Clank-clank-clank-clank! It's the sound an infantryman dreads most,
the sound of heavy steel tank treads coming your way. For the British paratroopers caught far behind
enemy lines, it's the sound of death- and it's coming from all around. Operation Market Garden, meant to hasten the
end of the war against Nazi Germany by as much as six months, is a complete disaster. The airborne assault was meant to secure vitally
important bridges behind enemy lines, opening up an invasion route into northern Germany
which would allow Allied troops to pour into the heart of the Nazi regime itself, and rip
it out while still beating. For the Nazis, this would've been a strategic
disaster, and likely signaled the end of the war. With over 41,000 airborne troops, it is the
largest airborne assault in history, and yet the Allies would severely underestimate the
Germans, leading to a defeat five days later. For now though, Major Robert Henry Cain, commander
of Bravo company, 2nd South Staffordshire regiment of the 1st Airborne Division, has
greater concerns than the imminent defeat of the ambitious Allied airborne thrust into
Germany. He has two Panzers bearing down on them, and
only a PIAT- Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank- to defend himself with. Allied armor never got a chance to make its
crossing, and these tanks aren't going to blow themselves up. Bleeding from several bullet wounds, the good
Major lifts up his PIAT and takes aim at the lead tank.... Five days earlier and Major Cain is loaded
up into a glider along with the rest of his men. The Allies have made extensive uses of gliders
to ferry airborne troops to battle, cheap and unpowered alternatives to the lumbering
transport planes that tow them to their destinations. As the plane towing them lifts into the air,
the glider soon follows suit, and is quickly several thousand feet in the air. Then, the first of many disasters strikes. The tow rope keeping the glider attached to
its plane snaps, leaving the glider flying through the air completely unpowered. The pilot at the front desperately works the
controls, trying to find a safe place to set the glider down. Despite being paratroopers, the men aren't
wearing parachutes as they are meant to ride their glider all the way to their final destination,
a battlefield in Belgium. While this places the men at more risk, the
use of gliders also means that the men won't be as widely dispersed as they would be if
they simply parachuted in, and allows them to retain unit cohesion and to stay close
to their supplies and heavy equipment. Incredibly though, the pilot manages to bring
the glider down to a rough, but safe stop on a nearby field, smashing into a tall hedge. The pilot is in disbelief, this exact same
thing had happened to him on D-Day. Perhaps he's just lucky, for the Major though,
he and his men had a battle to get to. Early the next day, Major Cain and his men
make a rough landing near Arnhem. The Major's company's currently involved in
heavy fighting as they attempt to reach their target, the strategically important bridge
at the town of Arnhem, which will allow Allied ground forces to cross the river and join
the fight. If the bridge isn't taken, the ground assault
element won't be able to cross, and this could spell doom for the entire operation. The Germans however are no fools, and they've
set up a blocking force to stop the British soldiers from reaching their objective. For over a day the fighting is intense, only
barely letting up at night before resuming once more early the next morning. The British are in effect boxed in by German
units, and are receiving terrible casualties. Supported by artillery and self-propelled
guns, the Germans completely outgun the relatively lightly armed British paratroopers, and are
decimating British forces. To make matters worse, the Germans now have
tanks rumbling down on the Major and his men. With the Allied ground assault unable to cross
the river, German panzers have been freed up from engaging allied armor and now join
in a push to eradicate the British and American paratroopers. Fighting that was desperate has just now been
kicked up a notch as the tanks lend their cannons and machine guns to the fight. The only thing the paratroopers have to fight
off the tanks is the British PIAT, a shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon that fires a 2.5 pound (1.1
kg) explosive warhead. The weapon has an advantage over the American
bazooka and the German Panzerschreck, and that's the fact that it is spring-fired, meaning
there is no distinctive puff of smoke that can give away a soldier's position as he fires
it. However, this is where the PIAT's strengths
stop, as the weapon is largely inferior to either its American or German counterpart. For starters, the weapon sported less penetration
power than a bazooka or a panzerschreck, and it was extremely awkward to operate. The firing mechanism required two fingers
to pull back, and as the weapon was spring loaded, you had to put considerable effort
into preparing it to fire. Once fired though, the recoil from the weapon
was so severe that men's shoulders were often dislocated, and at times their collarbones
broken. After just a few firings, any soldier's shoulder
would be bruised purple, and yet today they are the British paratrooper's only hope of
fending off the German tanks. The PIATs manage to hold off the advancing
tanks, but the men are completely boxed in. The area has become a killing field, and a
fighting withdrawal is ordered. By the time Major Cain manages to retreat,
most of Alpha and Bravo company has been destroyed, leaving only a handful of survivors. The losses are staggering. With no clear chain of command left surviving,
Major Cain assumes command of all the remaining survivors of the 2nd South Staffords. This leaves him with barely more than a reinforced
company, and he orders the men to move to a more defensible position on high ground
