GliderPilotsduringOperationBerlin

2015©JohnSliz

Note:ThisarticlefirstappearedintheDecember2014issueofTheEagle

GliderPilotsduringOperationBerlin

TheresponsibilityforplanningthedetailsofOperation`Berlin’fellupontheChief
Engineerofthe43

rd

WessexDivision,Lieutenant-ColonelHenniker,whohadonly

been with the division for just over a week. Previously he had been the
Commander,RoyalEngineersfortheBritish1

st

AirborneDivision,theunitthathe

wasnowresponsibleforevacuatingacrosstheRhineRiver.Athisdisposalwere
his own division’s engineers and those under the 10

th

Army Group Royal

Engineers, who had been tasked with bridging the Rhine River - if necessary -
during Operation `Market Garden’. Several scenarios had been planned for the
assaultacrosstheriver,buttherewasnoplanfortheevacuationoftheBritish1

st

AirborneDivision.ThisLieutenant-ColonelHennikerhadtocomeupwithhimself.

He knew that there had been a lot of action already on the river at Oosterbeek.
TheengineersofthePolish1

st

IndependentParachuteBrigadehad–withvarying

results–ferriedmembersoftheirbrigadeacrosstheRhineRiverontwoseparate
occasions.ThefirsttimewaswithsmalltwomanReconnaissanceBoatsandthe
second time was with Assault Boats. A witness to these events said, “The less
said about their watermanship the better.”

(Lieutenant-Colonel Myers)

Still several

hundredPolishtroopswereaddedtotheOosterbeekPerimeter.

The next major event on the river involved one of the 43

rd

Wessex Division’s

infantry battalions, the 4

th

Dorsets, as they were tasked with recapturing the

Westerbouvwing Heights. This employed his own division’s engineers using
AssaultBoats,buttheDorsetsdidnotsucceedinrecapturingthehighground.So
when it came time to save as much as the division as possible by pulling them
out,Lieutenant-ColonelHennikerknewthatferryingmenacrossawideandswift
river wasn’t as easy as people thought. In his memoir, `An Image of War’, he
stated:`Thefactwas,andstillis,thatwatermanshipinawideandswiftriverisas
muchofaskillascabinet-makingorjoinery’.

(p109`AnImageofWar’)

He explained in detail about how the paddlers of the boats could very easily be
carriedahundredyardsdownstreamwithoutthemevenrealizingit.Inaperimeter
as small as the Airborne’s, this could mean the difference between success and
failure.

Besidethepaddledboatsandhisowndivisionengineers,theLieutenant-Colonel
hadathisdisposalthefieldcompaniesofthe10

th

ArmyGroupRoyalEngineers

andanumberofpoweredboats,whichhebelievedwouldfarebetterontheriver
despitethenoiseoftheirengines.Toquotehimagain,“They will do many more
trips’.

(p109`AnImageofWar’)

Healsoknewtheproblemsofoperatingtwodifferenttypesofcraftsonthesame
river. The power boats and the paddle boats must be kept separated to avoid

collisions or even near misses, which would more than likely capsize the flimsy
paddle boats. The type of paddle boats used were Assault Boats Mark III and
were operated by two of the 43

rd

Wessex Division’s engineering companies, the

260

th

Field Company, Royal Engineers and the 553

rd

Field Company, Royal

Engineers.ThetypeofpowerboatswereStormBoatsMarkIandwereoperated
by the 20

th

Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers and the 23

rd

Field

Company,RoyalCanadianEngineers.

As the engineers prepared for the evacuation so did the Airborne. General
UrquhartbasedhisplanontheevacuationatGallipoliwheretheunitsatthenorth
endwouldmovedowntotheriverfirst.Itwastobelikeacollapsingbag.Glider
pilotswiththeirknowledgeoftheareawouldactasguides.MajorWinchester,the
CommandingOfficerofthe9

th

Field Company, Royal Engineers was ordered by

theGeneraltolaywhitetapealongoneoftheroutesofthewithdrawpersonally,
asheknewtheroutewell.At1900hourshetookthreesapperswithhimandwith
themanyrollsoftracingtape,theytapedthecompleteroutefromneardivisional
headquarterstotheferryingsite.Ittookthemto2100hourstoreachtheriver.By
then the men had already filtered down and shortly after the assault Boats
mannedbythemembersofthe260

th

FieldCompany,RoyalEngineersstartedto

ferrymenacrosstheriver.

MeanwhiletheothercompanymanningAssaultBoats,the553

rd

FieldCompany,

RoyalEngineers,wasn’thavingasgoodluck.Theircrossingpointwasoppositeof
theWesterbouvingHeights,whichwasbelievedtobeinthehandsoftheDorsets,
but unbeknownst to Lieutenant-Colonel Henniker – or anyone else on the south
side of the river - it hadn’t been recaptured. It was in German hands and the
numberofmenevacuatedfromthisareawasonlytwenty-five,whoweremostly
fromthe4

th

Dorsets.

Shortlybeforetheywereduetolaunchtheirboats,the20

th

FieldCompany,Royal

Canadian Engineers received a report from the 553

rd

Field Company, Royal

Engineersthattherewasn’tanyonetoevacuateinthisareasotheydidn’tlaunch
anyoftheirboats.

Meanwhilethemembersofthe260

th

FieldCompany,RoyalEngineerswerebusy

ferrying troops. There were more men waiting than they could handle. At first
therewereonlysporadicmachinegunandshelling,butthentheyheardthenoise
of the 23

rd

Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers’ outboard engines.

