Скачать или смотреть 740 Men at Arnhem Bridge: The 2nd Parachute Battalion's Last Stand

Seven hundred and forty men of the 2nd Parachute Battalion were ordered to hold a bridge they could not cross and could not abandon. Their last stand at the northern ramp of Arnhem Bridge would become a defining epic of British airborne courage. As part of Operation Market Garden, the British 1st Airborne Division began landing west of Arnhem on September 17th, 1944. While the main division fought to reach the bridge, Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost’s 2nd Battalion, reinforced by elements from other units to a total strength of roughly 740, fought through the town and seized the bridge’s northern end by nightfall. They quickly fortified the surrounding houses and a school, unaware they had positioned themselves directly in the path of the refitting German II SS Panzer Corps. What followed was a brutal siege defined by close-quarter combat and overwhelming firepower. The lightly armed paratroopers, equipped with .303 caliber Lee-Enfield rifles and 9mm Sten guns, faced a relentless assault from German armor, including Panzer IVs and the formidable Tiger I. Their defense relied on a few 6-pounder anti-tank guns and the PIAT, a 35-pound infantry anti-tank weapon whose crew had to engage armored vehicles at ranges of less than 50 yards. German 20mm Flak guns, firing high-explosive shells at a rate of 180 rounds per minute, systematically reduced the buildings to rubble. Cut off from the rest of the division and with ammunition, water, and medical supplies nearly exhausted, the battalion’s perimeter shrank to a few shattered cellars. By the morning of September 21st, after four days of continuous combat, organized resistance ended. Most of the battalion were killed or captured. Yet, their sacrifice was strategically significant. The battalion’s stubborn defense pinned down critical German forces, buying invaluable time for the U.S. 82nd Airborne to secure the bridge at Nijmegen and for the rest of the 1st Airborne to form a defensive perimeter at Oosterbeek. The stand of the 2nd Parachute Battalion at the bridge stands as a timeless testament to the Parachute Regiment’s ethos, a story of unwavering tenacity that ensured the name Arnhem would forever be synonymous with elite soldierly sacrifice.

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