OneManGang
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Author's Note: Again I must ask your indulgence both for my tardiness and for the somewhat truncated version of this column. For those of you on the Plateau, I will be at the Veterans Day events at Alvin York State Park in Pall Mall on Saturday. I presented a paper there last year and it was well worthwhile. This year I just get to enjoy it all. If you get the chance, go.
Sometimes an entire football season can be characterized by a single play.
The magical 1998 season, to this writer, will always be summarized by a play during the Fiesta Bowl against a favored Florida State. It had been a nip-and-tuck with Vols up 14-9 in fourth quarter when Tee Martin rolled out and hit a streaking Peerless Price for a 79-yard touchdown. Price later remarked that the ball just seemed to be coming down a chute right into his hands.
A Jeff Hall field goal and a last gasp FSU touchdown later and pandemonium reigns.
In Lexington this year, Vol QB Jarrett Guarantano evaded Blue-bellied rushers and hurled a perfect 48-yard strike to wide receiver Jeff George with the Vols down three and with time expiring. Unfortunately for the Vols, the end zone was fifty-one yards away.
And so it goes ...
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery had a brilliant idea. He proposed (then insisted) that the way to defeat Germany was to concentrate virtually the entire Allied effort behind one major thrust (led by himself, naturally) through Holland and across the Rhine River, bypassing the feared Siegfried Line and opening the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr area, to attack. It would be code-named Operation MARKET-GARDEN. Market was the airborne part and Garden the ground attack.
In order to pull this off, Montgomery would land three airborne divisions in along a single road capturing bridges and securing towns along the way so his version of George Patton's Third Army, General Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps could dash up the road and cross the Rhine River at Arnhem. The American 101st Airborne Division would land around the town of Grave and seize and hold the bridges there and at Son. The American 82nd Divison would land near Eindhoven and capture a bridges there across the Maas River. Finally, British 1st Airborne under General Roy Uruquart would get the prize, a modern highway bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem. The whole scheme depended on XXX Corps being able to traverse the sixty miles or so between its then-current position along the Belgian-Dutch border and Arnhem in no more than seventy-two hours.
The thing nobody on Montgomery's staff apparently realized was that despite the fact that XXX Corps mustered some 30,000 men and 20,000 vehicles, trying to send everything up a single road reduced the width of Horrocks' front to exactly one tank. Worse yet, whereas the Americans had adopted a flexible organization for their armored divisions, the British system was a bit ponderous and did not adapt easily to change. Monty (as he was called) was regarded as a master of the set-piece battle where the movements of each unit were worked out in advance and things moved in a predictable manner. Mongomery's most famous victory at el Alamein in North Africa was just this sort of battle. By its very nature, MARKET-GARDEN would require quick thinking, adaptability and a willingness to take risks to succeed.
The operation began on 17 September 1944 with the three airborne divisions landing in the morning and XXX Corps jumping off at 1435 (2:35pm) following a heavy artillery barrage. Things began to go wrong almost immediately.
The 101st managed to capture the bridge at Grave, however, the bridge at Son was blown up almost literally in the troopers' faces. The 82nd landed alright but was unable to move into Eindhoven due to unexpected German resistance and the critical bridge there remained in German hands. At Arnhem, Uruquart's Red Devils (so named because of their maroon berets) landed on their assigned landing zones which was fine except those LZ s were five miles from the bridge. A single battalion under Col. Johnny Frost moved quickly and captured the north end of the bridge but lacked the strength to take the whole thing. Oh, and the Germans had just pulled two entire SS panzer divisions out of line and placed them in the Arnhem area to rest and refit. Finally, XXX Corps had to fight its way through numerous German ambushes. Every time a tank or other vehicle was hit the entire column came to a halt while the wreck was shoved off the road. XXX Corps did not reach even the 101st until the next day and then were held up a further day as the Son bridge was replaced.
There are far too many tales of heroism and gallantry during MARKET-GARDEN to do justice to in the limited space we have here.
