Varsity - Landing Positions of CN305 and CN364

Hello Jenny - I was away all day. I'll see what I can find...

best
Alex

 

Hello Jenny,
in his book Nitrowski does not have any German accounts from this area - the gliders in that area came down beyond the boundaries of the landing zones, and the events in that area are beyond the scope of Nitrowskis book. I do recall the account of a German artillery officer who may talk about the British gliders that landed in German held territory. But I read this many years ago on paper, before everybody turned everything into PDF and word documents readable on any computer. I may have his account in a box somewhere, but I know that it is available in Municipal Archives of the City of Rees. They may be able to send me a PDF in the new year. I will ask.

The war diaries of the German units are not available - in the chaos of 1945 they either disappeared or were destroyed when the German military archive burnt down after a bombing raid on Potsdam in April 1945. There are some accounts written by German officers after the war - when they were POWs and were asked by the US Army to write up their assessment of the battles they had fought.

As to civilians: While Varsity took place they hunkered down in cellars or makeshift shelters next to their farms. During the battle they did not play a role in the way that you suggest i.e. handing over prisoners. There were plenty of German soldiers in the area to take prisoner any British soldiers that landed astray. The civilians at times argued with German officers and NCOs, pleading not to use their farms as strongpoints because that attracted Allied artillery fire or even rocket firing Typhoon aircraft. Which meant: burning farm buildings, cattle burning to death, death and destruction. The trouble was that the German soldiers were often leaning their defensive positions onto farm buildings and groups of houses. When the enemy artillery fired the German soldiers joined the civilians in their cellars, which gave rather good protection - only to re-emerge once the shelling had stopped and the enemy approached. When civilians - interested in saving their property - wanted to put out white flags they got into trouble with German officers who regarded this as treason. Sometimes they forced the civilians to "co-operate" at the point of the gun. It wasn't that the civilians were all against the Nazis (many farmers supported the Nazis) but rather the instinct of self-preservation at a time when the regime was in its last throes.

 

Lance Corporal Eric Lancaster of 7 Para writes this about the aftermath of the battle:
"In the afternoon things quietened down quite a bit and the signal sergeant took over my set and told me to go for a walk so I did just that. I went out of the trees and down onto the dropping zone which was mainly a large flat landscape of fields. The wounded had all been treated and taken away and most of the dead had also been moved.

The area was littered with a multitude of gliders, some of which looked as if they had landed without any trouble but most had been badly knocked about by anti-aircraft fire and when they landed, some had burnt out; there were also a few Dakotas which had crash landed. So many of the gliders were virtually matchwood that I was glad that I had arrived by parachute.

One Dakota had nose dived into the ground so that the exit door was about fifteen feet above the ground and for a couple of hundred yards behind the plane a line of parachutes was stretched out presumably belonging to those whose chutes had not opened in time. The only man left was on his back, hanging out of the door with his head split open.

I walked into another field where German prisoners had just dug a huge grave about 30 feet by 15 feet and bodies were being placed in it. A lot were badly burnt and some looked like large pieces of charcoal."
The Rhine Crossing
His account is the Pegasus Archive - to be found under "Biographies".

The Germans he is referring to were of course burying British dead.
The German casualties for the time being were left lying were they had died - most were later buried in field graves by the civilians from nearby farms. They often recognized the dead soldiers because these had been billeted at their farms - so the civilians collected personal effects and took down information about the dead. More thoughtful individuals even wrote to the families of the dead informing them about the fate of their loved ones.

 

That would be very interesting to hear about. So far my research has been limited to Allied accounts written in English. Unfortunately I don't speak German so your assistance really is eye-opening for me.

This makes for very grim reading. No wonder many veterans (including my dad) didn't want to talk about their experiences. I feel very fortunate not to have lived through such times and am ever grateful for the sacrifices made by previous generations.

Jenny

 

Hello Jenny, here's a bit more about the German 7th Para Div:

There was not much airborne capability left when in October 1944 the 7th Parachute Division (Fallschirmjäger-Division) was assembled from various depleted parachute units, Luftwaffe training units and an assortment of various Luftwaffe and Army units which were converted to a combat role.
The new division was commanded by General Erdmann - it was part of II Parachute Corps, which in March 1945 defended the Rhine front between Emmerich (at the Dutch border) and Bislich (some distance downstream from Wesel). This „Parachute Corps“ made up of three divisions (6th, 7th and 8th Parachute Divisions) had a total strength of 16.000 men - which is to say that it was much under normal strength. The Chief of Staff of II Parachute Corps wrote after the war: „Vehicles - only 20 % of the usual strength, artillery shells - one fifth of the normal complement, which meant we had about 50 rounds per barrel. Petrol - only half of the normal complement was available, no spare tires. Personnel replacements were poor in quality and never sufficient - these were no longer parachute trained volunteers but „combed out“ ground personnel of the diminishing Luftwaffe.“ II Parachute corps was commanded by General Eugen Meindl.


Maybe Meindl's Chief of Staff was exaggerating a bit - but in principle this was the frustrating reality for the German units in the spring of 1945. It should, however, be noted that even those parachute units showed considerable resilience in battle. This was due to the remaining hardened and experienced paratroop NCOs and officers - many of whom had fought in various campaigns. The German paratroopers were also widely held to be loyal believers in Nazism and displayed considerable fighting spirit in Combat and stubbornness in defence.

The 7th Fallschirmjäger-Divison was to defend the sector between Bislich and Haffen (downstream from Bislich and south of Rees. The divisional HQ was based in the village of Haldern, just northwest of Hamminkeln.

Soldiers of 7 Para Div after the farm they were billeted in received a hit from Allied shellfire.

On March 24th the 7th Para Div was fighting against 15th Scottish Infantry Division on the Rhine front and put up a stiff fight near Mehr until March 25th. After the Allied airborne landings on the 24th some units held on to the northwestern part of their sector, but after two days they retreated north towards Bocholt.

 

That's fantastic alberk. I'm very grateful for the background information.

Jenny