Unfortunately so did the Germans and soon the shelling increased. The first
StormBoattobelaunchedreceivedadirecthitandfourCanadianengineerslost
theirlives.MoreStormBoatswerelaunchedandtwomoreCanadianswerekilled.
Thistimethecrewmanagedtocrosstheriverandpickupaboatloadofwounded
beforeanearmisscapsizedtheboat.

OneoftheAssaultBoatsalsoreceivedadirecthit.However,nomembersofthe
260thFieldCompanywereseriouslyinjured.Inthisboatwereatleasttwoglider

pilots. Before they got on board Sergeant David Hartley of the Glider Pilot
Regiment stated that Staff Sergeant Peter Hill was afraid to go into a boat
becausehecouldn’tswim.SergeantHartleytoldhimtostaywithhim,removehis
bootsandsitattheedgeoftheboat.Thistheydidandwhiletheboatwasonthe
river,amortarshelllandedinthemiddleoftheboatandtheywereflungintothe
water. Staff Sergeant Hill was helped into a floating position so that Sergeant
Hartleycouldpullhimtoshore.AtfirstSergeantHartleysaidthatPeterwasusing
hislegsquitewellandtheysoongotoutoftheboatcrossingareainordernotto
get hit by one of them. Then Peter’s legs started to lag and they weren’t any
closertotheshore.Unfortunatelythecurrentwastoostrongandtheshrapnelin
Sergeant Hartley’s shoulder didn’t allow him to hang on. Sadly, Staff Sergeant
PeterHilldrownedandwasoneofthetwelveGliderPilotswhodiedontheriver
duringOperationBerlin.SergeantHartleysomehowgottoshoreandwastakento
afieldhospitalwheretheshrapnelwastakenoutofhisshoulder.

Meanwhile because the current was picking up the 260

th

Field Company, Royal

Engineershadtoincreasetheircrewstosixmenperboatsothisdecreasedthe
numberofmenthattheycouldbringback.

Withthecrossingsitesofthe553

rd

andthe20

th

closed,the20

th

was ordered to

movetheirboatsupstreamtowherethe23

rd

wasoperating.Astheytried,thefirst

boatstheylaunchedweremetwithheavyfirefromtheGermanssotheplanand
theboatswereabandoned.

The 23

rd

figured that it made about 150 trips across the river taking out the

majorityofthe2500menevacuated.Themajorityoftheremainderweretakenout
bythe260

th

.The553

rd

and20

th

onlyaddedahandfultothetotal.Itisestimated

that two hundred men were left on the north shore at daylight. One of them,
Captain James G. Ogilvie of the Glider Pilot Regiment, decided to make a swim
forit.DressedinonlyhiskiltandwithaStengunaroundhisneckhewentintothe
water. Unfortunately, after nine days of very little food and sleep and being
wounded, the river was too much for him and he drowned. His body was
recoveredatRheneninOctober.

It is impossible to be sure how all of the other glider pilots died and the
approximantlocationofwheretheywerefound.Afewofthemweremostlikelyin
the first Storm Boat to cross the river and pick up wounded. Others may have
beeninthesameboatasSergeantHartleyandwereeitherkilledbytheexplosion
oralsodrownedinthesamemannerasStaffSergeantHill.ExceptforSergeant
Gittings who has never been found, all we know for sure is when their bodies
wererecovered.TheothergliderpilotswhodiedduringOperationBerlinare:

CaptainNealeJ.T.Francis(foundnearAmerongonon21

st

Oct.1944)

CaptainGordonT.Mills(foundnearRhenenon6

th

June1945)

CaptainJamesG.Ogilvie(foundnearRhenenon17

th

Oct.1944)

StaffSergeantPeterHill(foundnearRavenswaaijon18

th

Nov.1944)

StaffSergeantReginaldH.Saunders(foundnearRenkumon5

th

June1945)

SergeantJohnW.Brown(foundnearRenkumon9

th

Sept.1945)

SergeantRonaldR.Ditch(foundontheRhineRiveron10

th

March1945)

SergeantJohnH.Gittings(noknowngrave)

SergeantDavidH.Shipp(foundontheRhineRiveron4

th

Oct.1944)

SergeantJamesW.R.Thomson(foundnearAmerongen3

rd

Oct.1944)

SergeantJohnWalters(foundontheRhineRiveron5

th

Nov.1944)

SergeantNormanD.Williams(foundnearRemnerdenon9

th

Nov.1944)

AccordingtoMartinMiddlebrook,theauthorof`Arnhem:TheAirborneBattle’, of
the 1,262 glider pilots that landed with the division, 532 glider pilots were
evacuated.Thismeansthatapproximatelyonemaninfivethatwastakenacross
theriverbytheengineerswasagliderpilot.

Lieutenant-Colonel Henniker was correct in thinking that the power boats would
dothelion’sshareofthework.Howeverthe23

rd

paidthepriceofoneofficerand

sixsapperskilledduringtheoperation.Theseweretheonlyfatalitiesamongstthe
fourengineeringcompanies.HewasalsocorrectinthattheStormBoatsengines
wouldalerttheGermans,butthatwasthetrade-off.TheAssaultBoatswerequiet,
butinafastmovingriverliketheRhine,theywereslow.WithouttheStormBoats
andtheirexperiencedcrewsthemajorityofthosewaitingtobeevacuatedwould
havebeenleftbehind.

AbouttheAuthor:

JohnSlizistheauthorof`TheStormBoatkings:the23

rd

RCEatArnhem1944’

andnumerousotherbooksabouttheengineersandtheirequipmentinWorldWar
II. He is a trained draughtsman who lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and
three cats. His latest book, `River Assault: Operation Duck: the 3

rd

Canadian

InfantryDivision’sAttackonLeer28

th

April1945’hasjustbeenreleased.

www.stormboatkings.ca