Did the British stop for tea at Nijmegen bridge? | The Nijmegen Controversy | September 1944

In September 1944, American Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division and British Tankers of the Guards Armoured Division, successfully captured intact the Nijmegen road bridge in the Netherlands. However, despite this success, the operation has, for the past 80 years, been shrouded in controversy, with veterans and Military historians accusing the British tankers of stopping for tea and failing to push on to Arnhem.
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- Reflection by Oliver Michael
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*NO PART OF THIS VIDEO MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM (REACTIONS OR RE-UPLOADED) WITHOUT THE PRIOR PERMISSION OF THE CREATOR*
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[livethforevermore]

Note: We did originally feature the ‘stopping for tea’ scene from the film ‘A Bridge Too Far’, however, copyright issues meant we had to remove it, otherwise YouTube wouldn’t allow the video to be published.

[Korporaal]

a problem with a lot of the well-known historical books is that they are not so much historical as journalistic. And that the authors to what journalists do most often: Repeat other journalists... And not what historians do: Look for original sources.
Then you get what we have here: A whole slew of -otherwise well written- books that repeat each other and thus spread the inaccuracies at a faster pace than proper historians can correct them.
That's why I'm so happy with channels like this one: They have wide reach and are dedicated to spreading the real histories.

[hellcatdwe]

Writers like Anthony Beevor help to perpetuate this sort of divisive stuff. In his book about D-Day, he claims that the Americans and Canadians 'looked askance' at British soldiers brewing up on the beaches, rather than pushing on inland. Really? Didn't the Americans have enough problems on their own beaches to take notice of what the British were doing? There is also wartime camera footage of Canadian soldiers on their landing beach, with a caption saying 'French-speaking Canadian soldiers chat to local people on the beach, as they brew-up'. My father was with the Guards Armoured Division and felt deeply offended by these allegations, in view of the bitter fighting and heavy casualties they suffered, and vehemently denied that any such delay happened.

[yveaux]

Thank you for this. My grandparents lived in Lent almost next to the church. My grandfather always told about this battle and maintained that the first allied soldiers he saw were British tankers and not American paratroopers which I always thought was strange as I always had thought the 504st of the 82nd airborne were the first ones there. His house was completely destroyed in the fighting after market garden and my mom was born in the garden shed in the beginning of 1946.

[randywise]

My dad said the movie was not historically accurate. His uncle was there in the 504. He said the general in charge didn't take the bridge according to schedule because he was afraid of an attack from the Germans on his flank. Then they took one bridge but not the main one. He said the British lost some tanks doing that and were stuck on the other side divided by Germans infiltrating between them. They would not have held the bridgehead without the tanks that got through. British tanks had tea makers built into the tank. It would be hard to take them out and set them up outside. There was still fighting going on in town behind them holding up reinforcements. There was no way to go forward till they got through. That took another day.

[marcuswardle]

A Dutch historian has recently published a book claiming that it wasn’t the British fault Market Garden failed but was due to the Americans at Nijmegen. Their failure to capture the bridge on day one and their pre-occupation with securing the nearby drop sites led the Germans to reinforce the defences. It then took the famous boat crossing of the river to secure the bridge. The Arnhem bridge was a fiasco but they could have got away with more troops and maybe, just maybe, have secured the bridge.

[LeeDawson-smbh]

Many years ago i was visiting my grand parents house with my father in Great Wakering, Essex. ( probably mid 70s ) As we walked up to the house a large bear of a man on a bike called out to my father. I was then introduced to ( Sgt ) Peter Robinson a lovely old guy. Later on my father explained about his escapades in Nijmegen etc which i googled years later. As a young boy this was so exciting. Peter and my grand father were very good friends and he recalled an incident that happened after the war . My father, grand father and Peter were going fishing up towards Wakering Creek . They were in an old car with my grand father driving. As they got towards the creek there was a German Prisoner of War camp nearby. As the war had ended they were allowed to work on the land. However Peter spotted two of the Germans walking arm in arm with some local girls. My father remembered that Peter went absolutely mad at this having seen his friends and comrades killed in action and tried to get out of the moving car to attack the Germans with his bare hands. My grand father who realized that Peter would seriously hurt the Germans ( or worse ), accelerated and had to physically fight him off from trying to stop the car .Luckily for them he managed to get away.

