Hello everybody. My Grandfather served in 129 Field Ambulance with the British 43rd (Wessex) Division. They crossed the bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen on September 22nd 1944. From an account by a 129 FA veteran held at the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive I know that the unit observed the dead German soldiers who were hanging on ropes from the bridge superstructure. These men were in all probability killed when the bridge was taken by the 82nd Airborne. Would anyone be able to link me to a contemporary, unimpeachable source that mentions the bodies on the bridge? I would be extremely grateful for any help offered. Thanks Jonathan
I think you might fight this detail in Robert J. Kershaw's book 'It never snows In September'. I think those hanged men were Germans soldiers who knew about explosives etc. and tried to find out what was wrong with the explosives in the bridge. The bridge was ready to be destroyed but when they 'push the button' nothing happened. Most probably because of the heavy firing the wiring was damaged and those unlucky soldiers was hanged from the bridge trying to find the spot where the wiring was interupted and to make the connection again so the circuit to be operational again and the explosives to be exploded.
The U.S. Airborne Division took the railway bridge and the Guards Armd. Division captured the road bridge. See page 174 of Tim Saunders's `Nijmegen' where it says that some 180 German dead were removed from the bridge and its structure. The book backs your point of those in the structure were checking the wires.
Hi there, i was born in Nijmegen, and its even written in some books. Downtown Nijmegen there is a bookstore who has various editions of the bridge incident. If you want i can look after christmas, if i can find an example. Kind regards, Robert
