromthe tanks, were marching columns of infan-try. Kracht later wrote:

'We were well aware of thesignificance of the bridge because wehad been informed of the pincermovement planned by the British andAmerican forces, and of the attack tothe north of the Ruhr area. We crossedthe bridge towards Nijmegen on theday when it was evacuated, or a daylater. I can't remember exactly.'

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SS-Colonel Heinz Harmel, the commanderof the Frundsberg does remember, andwith some alacrity. Knaust's Kampfgruppe,'reinforced with 8 "Panther" and assaultguns, crossed the Arnhem bridge shortlyafter midday [21 September]; he wasordered by the 10SS to quickly occupyElst.' Harmel had spent an anxious night.Knaust's arrival offered a degree of relief toa problem that had appeared for themoment insoluble.Harmel wondered, even after the war,why the tanks that had rushed the Nijmegenbridge with such elan had not continuedfurther. The Allies had certainly missed anopportunity. They might possibly have

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