[Scaleyback]

I have for long wondered if the bluster of many of the US forces involved was merely a cover for the unforgiveable fact that the 82nd had not taken the bridge at both ends the moment they landed. It was the reason they were dropped into Nijmegen and had the first companies landed taken the bridge they would have found it defended by a couple of dozen Germans only. They did everything except take the bridge including charging around the hills and forest looking for a thousand non-existent German tanks!. XXX Corps arrived in Nijmegen within the parameters set expecting to be able to cross the bridge unopposed and in great numbers as was the plan. The failure of the US airborne to take and hold that bridge was incompetence or maybe worse (but that would be getting into the realms of conspiracy theorism and I really do not wish to indulge in that no matter how strong the evidence to support that concern may be)
There has always been the stench of something fishy about Gavin and his actions and why there was no immediate enquiry with the culprit(s) being put under the strongest of scrutiny from a mlitary court. Had a British or Polish unit been reponsible for that level of incompetence and it was US forces being slaughtered as a result of it, how different might the allied reaction to the dereliction of duty have been - instantly! Would the British or Polish commander have been cashiered or left to continue his command with no detriment to himself?

[ashcarrier]

I read something about Montgomery a year or so ago that has stuck with me. After the war he told an interviewer that at this point the British government told him they could supply replacement soldiers for three months. After that, they would have to start breaking up existing regiments and parceling the men out.

Americans will criticize Monty for being a set piece chess player while Patton was a high risk poker player. But Britain had be doing it since 1939. I give Monty the benefit of the doubt.

[johnburns]

The vid omits that no US troops were on the bridge when taken by the tanks. Once the two leading tanks of Pacey and Robinson got past the bridge obstacles at the northern end, Pacey stopped expecting to see American troops. The War Office report states: _“At this point, Pacey stopped, he was not sure where to go as no Americans were seen, so Sergeant Robinson passed him and led on. Much to their surprise, they could not see any Americans so having passed through the concrete chicane they pushed on._

[faeembrugh]

I worked with a XXX Corps veteran in the early 1980s. I asked him if he had seen 'A Bridge Too Far'. He was furious about the film as he said that they turned up at the bridge expecting it to be open for them to advance and found the 82nd hadn't done this. As he put it 'they were the ones sitting around doing nothing - but they were drinking coffee not tea!'

[OldWolflad]

The British tanks completed the crossing at 1830 hours not 1900 hours, its in divisional 82nd US and several official British war office records. The first attempt was made at 1813 hours, and the second attempt at 1820 hours. There is some confusion as to which time zone various people were quoting (they were an hour apart), but the 82nd Divisional post-battle records actually includes a sketch that shows the British tanks completed the crossing at 1830 hours, and the first US troops at the bridge were just a handful at 1915 hours. The US troops then arrived in some larger force there at 1938 hours. US 82nd Division Captain Kappell (who was responsible for writing the post battle report), stated that at 1830 hours this time British tanks were already on the north shore".

Carrington claimed that crossing the bridge under the risk of detonation was the longest three minutes of his life' so at full speed at 30mph they did not hang around on it.

Otherwise, it is an excellent analysis, much of which I have been researching over some years, looking at the same documents you examine. So congratulations on an otherwise excellent piece of work. You will still get the usual detractors trying to lay blame at 30 Corps though (I can actually name two of the most likely detractors), a refusal to accept that any blame lays elsewhere despite the presentation of facts.

I think the US commanders were subsequently trying to make up for their inaction since arriving on 17th September, and failing to take the Nijmegen road-bridge that same day. The Grenadier Guards and US 505th PIR actually did most of the work, clearing the Germans out of the town and taking the crucial southern end of the bridge. The 504th PIR were absolutely heroic but they were on their last legs and running out of ammunition on the northern shore, but despite what Burriss subsequently claimed, they were nearly a mile away from the main bridge. His arrival actually coincided with the second troop of tanks forty-five minutes later, when things were much quieter, as Burris himself acknowledges. The 4 British tanks that actually took the bridge were fired upon all the way across, under heavy fire with two tanks taken out. A totally different scenario to what Burriss described. Maybe he did believe he was the first to arrive, but actually I very much doubt it. Sadly, I think it was simply part of a concerted campaign to shove the blame onto 30 Corps. But they have been found out!

