The Sonn Battle .

The Guards Armoured Division , spearheaded by the Irish Guards was advancing towards Arnhem , the objective being to reach Appeldoorn . As is well-known , paras had been dropped on the bridges over the canals which intersect the route in order to secure it . Unfortunately the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Sonn had been blown , so the advance was held up while the engineers constructed a Bailey Bridge . Our Bofors 40 mm. gun was deployed off the main road in order to afford protection from air attack . The track was narrow and there was a dyke on our left . The bank gave way and the self-propelled gun subsided into the water . The crew scrambled clear but there was then no alternative than to wait for the vehicle to be winched out . While we waited , the engineers completed the bridge and the spearhead resumed its advance towards Nijmegen . Eventually the REME truck equipped with a winch arrived and lifted the gun out of the dyke . There was not room for a three-point turn so the driver took the gun further down the track until he could turn into a field . Opening the gate he drove in intending to turn the vehicle round and drive back up the track towards the main road . To his surprise he could see across the field a column of German tanks poised to cut the allied supply line . The lead tank opened fire and scored a direct hit causing the vehicle to burst into flame . The driver was able to leap from his seat and escape to where we were awaiting him ,but leaving the gun to its fate . The next shell from the enemy side hit the REME truck which was loaded with ammunition and a firework display commenced . No-one was hurt . The only vehicle left on our side was a jeep which had brought Captain John Paice to our rescue and he decided to make his way towards Nijmegen to rejoin the advance .
Meanwhile , the German column halted as its commander did not know the strength or weakness of the opposition . As a matter of fact , this consisted of seven unarmed men ( their weapons had all been lost with the Bofors gun ) and myself with the Bren gun . We were ordered to make our way as best we could back to Eindhoven and alert the troops there to the proximity of the enemy panzers .The only cover was a ditch choked with nettles into which we dived and began to crawl on our bellies . Although in shirtsleeve order the nettles did not deter us but the welcome ditch soon came to an end after which our only cover was a cabbage field . Two things favoured our retreat :
one may have been the inability of the German machine-gunner to depress his fire and the other the desire of the German commander not to betray his presence . In fact , there was no-one to detect it as there were no troops between Eindhoven and Sonn . You have probably never trailed a bren-gun between your legs while traversing a cabbage-field on your belly , but if you had you would know that it is somewhat difficult to keep your head down . Yet the tracer passed over my head until we were out of range . We proceeded to Eindhoven and alerted the troops there . This did not prevent the Germans from cutting supplies for four days while the battle raged round Sonn and many Sherman tanks were lost on our side . After the battle , we were able to proceed to Nijmegen but the events at Sonn
had not assisted the allied cause in the approach to Arnhem .

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