POSTSCRIPT - THE FINAL IRONY

give it up'. Herbert Kessler would haveendorsed this opinion as the pointlessblood-letting continued the following day:

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'Now it's not bright moonlight, it'ssuddenly bright sunshine, and we getthe order: "Cross at once!" My groupwas the second to move forward. Thefirst group carrying two rubberdinghies went towards the bank. Onedinghy was immediately shot topieces, the group leader was severelywounded. Those 200 metres to thebank are under heavy artillery fire aswell as flanking fire from machineguns. As the wounded group leaderwas carried past me (he was a friend ofmine), I received orders for my groupto try it. I jump up, together with mysoldiers (about a platoon), run to therubber dinghy which is still intact, teardown to the bank, and push it into thewater, jump into it with three othermen, and row it across the river. Thisall sounds so harmless, but as long as Ilive I shall never forget that rowing.The shots splashed into the water allaround us like hailstones, and how wemanaged to get to the other side, Idon't know to this day. But we didand, still under heavy fire, dug ourholes. That crossing in bright daylightwas nonsense.'

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'I am furious with the Regiment,where is the fire support? Where areour supplies? Where is our signalsdetachment, and where are theremaining units of theKampfgruppe?'

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They were on their way, but could notfinally cross until nightfall. LieutenantMartin wrote on 4 October:

'We finally crossed at 0300. We'rewith the naval units. Attack starts at0630. First casualties. 2nd companyhas withdrawn and I am left alone.Many are left behind. We move todifferent positions tonight. There areonly a few of us left. What's thepurpose of all this? I am flanksecurity. Am digging in. The night iscold and stormy.'

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His situation mirrored that of Kessler atanother point in the same confined bridge-head:

'One didn't dare to get out of the hole,for any reason. I think there were nowabout 20 of us, with only one machinegun. After we crossed, there were nomore reinforcements, because therehad been too many casualties.'

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The next day the situation deterioratedeven further.' Lieutenant Martin, with theattached Luftwaffe company, lay waitingunder heavy fire; 'the men were ready forembarking, but boats not r e a d y ' herecorded in his diary on 3 October. Theywere being constantly harassed by salvoesof mortar and artillery fire, with sometwenty to thirty impacts every ten minutes.His company was steadily diminishingunder this pounding, 'becoming smallerand smaller'. Oelkers, meanwhile,despaired:

8

Lindemann dolefully remarked that 'theexpected Panzer-grenadier counter-attackdid not materialise. We heard the tanks butthey did not reach us.' For three days thebridgehead was not resupplied. Eventswere now beginning to resemble the ten-day ordeal, albeit on a smaller scale, that theBritish paratroopers had endured in Oos-terbeek just over a week before. LieutenantMartin's diary now began to record theprogressive deterioration in the smallpocket, an ironic postscript to the morepublicised drama that had been enacted inArnhem.

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