atop a hill a few hundred meters from the German blocking force. Their movement is spotted by German forward
observers though, and soon heavy mortar fire begins to rain down on the British. The men desperately try to dig in as the mortars
explode around them, but the ground is hard and covered in thick roots, making it all
but impossible to dig fox holes. Major Cain is wounded by shrapnel, adding
to several other wounds already suffered. As more enemy tanks begin to roll towards
them and the mortar fire eases off, the Major is starting to realize something- someone
in intelligence messed up bad. There weren't supposed to be so many German
armored forces here, and yet somehow allied intelligence missed the fact that the Ninth
and Tenth SS Panzer Divisions had both been recently redeployed to the area. Thousands of allied paratroopers, armed with
only the weapons they could carry on their backs, had been sent to fight hundreds of
heavy German tanks, supported by thousands of infantry equipped with self-propelled guns,
artillery, and mortars. The operation had just begun two days prior,
and it was already a blood bath. Major Cain orders the survivors to fall back,
and as the sun rises the next morning he's been forced out of Arnhem, and of the 1,000
strong 2nd South Staffords, he now commands only a band of 100 soldiers- most of them
wounded. Nonetheless, he orders the men to dig in,
there's no escape for them, but if they can hold their ground then possibly other Allied
assaults might have been successful, and rescue could come from other bridgeheads. The Major has no way of knowing that Operation
Market Garden is officially a failure, and one of the worst defeats of World War II. The Germans advance under cover of fighters,
and supported by self-propelled guns and tanks. The British are subjected to a blistering
barrage of fire, and yet the men fight heroically, refusing to yield. The Germans hope to cut the British off from
the river, which would make rescue impossible and doom the entire 1st Airborne to surrender
or death. Despite being wounded and bleeding, Major
Cain is moving from house to house, backpack full of rounds for his PIAT. He pops up behind windows, attacking the tanks
from their vulnerable sides and tops, and the only angle at which a PIAT has a decent
chance of defeating tank armor. His shoulder is turning black from the extreme
pounding the spring-loaded weapon delivers on each firing, it feels like a horse kicking
him square in the shoulder each time he pulls the trigger, and yet he knows that it's either
this or death- the Germans are relentless. Falling back, Major Cain slips into a trench
and calls out for an artillery officer to direct his fire with the PIAT. The artillery officer, located on the second
floor of an abandoned house, spots targets for the Major, and Major Cain lobs over four
dozen rounds with the aid of the artillery officer. The Germans however have caught on, and a
self-propelled gun turns to the direction of the house and fires, obliterating the upstairs
floor and the officer there. The chimney comes crashing down, nearly crushing
Major Cain to death. Major Cain however quickly gathers himself
together and crawls forward through the trench. He spots another German StuG (pronounced STOOG)
and fires, destroying the tank's treads. The tank fires back, missing the Major but
throwing up great clouds of smoke and dust, which helps obscure the Major as he moves
to a different position. The Major fires a second round, but the round
fails to penetrate the thick armor, and the German tank fires back, throwing more debris
into the air. A Panzer now joins the fight, and the Major
pops up to fire off another PIAT round at this new threat- only to be met by the ominous
sound of a dull 'click'. His weapon has misfired, and a split second
later the timed explosive round blows up in his face. Major Cain is hurled backwards, completely
blinded and with ruptured eardrums, and yet he is screaming- not in pain, but for his
men to engage this new threat. Behind him, several soldiers manhandle a heavy
75mm American howitzer to face in the direction of the German tank, drop the barrel, and use
the artillery piece as an anti-tank cannon, decimating the Panzer. The Major is severely wounded and dragged
back to a casualty collection point. Luckily for him, the explosive round has mostly
exploded outwards, and the blindness is temporary. His eardrums are shattered though, and his
vision hazy. Plus he's been wounded at least a half dozen
times already, and has lost a fair amount of blood. Nonetheless, the Major shoves the medics aside
and thirty minutes later is back on the front line. By now though the company has run out of PIAT
ammunition, so the Major improvises. German flamethrower tanks are approaching,
and threatening to roast the British defenders to death, so the Major grabs a two inch mortar
and levels it off at the approaching tanks, destroying the lead tank. He fires off several more shots from the improvised
anti-tank weapon, and incredibly the Germans begin to pull back. The British defenders, no doubt emboldened
by the absolute insanity of Major Cain's exploits, have managed to hold their ground. As night falls, boats manage to cross the
river and reach the stranded British paratroops. The Major refuses to leave the battlefield
until every single survivor is aboard a boat, and before boarding himself he finds a razor
and a piece of mirror, taking the time to shave five days of stubble so that he could
present himself to his superiors on the other side of the river, “as a proper British
officer.”. Credited with destroying or disabling six
enemy tanks and an unknown number of self-propelled guns, the Major would go on to win the Victoria
Cross, and was the only recipient to survive the most disastrous operation in the entire
war. Want more incredible world war stories? Check out Soldier continued fighting WWII
because he didn't know it ended. Or click this other video instead for a change
of pace!
