Recollections of the role played by No: 2 Para Platoon, 250 Company R.A.S.C during the battle of Arnhem

This is an account of my Dad's recollections during his time in the Army when he was 19 in Sept.1944.He was a member of the 250 Company,R.A.S.C in 2 Para.He wrote this account in 1994 just before he went back to Arnhem to take part in the 50 years commemoration of the Battle.He had been asked to speak to a class of young Dutch children by a lady who belonged to the "Lest We Forget" group.He wrote this account to aid him in his speech to the children as he did not want to let them down by forgetting names or the sequence of events.
He writes "In my recollections of the role played by the 250 Company,R.A.S.C, and of other members of the R.A.S.C, one must realise that after 50 years since the fateful operation "Market Garden" in Sept.1944,memories have somewhat dimmed.Personally,the noise is one of the main things I remember and one that tends to stay with you forever.
I feel the contribution given by the R.A.S.C during the Battle of Arnhem went completely untold.Apart from the ground action,one only has to think that all the re-supply planes flown by the R.A.F and the Americain aircrew during the whole battle,were accompanied by 4 R.A.S.C air despatch crews.Consequently their losses were gigantic too.
The actual role of 250 Company R.A.S.C was a rather complex one.
It consisted of 3 Parachute platoons,trained completely as infantry,these men were also fully trained drivers and also carried out R.A.S.C duties.Their 1st initial duty was to fight alongside an attached Para battalion (as an extra fighting platoon).All transport with the Transport Platoon were landed by glider and would immediately form a supply dump of food and ammunition,ready for distribution to troops when required.
My recollection starts as Day One:
Airlift consisted of the air landing platoon and Nos.1 and 3 para platoons.These were able to form up and find their rendevous points.
For some reason,never explained,No.3 Platoon under Capt.W.Gell,was ordered to accompany the 2nd battalion to the Arnhem town bridge,whilst No.1 Platoon stopped in the vicinity of the landing zone with the first air landing.
No.1 Platoon was commanded by Capt.Cramer-Bing.The air landing transport landing platoon,plus the H.Q Platoon,would now carry on the duties of forming a supply dump,which was sited in front of the Hartenstein Hotel.
Day Two :After a late takeoff,the second lift started landing at approximatley 14.00 hours.This included my own platoon No.2 Para,commanded by Capt.D.T.Kavanagh.
On leaving the plane,I realised that all was not well.
At the dropping zone,we were to land,and men who we found out were to be members of the K.O.S.B were fighting an action and trying to secure the dropping zone as we were landing.On reaching the ground,our platoon rendevous point was a blue smoke flare.
Crossing the dropping zone was a hazardous time,as German machine guns were sweeping the dropping zone with heavy fire,plus 20 mm cannon shells.
Two members of our platoon were instantly killed,and others were wouded even before getting to the rendevous point.
At the rendevous point,we were informed that things weren't going too well.We were ordered to proceed towards the village of Wolfhazen.After wood clearing and intensive fighting on the dropping zone,we were then placed in defensive positions around the railway station for the rest of that day and night.During this night extensive patrolling activity was carried out.
Day Three : We were ordered to enter Oosterbeek.Our duties from then on were to protect the transport vehicles and crew plus collecting supplies dropped by the supply planes.Realisation that things weren't getting better set in as most of the supplies dropped landed on lost ground.This made collection an extremely hazardous operation.We were continously running into ambushes set up by the German troops, and we lost a third of No 2 para Platoon in one action.
In one ambush,a very brave deed was carried out by Capt.Kavanagh.He ordered us to take cover whilst he attacked a hidden machine gunsite at the side of the road.He was killed along with Cpl.Wiggins and Drivers Hatton and Thomas.The platoon was then reduced to indivudual members.As a unit,to carry out R.A.S.C duties was impossible.On returning to our base at the supply dump,we were then allocated to continue fighting with any unit one found oneself with ie a patrol would be formed to search and destroy,consisting of anything up to members six different units,usually led by a Glider pilot sergeant.
Since then, many accounts have been given by surviving soldiers and many acts of extreme sacrifice and bravery were carried out by all and sundry - ground troops,air crews,indivdual units,but as a member of the 250 R.A.S.C Company,I would not have wished to have fought beside any finer men.
During the course of the next few days during the Battle,we appeared to have been pinned down in a series of streets in the village of Oosterbeck.
Street fighting,sniping and continous patrols were carried out under intense and continual mortar fire.We appeared also to be completely surrounded,because whichever we tried to go,we ran into enemy troops.
Food and water had to be scrounged wherever possible - we scrounged preservatives from the cellars of the houses left,reluctantly abandoned in the wake of the impending battle.
On what turned out to be the last day of the battle,and prior to being told by the German troops on a loudspeaker that our Division has surrendered,myself and other members of the Company,with L/Cpl Bell in charge,were ordered to take up positions in two houses overlooking the enemy positions to our front.Putting two and two together and wirh some experience we realised we had been placed as a rearguard.
We later found out that during the night the Div,H.Q tried to cross back over the river.
During the course of this day we were continously attacked by enemy troops using tanks and S.P. guns.
Each house in the street was first shelled by enemy tanks and then finished by flame throwers.
By the middle of the day,we had completely run out of ammunition and we knew there was absolutely no way of holding the enemy up.So led by L/Cpl Bell,we tried to break out of the house we were in before it was fired on by flame throwers.On leaving the house we were faced by a whole platoon of German infantry,who immediately started firing.L/Cpl Bell was mortally wounded.On seeing the strength of the enemy troops,we immediately surrendered and were disarmed,not that we had any ammunition to use anyhow.
We were then informed by a German officer that the Division had been completely overrun and that for us the war was over.
After then being marched to Arnhem,we were indivdually interrogated,to our surprise the German officer in charge of the interrogation was able to inform us from a sheaf of papers on his table,who we were,our units,our role in the battle,who our comanders were and the object of the operation "Market Garden".Even after explanations over the years,this part has always been a puzzlement to me,they appeared to know everything that had gone on.The Germans appeared to know every last detail of everything !
I found out later that the front line German troops that we had been fighting during the battle were that of the Waffon S.S Panzer.
Looking back at that particular time after the interrogation,apart from some of the German troops nicking our watches/rings etc we were not badly treated by them.
As an indivdual person,giving his personal account on certain heroic actions during that time such as that of Capt.Kavanagh,one wonders why he was never mentioned in any citations or dispatches.
Cpl.Doubleday was supposedly cited for a Military Medal (posthumously) but it never went through.
Of the 10 officers and 243 other ranks who landed on the first two days,only 5 officers and 83 other ranks managed to cross the river.
The story of the role of the 250 Company R.A.S.C and the indivdual actions by members of the Company could possibly fill quite a few books,but as a personal outline of the 250 Company during the Battle of Arnhem it is a true record.
This account was written by John William Prime No 6030877."
My lovely Dad died on the 12th of October 1995.
When my little Mum died in 1988,Dad felt that God had come to punish him at last for his part in the battle and his feelings of guilt that he had killed some German soldiers during that time sometimes overwhelmed him.
He later re-married,to a lovely lady from Lincoln and spent a happy five years in retirement with her.
He gave thanks for the 51 years he felt he stole after the battle.
When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1995,those feelings of guilt rose up again and this was his pay back time.
Dad was not a particularly religious man,but he consoled himself that he would meet up with our Mum and his fallen comrades that he had fought beside would guide him to a safe haven,for to his dying day,he never,never forgot those men he called "his muckers"

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