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• Ship Bridge
• The Central Post of the Red Cross
• Codename ‘Putney’
• The British advance to the ship bridge
• The riddle of the ship bridge
• Major Murray’s reconnaissance tour
• Roermondsplein at the liberation in 1945
• The recovery of victims in 1945
• The fate of schoolteacher Miss Van Ommeren

Roermondsplein was not only of strategic importance because of the nearby ship bridge. The Central Post of the Arnhem Red Cross and the transport column, consisting of various ambulances, were also located there. After the war, the regional commissioner of the Red Cross in Gelderland, Squire Dr. J.N. van der Does, recalled the two weeks between Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday, 5 September 1944) and the first day of the airborne landings:

“At the start of the transit of disorganised German troops, the undersigned was in Amsterdam, and quickly returned to Arnhem, where the situation was extremely tense. Incidental actions etc made the population very anxious. Because there was a good chance that a fleeing army would be followed by bombings, and now the air-raid warning installation appeared to be defective (because the Luftschutzkommando operator had also disappeared?), the Arnhem Transport Column was garaged at the Central Post in Roermondsplein. (……)

On Friday 14 September the atmosphere in Arnhem was even tenser because a viaduct on the railway line to Zutphen had been blown up, and the Sicherheits Dienst let it be known that if the culprits were not found, twelve people would be executed on Sunday 17 September.
By Sunday morning 17 September, when the tension caused by this measure had increased still further, a British squadron appeared in the skies over the city and carried out heavy bombing raids on buildings occupied by the Germans. Three bombs fell near the Central Post of the Red Cross. Not a window in the building survived. Luckily there were only a few minor injuries.
An immediate start was made on getting the injured to the hospitals that were still operating, namely St. Elisabeths Gasthuis and the Diaconessenhuis. (The Gemeenteziekenhuis had been commandeered by the Germans as a Military hospital).”[4]

The existence of a ship bridge and the rebuilt Rhine Bridge had not escaped the attention of the allies in September 1944. Both river crossings had been included as attack objectives in Operation Market Garden and were codenamed ‘Putney’ (ship bridge) and ‘Waterloo’ (Rhine Bridge) respectively, both names of London bridges. However, when the British 1st Parachute Brigade received orders to prepare for Operation Market Garden the staff knew nothing about the existence of ferries in and around Arnhem. Neither did they know that the small steamer at Eusebiusplein was used as a ferry. Since Lieutenant Colonel John D. Frost and his 2nd Parachute Battalion would be advancing along Onderlangs and Rijnkade, his ‘B’ Company was given the task of occupying the ship bridge, and capturing the Rhine Bridge via the southern bank. ‘A’ Company would make an attempt via Rijnkade.

A platoon from the 1st Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers – a sapper company – was attached to brigade HQ which would follow on behind the 2nd Parachute Battalion. Captain Eric Mackay and his ‘A’ Troop were given the job of checking the ship bridge for explosives. The 1st Parachute Squadron’s ‘B’ Troop had to advance with the battalion and would therefore arrive at the ship bridge before ‘A’ Troop. The NCOs and sappers of the first-mentioned unit were not told of the task of the latter group or about the existence of the ship bridge. [5]

The plan for 17 September was altered even before the 2nd Parachute Battalion had reached the ship bridge. ‘B’ Company was ordered to neutralize an enemy position at Oosterbeek-Laag station, near the western edge of Arnhem. The opposition turned out to be much stronger than expected and the company lost a number of men and a platoon commander. The skirmish lasted some time and, seeing that evening was approaching, Lieutenant Colonel Frost decided to push on to the bridge with the rest of his battalion. He recalled the advance afterwards:

“We hastened with increased speed through the streets of Arnhem in order to reach the ship bridge. The centre section had been put out of action and we were unable to use it at that time. Leaving part of the support group behind to wait for ‘B’ Company we marched on to the principal Rhine crossing, the Rhine Bridge.” [6]

It is unclear if the centre section of the ship bridge had in fact been put out of action, as one reads in the books by Frost and various historians. Aerial photos taken by the RAF on 10 September 1944 show an intact bridge, but of course that says nothing of the situation a week later, on the seventeenth. And the above-mentioned Captain Mackay wrote in an article in Blackwoods Magazine and in the war diary of the 1st Parachute Squadron RE that the ship bridge was intact when he neared Roermondsplein at 9.30 in the evening Dutch time. Mackay came across the machine-gunners left behind by Frost. At this point his platoon had to deal with a German counter attack from the south bank in which two of the ship bridges small boats were badly damaged and sank. The company report notes that “two boats sank and the Germans withdrew with heavy losses.” [7] One of his soldiers disputes this, saying that no fighting took place.[8]

Other eyewitnesses who were consulted during research for this article, including the brigade major of the 1st Parachute Brigade and a sapper from ‘B’ Troop, have doubts. They say they saw the ship bridge intact, but added that they had not paid any particular attention to it at the time. Their task lay elsewhere. [9] The tale of the two sunken pontoons in Mackay’s story is based on fact. An RAF aerial photo taken on 19 September 1944 shows the ship bridge without the centre section and two sunken, or at least damaged, pontoons on the southern bank.