Furthermore, on the evening of the 20th, most of 30 Corps were either back along the line resecuring route 69 in 101st Division's sector or in the case of the Coldstream and Welsh Guards helping out the American 82nd on their rear Nijmegen perimeter. And for anyone (like Burriss) trying to say there was just a single heavy gun between Nijmegen and Arnhem that night, guess what, this is another myth, as you rightly highlight. Within 2-3 miles were situated up to 24 heavy guns that night, though several may have been taken out that morning in RAF raids, though the vast majority were still active. Most of these were not 88 mm guns but captured French 75mm guns which had a very similar profile to the famous German gun.

It is increasingly becoming perfectly clear that there has been a lot of embellishment on behalf of certain US troops - 30 Corps were actually at Nijmegen in 42 hours and well under two days, from the time of 1400 hours on the 17th September that 1st Allied Airborne Army Commander permitted ground forces to move - mud sticks etc but it is disgusting.

[erwin]

This is a very informative video. I live just a few hundred meters from the bridge. The story from the Americans crossing the river is well know in town, since a new bridge has been build where they crossed the river. And every night a veteran follows the light that turn on one after the other to honor the fallen Americans during the crossing.
The story of the tanks pressing on to the north of Lent while the Germans were still in Lent and Nijmegen. Is also very impressive. We in Nijmegen should do more to honor those also.
Glad to know how it went, will tell kids and friends about. When this situations arises.

[desydukuk]

Hollywood wrote this version of history.
British XXX Corps arrived at Nijmegen on time, but the Americans failed to take the Nijmegen bridge, the British had to take it for them.
Gavin screwed up, he failed to take the bridge at Nijmegen, seeing it as a secondary matter to protecting his Eastern flank from a phantom German tank army! Read Robin Neillands book The Battle for the Rhine 1944: Arnhem and the Ardennes, the Campaign in Europe.
This history book is not the Hollywood film version of Arnhem but a well researched book.
Gavin's poor choices, warts and all, different chains of command back to Washington, lack of strategic vision by Eisenhower, duplicity of Ike's subordinate commanders and the huge level of American corruption in supplying its Armies in Europe all contributed to this American led failure.

[tobermory]

A contributing factor to the growth of this myth was the World At War TV series which in 1974 provided an opportunity for the likes of Gavin and Stephen Ambrose to put forward their views of Operation Market Garden. Given the 1st Airborne's communication problems, its very hard to believe the 82nd Airborne staff knew exactly what the situation was in Arnhem itself and its particularly unlikely any information about British paratroopers 'hanging on by their fingernails' had made its way down to company level. Despite their post war claims, the primary concern of Reuben Tucker - and certainly a 504th captain - at the time would quite rightly have been the problems facing their own men. My father vividly remembered being stuck outside Nijmegen with the Guards Armoured when German troops cut the road ahead and behind them, preventing ammunition and reinforcements getting through to the city and making it impossible to supply an advance to Arnhem. He certainly had no knowledge at all of what was happening to the 1st Airborne.

[johnburns]

U.S. 82nd Division records state that the first troop of British tanks, four of them, crossed the Waal road bridge at *1830 hours.* Two tanks were hit with the crews taken POW bar one, Sgt Knight. The tanks charged across at full speed approaching 30 mph firing against German guns all the way, with a few hundred high in the girders. Gunner Leslie Johnson in the lead tank said: _“They were falling like nine-pins. The incoming fire was so heavy that I swear to this day that Jesus Christ rode on the front of our tank. The Germans were so close that I didn’t bother to look through my sights. We could feel the tracks going over them as we shot them down, and there was blood and gore all over the tank.”_

Once the two leading tanks of Pacey and Robinson got past the bridge obstacles at the northern end, Pacey stopped. The War Office report states:
_“At this point, Pacey stopped, he was not sure where to go as no Americans were seen, so Sergeant Robinson passed him and led on. Much to their surprise, they could not see any Americans so having passed through the concrete chicane they pushed on. Having crossed the road bridge, the four tanks moved down the northern embankment, where they destroyed another anti tank gun. Robinson and Pacey found themselves in a running battle against more guns, and against German infantry who poured out of the church in Lent, and then 1, 500 yards further down the road from the bridge, where the main road goes under the railway line, contact was at last made with some Americans, both were very happy to see each other."_

