"CAUGHT FLAT-FOOTED"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 68, 18 September 1944, Page 5

"CAUGHT FLAT-FOOTED"

NAZI GUNNERS SURPRISED Rec. 12.20 p.m. . LONDON, Sept. 17. "Paratroopers and glider-borne infantrymen of the First Allied Airborne Army surprised the German defenders and landed with negligible opposition in Holland today in the first employment of this mighty combined weapon since its formation a little more than a month ago," says a correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain with the airborne army over Holland. ' • "Thousands of parachutists were dropped from hundreds of transport planes, and multi-coloured parachutes glittered gaily in the bright noonday sun as they fluttered to earth with men, arms, and supplies. The tight, low formations of these sky-trains slipped over the coast of Holland from the 'North Sea and reached the drop area before the Nazis, who were caught flatfooted, manned their anti-aircraft guns. By the time the second and third formations began to drop light flak was shooting up into the sky-fleets, but we saw not a single German fighter. Hundreds of our fighters circled round our long sky train,, which extended -for miles in straight lines. Para troopers dropped into fields flanking a Dutch town, and judging from the ease with which we took them in they should be able to assemble quickly and carry out their ground objectives, "Since this army has been formed,

earlier plans for the operation have been scrapped because the ground troops advanced too quickly or the weather dosed in. The parachuted supplies fell neatly I close together. The Germans began to send up flak, and the lift of the plane from bursts under u& sent us! homeward. WS had already seen enough to know that the Germans would soon have to battle with another army on the Siegfried Line. The only sign of Germans that we saw was a column of Red Cross trucks." ■ TROOPS' ANTICIPATIONS. The paratroopers on Saturday night were in high spirits at the carrier bases' where; they bivouacked. sThey; were all eager, for the jump, believing that it will shorten the war. A private from Michigan who had previously jumped in Sicily, Salerno, and France, said: "But I want to make my last jump over Berlin." Sft^A" Force headquarters said that the fighter pilots in the vanguard of the airborne invasion had a grandstand view of the actual dropping of the paratroopers. One of them saidine paratroops dropped from their planes as if they had been shot from R n frequently I could see upwards of 400 in the air. I could not see anyone on the roads in the vicinity of the drop area .except a few civilians watching and waving." 7 a^l h% fi + f. hteiY3 ilot described the landing of the gliders. "The gliders crowded up the fields almost wing-tip wh^ ng'tip>" he- said- "I watched on? Sf f was coming, in for a.Janding head for a small open space between W° ° T th f e|; s- There was Jo little room that I felt sure., it would not make it rinwn y'v Ut Slider-pilot just set down his machine with about six inches of clearance on either side" fighters swarmed down on enemy gun emplacements. They carried fragmentation bombs and extra ammunitop hirit y operated at roofont nf Ulh T c, orres Pondent, who flew in la lV ,he tow-planes, said that the landings were carried out under ideal troop-carrier weather-with perfect ig^ibilityand.clcuds jult low enough to provide some cover for the *™s. "I was most impressed " hi f,n«' What might be termed the uneventfulness of the entire operaArmy swooped down near the SSAO^ hOSSi S **> flak were f^fi 1' ! he stron Ser fighter and bombe? oSt?on enSUnng the success of the FIERCE AIR BATTLE DESCRIBED. The only reports so far receivpd nf BrftS, Un^T 5? 0" co^ from°a f British United Press corresoondpnt who said that some fighter pilots radioed a running commentary to their K^f- 6rS Of fierce air batttS ovS the invasion area. They reported that Wulfa^n-« deSi? Oyed at Fockl•£r \ SJ German fighters dived from il clouds against a glider formation and then turned and climbed into cloud cover They repeated these tactS Um^ ?ne of our pilots claiS! Ed the destruction of three of seven IT^I& es which attacked a section ot the fighter cover he was leading fwnL^ m + £ ri<?an -radio reporter who flew over the invasion area stated: "We had been expecting an airborne invasion for some time. Today the connno nf Wt? re Vlght' T, his operation was rtMrin/ tS e mOSt d-arinS attempted during the campaign in western Europe but the paratroops who par-ticipated-were not suicide troops. They will be fighting on 'when the Allied upoowitnL^ m they flew toda^iin" rw reP. i;| sentatiye of the combined Press with the airborne forces "somey&Z%Jn Holland" states that by toSLinT^ had been cleared from several Dutch towns and that British and American troops were established. Immediately after the Allied announcement of the airborne landings m Holland, the German-controlled Hilversum radio stated that the fight-lf.-°j?lhe Rlver Gheel. which is Denmd the airborne forces, reached a new pitch of intensity. "The Americans attacked heavily in the Valkenburg area " it said. "The Allies are concentrating against a narrow front in order to punch a way through the German lines."

„ The German news agency says: Allied paratroopers and airborne formations continue to land in Dutch territory. We are counter-attacking."