The following is a series of articles posted to the WW II mailing list. They were posted by Doug McCabe (mccabe@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu) and are a collection of interviews and stories from _A Bridge Too Far_ by Cornelius Ryan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ohio University has the Cornelius Ryan Collection: all the research materials and private library gathered together by the author for his three battle books _The Longest Day_, _ABTF_, and _The Last Battle_. (There are also research materials and manuscripts relating to other work and stories Ryan was involved in.) The research materials (in over 200 boxes and 12,000 files) include after action reports, maps, unit histories, and so forth gathered from other repositories and, most uniquely, contacts with veterans and civilians of all the nationalities involved with the battles. These items include questionnaires, diaries, letters, interviews, and photographs. Since he had contact with several thousand people and since no author can use everything he collects in a book, there are hundreds of stories and images which have never been published. The following articles are posted courtesy of the Cornelius Ryan Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Alden Library, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Untold Stories From _A Bridge Too Far_ by Cornelius Ryan Compiled by Doug McCabe (mccabe@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu) Maybe a little humor to start things off: "In one particular hot rush across an open field the bullets were whizzing around us so persistantly that yours truly was forced to dive into a nearby hole until things quieted down a bit. Evidently I was not the only one who perceived that hole for just as I made a lunge for it two forms slid underneath me and I found myself the third layer of humanity in a foxhole for one. My rear was sticking up what seemed yards above the top of the hole. On the bottom was some poor GI who was practically smothered and kept working to get up, an act which wild horses couldn't have forced me to do. Next came the Major [Cook] and then I. The Major and I couldn't help but laugh at the situation. When the bullets stopped whizzing past my fanny with such regularity I deemed it safe to continue our interrupted rush. I passed the word down to the depts of our Black Hole of Calcutta and the three of us, the Major, the GI, and myself squeezed ourselves out of this tight fit and continued on our way." - Capt. Henry Keep, 82nd AB Div. "The second day we were there, I had just dug a little hole in the ground and I was squatting doing my daily dozen when three women and one man came and gave me a cup of coffee. Inagine, squatting, drinking coffee and four people watching." - PFC John Allen, 82nd AB Div. "A few days after the liberation, I went to have a look at my house on Batavierenlaan. Nothing was left of it. First it had burned down and had then been ground to powder by shells. Coal was supposed to be in the cellar, but I couldn't get to it. What I did find was lots of eggs. They were unbroken and had been boiled by the enormous heat of the fire. The top layer was unfit for consumption but the bottom layer didn't taste bad at all." - Elias Broekkamp, Nijmegen "A military truck drove up and what entered the house then was almost an invasion of Germans. We managed to get some of their liver and bacon to eat and hide behind a curtain under the sink. I then checked on the soldiers in the living room who were so exhausted that they dropped off to sleep. The mattress lying there was "accidently" slipped over three rifles. Suddenly shouting all around, with incredible speed the made off for Eindhoven. With a few friends we discussed the retreat which possibly held a promise of liberation. The group fell silent at a certain moment because a dog was whimpering at the door. The door was cautiously opened and in walked a small stray dog, obviously looking for its master. It was given all sorts of names, pet names and nicknames, but it paid no attention. Until, at a certain mement during the retelling of our story the teller swore with the exact intonation that was used by the Germans with the word 'Scheisse' [shit]. At once the dog came to sit at the foot of the teller. We only had to try it out again and saw that the dog would come rushing up to whoever called out 'Scheisse.' And so for a week the German relic remained a house dog who gratefully accepted the peace and quiet. One evening, though, the Germans returned and an insolent officer threw all sorts of accusations at us. It wasn't the guns he was missing, it was the dog. We fetched 'Scheisse' and gave him back to the officer and they left without further ado." - "Blackmail Paul" "On one occasion a neighbor's son rode along with a Jeep which was off somewhere in a hurry. The boy clung to the car all excited. It was terribly dangerous and he could have fallen off at any moment during the trip. However, he was safe and sound on his return. Dr. McIlroy said to him, 'Have you got a piece of wood for me?' Whereupon the boy left and came back with a stick, which he handed to the Major. With this he was given a darned good