The 82nd men at Lent reached Lent following the railway embankment from the riverbank using it for cover. The first American troops that arrived at the bridge approaches/waterside after moving along the riverbank from their river landing point with Burriss’ company of about sixteen men, was at *1915* hours. *45 minutes.* after the first tanks had already crossed. This was not the main bridge span, just the raised approach road over land. Official U.S. records confirm that 82nd troops from the 504th arrived at the northern road bridge approaches at *1938 hours.* This would be the time they arrived in any real strength to consolidate, *one hour 8 mins* after the first tank crossed. The records state at *1938 hours:*

_“All seemed quiet at this point, with the enemy disorganised and in great confusion, suffering heavy losses. Prior to the physical occupation of the northern end of the bridge by 504th PIR, eight British light tanks had [already] crossed. Two of these were destroyed just north of the bridge”._ The second troop of tanks crossed at least half an hour after the first. Burris was there under the approach road when the second troop rolled over, thinking they were the first tanks over. Lord Carington's tank was one of them. Eight rolled over the bridge, with two hit, being there to consolidate the bridgehead and ensure the Germans did not take the bridge back.

Horrock of XXX Corps in his plan had the 43 Wessex infantry to seize the ground from Nijmegen bridge to Arnhem, destroying anti-tank weapons. It was not tank country. The tanks were to follow behind the infantry. The tanks would have been sitting ducks if they went first. The 43rd Wessex were to do the river crossing in two columns. There was a contingency planned if the bridge was blown. The Wessex were to use dedicated assault boats, which they had in Nijmegen, and DUKW amphibious craft. But to save face as they failed to seize the bridge, Gavin of the 82nd pestered Horrocks for his men to do the crossing, Horrocks agreed. It appears that the 82nd did not know of the DUKW amphibious craft using collapsible bridge engineers boats to cross the Waal. Or the Wessex did not want to give them fearing the valuable craft would be lost with an 82nd river assault failure - that needs more research.

Not one 82nd man was on the bridge when the first troop of four tanks crossed at *1830, * or at *1915* when the second troop of four went over. Official XXX Corps records from the War Office highlight that the successful tank attack on the road bridge was at *1830 hours.*

Thirty-four machine guns, an 88mm gun, and two 20mm cannons were found to be on the road bridge itself, and at least six anti-tank guns and a few 88mm guns were situated around the northern end.

All this nonsense of drinking tea by the British tankers disinterested in the battle seems to have started as an American diversion, after inquiries by the Official US historian Charles MacDonald into why the Nijmegen bridges were not taken on the first day.

[Rschaltegger]

Thinking that 3 Tanks...should advance alone at night into enemy terretory is just stupid.

[AC-kgvy]

Great analysis and detail to counter rumour and stories. It is crazy to criticise the British for not pushing forward with half a troop of tanks unsupported while still in close combat in Nijmegen.

[pbtkh]

So the Americans lied again! I saw a TV documentary on the crossing of the Waal at Nijmegen and it featured one of the American commanders who crossed the river at this point in flimsy boats. The Americans certainly suffered greatly in getting across the river and lost a lot of troops. One can only admire the courage and the sheer grit of the American soldiers. But the American commander in that TV programme certainly blamed Carrington - and even named him - for failing to take out the anti-tank gun at Lent. Btw: he said that there was only one a/t gun, not two as in this video. So I doubt his word.

This is the second time that I have read of a cocky Yank supposedly putting his gun against the head of a supposedly cowardly member of the British armed forces. The first was in one of the books by Stephen Ambrose. He wrote that an American officer put his revolver against the head of a Royal Navy sailor who was the coxswain on a landing craft taking American troops into Omaha beach. Under pressure from British historians and journalists, Ambrose later admitted that he made this story up. This is disgusting behaviour. British people have never had a problem with ordinary American soldiers. But there is a problem with some of their commanders and historians.

[Apollo]

I've been saying this for years. I'm glad to see many young Brits are finally seeing this nonsense for the utter shite that it is. Unfortunately most Americans still believe it and it's a shame. It's a shame that they feel it necessary to make up derogatory things about British servicemen to stroke their ego's instead of just letting the brave actions of American servicemen speak for themselves.