IT NEVER S N O W S IN SEPTEMBER

enemy resistance. Meanwhile, the Poles hadconcentrated upon occupying Driel andbegan to prepare it for all-round defence.From north to south a German line grad-ually began to take shape following thenorth-south course of the railway embank-ment facing Driel. From top to bottom itconsisted of the battalions Schoerken,Machine Gun Battalion 47, Kauer,Koehnen, with finally the Dutch SS Land-sturm battalion linking up with the Kampf-gruppe Knaust and the 10SS north of Elst.Bittrich, the IISS Corps commander, wasconvinced that the Polish objective was tocut off and isolate the Frundsberg. Hetherefore ordered the KampfgruppenKnaust and Brinkmann, based in Elst as acontingency reserve following the re-capture of the Arnhem bridge, to beginredeploying in order to attack the Poles inDriel. Adjustments were made to theboundary lines of the two SS divisions, torationalise and co-ordinate the measuresnow required to defeat this latest threat.Velden became inclusive to the 9SS and Elstwas placed under control of the 10SS. Allelements of the Kampfgruppe Hohen-staufen operating south of the lower Rhinewere incorporated into the 'SperrverbandHarzer'. Command was further stream-lined by Army Group B who offered anuncommitted regimental headquartersunder Colonel Gerhard to command theblocking force. Gerhard's command postbecame effective during the night of 21-22September after it established itself on thenorth-east edge of Elden. 'ARKO 191' stillco-ordinated the artillery effort but workedclosely with the new headquarters.

All these measures enacted by the staffsto stabilise the crisis should not detractfrom the reality of the situation on theground. Improvisations can only be madeto work by the Herculean efforts of troopsactually enacting them. The soldiers form-ing the backbone of the SperrverbandHarzer were untrained Navy, Luftwaffe,

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newly-joined Wehrmacht and Dutch-German nationals recently conscripted intothe SS. This made the achievement all themore remarkable. Soldiers were fed hap-hazardly into the new line to plug gapsor replace casualties. Feldwebel Erich Hen-sel's experience was typical of most.Hensel, a 23-year-old Nachrichten (sig-nals) sergeant had barely escaped the Alliedadvance in Normandy, crossing the Scheldtwith the fleeing 15th Army. His divisionalsignals unit had just departed Student's 1stFallschirmjäger headquarters in Vughtwhen the first landings started. 'We did notsee the landings but certainly heard of them,'he remembered, but they merely 'added tothe impetus to get back to Germany.'Dependent upon rumour and hearsay forinformation, the thirty-odd signallersbecame concerned. There was generally alack of knowledge about the overall situa-tion and 'we were worried we might besurrounded'.They had hoped to escape the impendingaction because they 'thought the war was asgood as over'. But not for them; they wereapprehended and re-routed by militarypolice seeking out stragglers. 'Es gehtwieder los! Here we go again!' they real-ised. There was fearful anticipation of thecoming battle. Hensel admits he was 'veryfrightened that he may yet be killed,' afterall they had endured 'so late in the war'. Onthe way to the front they became caught upin the myriad units belonging to II Falls-chirmjaeger Corps marching via Cleve tothe front. 'English "Jabos" en route wereterrible,' Hensel related, but there was nomistaking the inevitability of what was tocome. To an eastern front and Normandyveteran it was depressingly all too familiar:'We could only march at night due to theair threat.' Progress was therefore slow,although 'poor weather at least enabled usto move'. As they neared the front, tensionsincreased. Hensel confided: