This week marks the 80th Anniversary of Operation MARKET GARDEN. This operation was an ambitious plan to capture major river and canal bridges in the Netherlands. The role of the airborne troops, and the transport aircraft and gliders in which they flew, is widely commemorated, but the stories of the operation often omit the participation of RAF expeditionary radar units, the predecessors of RAF Boulmer’s 19 and 20 Squadrons, and 144 Signals Unit. Their story encompasses innovation, bravery and tragedy in equal measure.
Above: Paratroops drop from Dakota aircraft over the outskirts of Arnhem, 17 September 1944. Imperial War Museum BU1162
By September 1944, Allied armies had broken out of Normandy, crossed the River Seine, liberated Paris and Brussels, and were rapidly approaching the borders of Germany. The German army was continuing to fight but had lost many men and supplies and was in almost continual retreat. This led to a widespread belief that, if Allied forces could cross the Rhine and enter Germany without delay, the war in Europe might be finished in 1944.
When the German defensive lines were examined, the Allied supply situation analysed and various options studied, General Eisenhower agreed to General Montgomery’s plan for crossing the Rhine, the last major obstacle to the Allied armies entering German territory. This plan involved the dropping of three Allied airborne divisions up to sixty miles ahead of the front line to capture various bridges over major rivers and canals near Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. The airborne operation was known as MARKET. At the same time, the British 2nd Army would mount a major land offensive northwards from the Belgian-Dutch border, linking up with the airborne divisions as they advanced. The land operation was known as GARDEN. In all, some 90,000 troops, 1500 transport aircraft and 500 gliders, together with hundreds of fighters and fighter-bombers, were involved in Operation MARKET GARDEN.
Previous experience in the Western Desert, Sicily and the D-Day landings had shown the necessity of radar surveillance and control in support of joint operations. Indeed, the RAF’s Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) had maintained a radar surveillance and control ‘umbrella’ over advancing Allied armies continuously for several years. Although planning time for MARKET GARDEN was very short, it was immediately apparent that radar cover for the airborne operation would be very difficult. The 2TAF radar units located with the British Second Army could effectively detect enemy aircraft as far as Nijmegen, but Arnhem was too far. The answer came from an innovation first used in the Western Desert. Faced with a similar problem, radar technicians adapted the Type 6 Light Warning Set so that it could be carried to forward airfields in two light transport aircraft, bypassing roads that may have not been secured. Capturing airfields did not feature in Operation MARKET GARDEN, so the radars would need to fit into gliders bound for Landing Zones just outside Arnhem. In late August, two Type 6 radar sets were assigned to the mission, staff were allocated and training commenced with the RAF Transport force. The Units were known as 6080 and 6341 Light Warning Units.
Above: A mobile Type 6 Light Warning Set radar. The transmitter / receiver is inside the tent with the radar antenna on top. Crown Copyright C.D.0911
There were some last-minute debates with the HQ of the Airborne Division about whether the radars were actually needed. These were only resolved when the detachment commander, Wing Commander Laurence Brown, interceded directly with General Browning, the airborne Corps commander, on the day before the operation started.
Each radar station and its operators and technicians formed two loads, requiring a total of four Horsa gliders. These gliders had serial numbers 5000 – 5003. Short Stirlings of 295 and 570 Squadrons towed them off the runway at RAF Harwell, Oxfordshire, around midday on day two of the operation, 18 September 1944, for the two-and-three-quarter hour flight to Arnhem.
Above: Short Stirling towing a Horsa glider aloft from RAF Harwell, 17 September 1944. Imperial War Museum CH13857
The 18 September would prove to be a very difficult day for the men of the Light Warning Units. Their commander, Wing Commander Brown, who had landed near Nijmegen the day before, had been hit by strafing from a German ME109 fighter and died before the gliders took off from the UK. Gliders 5001 and 5002 arrived safely on the Landing Zone near Arnhem; glider 5003, with two pilots and six radar personnel on board, had its tail shot away by anti-aircraft fire, spun out of control and crashed six miles short of the landing zone, killing all on board. The tug aircraft of glider 5000 was fatally damaged, forcing the glider to detach and land about five miles short of the landing zone, in the middle of German held territory. Advised of their situation by the Dutch Resistance, the crew destroyed the radar equipment and made their way on foot to the airborne forces at Arnhem.
The radar units’ misfortune would continue. The two surviving gliders had identical half-loads, meaning that they could not construct a working radar set. Unable to complete the mission for which they were deployed, the remaining RAF personnel made their way to the Divisional Headquarters at the Hartenstein Hotel, digging themselves in as German mortars rained down. Over the next seven days, they would contribute bravely to the ground defence of the Headquarters, while the radar technicians did everything they could to repair Army radios which struggled to contact friendly forces to the south.
Above: Major-General Urquhart, commander 1st British Airborne Division outside the Hartenstein Hotel, 22 September 1944. The men of 6080 and 6341 Light Warning Units were dug in around this building. Imperial War Museum BU1136
On the night of the 25 September, the remainder of the 1st Airborne Division was ordered to withdraw across the river and join up with Allied troops on the south bank of the Rhine. Of the 10,000 troops of the Division that landed in Arnhem, only just over 2,000 escaped back to Allied lines. Numbers 6080 and 6341 Light Warning Units had similarly sobering losses: Twenty-five radar operators and technicians left Harwell on gliders for the Netherlands; only four returned to the UK after the operation, ten were killed in action and eleven became prisoners of war.
Wg Cdr Brown is buried at Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery; Flt Lt Tisshaw, FS Livense, LACs Anderson, Brooks, Eden, Lacelles, Samwells, AC1 Swann and AC2 Highton are buried at the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.
Postscript: The destruction of the Arnhem radar units left the northern end of the Allied operation very short of radar cover. To compensate, two of the RAF’s ground radars were ordered to follow closely the advancing troops of the 2nd Army.
15053 Fighter Direction Post (FDP) moved up to Eindhoven airfield on 21 September and controlled the air support to the ongoing operation for the remainder of the month; from 25-27 September aircraft under its control claimed 76 enemy aircraft destroyed and 54 enemy aircraft damaged.
Its sister unit, 15054 FDP was moved even farther forward to the outskirts of Nijmegen, just a few miles behind the ground fighting. They were in place and operating on 27 September when the Luftwaffe launched a concerted air attack on the bridge at Nijmegen. It was defeated by RAF fighters, given early warning and fighter control by 15054 FDP; RAF aircraft claimed a total of 46 enemy aircraft destroyed, two probables and twenty damaged – the most successful day for the RAF’s 83 Group since D-Day.
Above: A map from the US Military Academy library which shows that, although Operation MARKET GARDEN had failed to force a bridgehead over the Rhine at Arnhem, it had liberated large parts of the Netherlands by the end of 1944.
The reports from the survivors of 6080 and 6341 Light Warning Units led to improvements in the design and operation of air transportable radars, and replacement units were formed and trained for further use against Germany or potential use against Japan.
References:
The Liberation of North-West Europe, Vol IV – The Break-Out and the Advance to the Lower Rhine, 12 June to 20 September 1944. Royal Air Force Air Historical Branch.
Signals Volume IV – Radar in Raid Reporting. Chapter 25. Royal Air Force Air Historical Branch.
The National Archives, AIR 29/152/3, GCI 15054 Operational Record Book.
The Arnhem Fighter Control Story, The Association of RAF Fighter Control Officers.