beating on his backside, and it worked most effectively for the boy never attempted a trick like that again." - Principal Waltherus Sprangers, Nijmegen "I couldn't read what was on a box and mixed some white powder for pancakes only to find out it was plaster of Paris." - Cpl. Harry Buffone, 82nd AB Div. "We dug a latrine and when we left we covered it up. The people went over and put crosses on it thinking that we buried our dead." [The Dutch were so very kind and generous to the American liberators doing such things like giving them food, fighting help, and burying, marking, and putting flowers on temporary graves of KIA Americans, even in the heat of battle. The above episode was an honest mistake, and while funny, is indicative of the gratitude of the people. -DM] - PFC Anthony Antonion, 82nd AB Div. From Humor to Tragedy: "I was saddened by one soldier who, having received a Dear John letter, proceeded to commit suicide by volunteering for every hazardous detail until a sniper got him. Also, the European kid who had served in the armies of four countries and spoke seven languages. He was very religious and so proud to be an American. He died with his head in my lap at the Nijmegen Bridge. He prayed and I yelled for a medic, but none came - there were too many wounded." - Sgt. James Steed, 82nd AB Div. "There were children who played with grenades that exploded. Their remains were brought to us at the Moll Garage in pails with the message: here are six children. But when I finished the examination, I found out I had 14 little feet." - Medical serviceman Johannes Tempel, Nijmegen [The Moll Garage was used as a temporary morgue during and after the battle. Tempel tells other tragic stories of people searching for relatives among the rows of dead: this story was the most difficult to read.] "The destruction in town is enormous. Everywhere are blocks of burned out houses, gaps in the roads, mountains of rubble and glass, uprooted trees, people dragging away the rest of their belongings - in one word, desolate. Compared to this suffering following the February bombing was as nothing. How many years will it be before Nijmegen will have rid herself of all traces of battle?" - Orpheus theater director Martijn Deinum, Nijmegen [The February bombing referred to was the unintentional attack by the 8th AAF on 22 Feb. 1944 where a good bit of the older downtown was destroyed and over 880 people were killed. Three other Dutch cities were also hit that day. The Germans made a great deal of propaganda out of the incidents.] "German soldiers lay everywhere; they had fallen right where they were shot. On one street, there were small 9' by 12' lawns, with iron fences around them and I remember seeing German soldiers slumped against them with their rifles sticking out between the bars. One soldier was leaning against the fence with his helmet down over his eyes and his finger still on the trigger of his rifle. Another, a young boy who looked no older than 15 or 16, was slumped back against a wall of one of the houses. His helmet had fallen off and he looked like he was taking a nap. I thought how much, how very, very much I hated this war. All of these soldiers looked so young, so healthy. I felt sorry for them. They did not want this war. Their relatives did not want it, either. 'How sickening this is,' I thought. 'In Germany, no one knows they are dead. And who is to tell them?'" - Johanna Mason nee Breman, Nijmegen [Johanna met and married an 82nd trooper and moved to the US after the war.] "Suddenly I saw two soldiers, grown-up men and therefore not Hitler Youth, who were carrying on their backs what would be described today as insecticide spraying apparatus. They went from house to house, knocking out a window and then what looked like spraying something inside. To my horror, my house was 'treated' also and the first flames became visible not long afterward. I then ran across the street, someone screemed something at me in German, but I went on and saw my father, mother, and brother emerge from the house, bewildered and frightened but otherwise alright." - Student Willem Bartels, Nijmegen [As the Germans were forced to retreat from Nijmegen some of them, mostly Hitler Youth, systematically set afire whole city blocks. Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, therefore suffered airforce bombing, street fighting, deliberate firings, and shelling.] "I saw, for the first time, a German jet and watched it being shot down - all in no longer than ten seconds. Then, not more than an hour later, I watched one of our own B-26's losing a wing and, while trying to escape, one of the flyer's parachute catch on the plane, thus dragging him to the ground. All of this happened while we were sitting quietly beside the Nijmegen bridge at our command station." - Chief WO Robert Stallbories, 82nd AB Div. [Once the Allies had taken the Nijmegen railroad and road bridges the Germans desperately tried to destroy them. They used aircraft, including the ME-262, floating mines, and even frogmen with special submersable explosives. The latter did manage to drop one span of the railroad bridge although all efforts failed to do more than slight damage to the road bridge.]