After the exchange of fire Mackay’s unit pressed on to the Rhine Bridge (see also point 19), without waiting for ‘B’ Company. That unit didn’t get to the ship bridge until after midnight. The official account of the 2nd Parachute Battalion reads:

“the Boat Bridge, which B Company reached after overcoming considerable resistance, was burnt before they could use it.” [10]

If Mackay’s declaration that the ship bridge was intact when he got there at 21.30 is true, it is odd to say the least that Frost left just machine-gunners at the north bank and didn’t try to get a detachment across to the other side of the river. Should Mackay have distorted the facts then, as far as is known, he was not taken to task, then or later. He wrote the war diary in England some days after the Battle of Arnhem. The commander of ‘A’ Company, Major A.D. Tatham-Warter, returned to England at the end of October 1944 and wrote the official report of the 2nd Parachute Battalion. He and his ’A’ Company passed by the ship bridge earlier than Mackay. It is unclear if Tatham-Warter had seen Mackay’s account before beginning his own.

In April 1945, Roermondsplein was the backdrop to heavy fighting between the 2nd Battalion The Essex Regiment of the British 49th Infantry Division and Dutch SS units. Nearby, down Bergstraat at the corner with Oude Kraan, was a distinctive corner house with a domed roof which housed the Van de Velden bakery. These premises were set alight by gunfire during the fighting and gradually burned to the ground. A British war photographer recorded the battles at Oude Kraan and Roermondsplein on film. His photos show the destruction of this imposing villa in Bergstraat. The famous Grand Hotel Du Soleil, which among its patrons could name the King of Italy and the former American president Ulysses S. Grant, was also damaged beyond repair.[14]

The locating and recovery of the many civilians and servicemen who died in September 1944 and after could only really begin after the liberation of the virtually deserted city. The Luchtbeschermingsdienst (Air Defence Service) was handed this task. The deputy leader of the Arnhem department, B. van Brussel, wrote about this work in December 1945:

“For months there had been three graves in the small public garden in Roermondsplein, but I could find no relevant details. Coincidentally I had to be at Roermondsplein for research, and while there a lady asked me what must be done about the three people who were buried in the garden. She could name two of the victims, they being Messrs Jurgens [Jurriens] and Van de Brink (an NSBer), and possibly a Chinese. The Chinese man was not in the grave, but then an unknown woman, who was found there some weeks later, was identified as Miss Van Ommeren, schoolteacher.[15] The krauts had cut Jurgens’ fingers off in order to steal his rings. Van de Brink wanted to help the krauts and came up with a revolver in his fist, and was promptly shot by the Huns for his trouble. Mr Jurgens was identified from his dental records, Van de Brink from his three-quarter length leather coat, and the schoolteacher from a serious thigh wound, her irregular teeth and her dress.”[16]

In the well-known 1977 film ‘A Bridge Too Far’ there is a scene in which an elderly lady leaves her house during the fighting in the road bridge area to call a taxi and is killed by machinegun fire. It looks like a typical example of a Hollywood film scenario, but there is an element of truth in the story. In September 1944 Margaretha van Ommeren lived in the Veenhuizen boarding house at Eusebiusstraat 22. The OAP sisters Van Wulfte Palthe also lived there. In the night of 17/18 September 1944 a small group of British soldiers forced the front door of the boarding house and came in. They didn’t stay long.

At about 6 am a lieutenant and fifteen parachutists entered. They barricaded the corridors and positioned machineguns at the windows on the Eusebiusstraat side. The windows were knocked out and in the afternoon the fighting in the street erupted. A British anti-tank gun was deployed a little farther up. The house came under German mortar fire and part of the roof was blown off.

On Tuesday afternoon the boarding house again became the target of mortar fire. Miss Van Ommeren could take no more and slipped outside through the back door. She reached Eusebiusstraat, where she was mortally wounded by fire from a German tank. During the evening it all became too much for one of the Van Wulfte Palthe sisters. “Can’t you put a stop to this racket?” she demanded of Mrs Veenhuizen, the landlady, who replied that this was impossible. “Book a taxi for me then,” said the elderly lady, indignantly. But of course this too was impossible.

Because the house was set on fire the boarding house tenants sought shelter on top of one of the walls in the back garden. On Wednesday afternoon a German shell landed in the garden, killing the Van Wulfte Palthe sisters. [17] They were just some of the numerous civilians who lost their life during the Battle of Arnhem hostilities.

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