The Lommel Bridgehead 

Sunday 17 September was a day of plans Major-General C.M. Barber ‘Tiny’ realised that he still needed to come up with something to break the deadlock. The new solution he came up with was operation Flood. The idea was to enlarge the bridgehead by ordering the 227th. Brigade to make new crossings immediately to the right and left of Ten Aard early the following day. Planning began that morning. However, XII Corps, Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie, decided differently. Ritchie’s Corps was supposed to protect the left flank of XXX Corps after its breakout from Neerpelt bridgehead. But because of the fierce resistance at Ten Aard the 15th. Scottish Division was clearly getting nowhere and Ritchie decided to develop the main axis advance the following day from a new bridgehead further east, north of Lommel. This task was assigned to the 53rd. Welch Division. Operation Flood was cancelled and operation The Lommel Bridgehead was born. 

Major General Colin Muir Barber - 6 feet 9 inches = 2 meter 5,7 centimeter
Barber was considered the tallest officer in the British Army.

Operation Market Garden - The 60-mile Allied corridor 

Operation Garden was not just restricted to XXX Corps advancing along a single highway to Nijmegen and ultimately Arnhem. The whole of Second Army was to be employed in this ambitious plan. Both VIII Corps and XII Corps were to advance alongside XXX Corps. In detail this meant that VIII Corps was to secure the right flank while XII Corps was to carry out the task on the left. 

The Corps Commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Neil Ritchie who was considered an able and cool-headed officer by his superiors, after the failure of forcing a crossing north of Geel, decided to send his men across closer to the main axis. He ordered the 53rd. Welch Division to cross north of Lommel that night (Sunday, September 17th.). If Von der Heydte’s men thought they would get some peace after a nerve-wracking day, they had a big surprise coming to them. 

The attack by the 53rd. Welch Division began at eleven p.m. A barrage by seven Field Regiments, two Medium Regiments and mortars hit the positions of the Fallschirmjäger. Brigadier G.B. Sugden, commanding the 158th. Brigade, decided to send two battalions across on either side of the demolished bridge north of Lommel. After the bridgehead was sufficiently deep the divisional engineers were to construct a Class 9 and a Class 40 bridge. The night was dark and it was pouring with rain as the first boats crossed half an hour after the artillery had opened fire. 1st. Bn. The East Lancashire Regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel G.W.P.N. Burden operated on the left, 7th. Bn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF) under Lieutenant-Colonel G.F.T.B. Dickson on the right. The East Lancs were soon across. This was sheer luck and due to the German troop dispositions opposite them. The wood to the west of the Lommel-Luijksgestel road was occupied by Fallschirmjäger from Oberstleutnant Stephan II./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 18 while troops from von der Heydte’s 5./FJR 6 were in the wood east of the road. By a fluke the East Lancs landed unobserved, then skirted around the positions of II./FJR 18 and took their objective, north of the wood by 03.30 hours. However, the 7th. RWF did not fare so well. They landed in full view of Von der Heydte’s men and were unable to expand their bridgehead which was only two hundred metres deep. 

As a consequence, on the right flank a raft was soon in operation, but on the left one all movement came to a standstill. Still, that was the extent of the success for the East Lancs. Because Stephan’s men were still in the wood, it proved impossible to construct a proper bridge. Every time the engineers started work they came under fire and it took repeated calls to Brigade before the East Lancs finally cleared the wood at 13.30 hours and removed thirty-six Fallschirmjäger from slit-trenches less than three hundred metres from the canal. Around the same time the right flank of the bridgehead was also enlarged after the 1/5th Welch under Lieutenant-Colonel H.T. Gibson had crossed over and a raft was in operation there as well. Gibson himself was seriously wounded and subsequently died. Bridge construction could now begin and in the evening of 18 September XII Corps finally had a bridgehead from which to launch its supporting operation. 

This is original film footage of the crossing of the Bocholt-Herentals canal by the 53rd Welch Division. At the end of this video, there is some film footage of this location that I took in March 2022.

   Special thanks to: 
  IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS

HQ 158th. Inf. Bde. SITREP 18 September 1944
(SITREP = Situation Report)

Von der Heydte, who now saw his right flank threatened as well as his left one near the road, ordered his troops to pull back even further. Because Kampfgruppe Walther was already split in two and Von der Heydte had lost touch, Kurt Student assigned Von der Heydte’s regiment once more to LXXXVIII. Armeekorps. Reinhard in turn immediately reassigned FJR 6 back to Chill. 

Von der Heydte complained about the lack of artillery support and requested urgently new Panzerfäuste and heavy machine-guns. His companies, he said, were now down to an average of forty men. There was also some positive news for Reinhard. That Monday he was informed of the arrival of two divisions from 15. Armee that were assigned to LXXXVIII. Armeekorps. Just after being told about the new bridgehead by Von der Heydte, he learned that he was to receive the 59. and 711. Infanterie-Division. Reinhard intended to send 59. I.D. to the area Boxtel-Tilburg and the 711. I.D. ‘probably’ to Eindhoven and environs. Early on September 18th. the plans changed. Reinhard got a phone call from 1. Fallschirmarmee informing him that Student had assigned LXXXVI. Armeekorps (Obstfelder) the Panzerbrigade 107. The new plan was for Obstfelder’s troops to attack via Eindhoven and block the advance of XXX Corps, while the 59. I.D. would attack the American Paratroopers on the Sonse Heide. 

On Monday 18 September 160th. Brigade crossed the Bocholt-Herentals Canal at a bridgehead (Gestelsedijk) near Lommel. From here we focus on the 6th. Bn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers and the 4th. Bn. The Welch Regiment.