In the end, the entire operation came down to fifteen miles. On the 19th, XXX Corps finally linked up with the 82nd Airborne. Unfortunately the Germans still held the all-important bridge there. It was decided that the best way to capture the bridge would be to cross the river and take it from both ends at once. Major Julian Cook's 3 rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry would make the crossing in wood-and-canvas assault boats under the covering fire of XXX Corps tanks and artillery. The boats in question were somewhere back in the column, but nobody knew quite where.
It wasn't until after two on the afternoon of the 20th that the boats made their appearance Cook's men swiftly put them together and set off for the north bank. The river was wide and current swift. XXX Corps tanks laid a combination of explosive and smoke shells on the German positions. The wind changed though and soon the Germans had an unimpeded view of the 33 tiny boats trying to cross. Twenty boats were lost or shot up so badly they couldn't make a return trip, but Cook and those men who made it with him stormed the German positions and took north end of the bridge. Vehicles were heard crossing the bridge and soon the familiar sight of an M-4 Sherman rumbled into sight. XXX Corps had crossed the last terrain barrier to Arnhem.
By this point the Red Devils were in a terrible fix. Johnny Frost was cut off but still held the north end of the bridge. However he was under unrelenting attack by elements of the 9th SS Panzer Division and casualties were mounting. Uruquart and the rest of the division were also being squeezed into an ever smaller perimeter with their backs to the river.
Back at the Njimegan bridge, Cook's men were glad to see the British tanks but were shocked when they just stopped. British doctrine demanded that they await the arrival od supporting infantry before advancing further. They flatly turned down Cook's offer to mount his guys on the tanks and head off for Arnhem. And so, the stunning victory of capturing that bridge came to naught as yet another day was wasted awaiting the infantry who were still fighting their way through town.
Fifteen miles separated Njimegan and Arnhem. It took XXX Corps a further four days to move that far. By that time, Johnny Frost and his survivors had surrendered and, on the night of the 25 th Uruquart and the remnants of the Red Devils were extracted back across the river. Uruquart fumed that not only had his men held out five days longer than planned but only 2,000 or so of the 9,000 he'd started out with made it out.
Back at his headquarters, Montgomery looked at the map and declared MARKET-GARDEN to be a 90 per cent success. Since the whole point of the operation had been to gain a bridgehead across the Rhine
As Montgomery said of MARKET-GARDEN the contests with the Kats and Southern Miss were at best 90% successes. Against sUcK the Vols dominated every statistical category except the one that mattered: the final score. It was a mirror image last Saturday as the Golden Eagles exceeded the Vols' output in every category EXCEPT the final score.
Go figure
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2.Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to Kentucky or Souhtern Miss and keep it there for sixty minutes.
So there, now.
It is after midnight and your Fearless Scribe is, as we say in Tennessee, Plumb tuckered.
Thank you all for your patience.
MAXOMG
© 2017 Keeping Your Stories Alive
Suggested Reading:
Gen. James Gavin, On to Berlin (Gavin was
CO of the 82nd Airborne)
Guy LoFaro, The Sword of St. Michael (82nd Airborne in WWII)
Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far
Major Gen. Roy Uruquart, Arnhem
82nd Airborne troopers advance under heavy German fire during MARKET-GARDEN. (US Army)
Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Kentucky and Southern Miss
Sometimes an entire football season can be characterized by a single play.
The magical 1998 season, to this writer, will always be summarized by a play during the Fiesta Bowl against a favored Florida State. It had been a nip-and-tuck with Vols up 14-9 in fourth quarter when Tee Martin rolled out and hit a streaking Peerless Price for a 79-yard touchdown. Price later remarked that the ball just seemed to be coming down a chute right into his hands.
A Jeff Hall field goal and a last gasp FSU touchdown later and pandemonium reigns.
In Lexington this year, Vol QB Jarrett Guarantano evaded Blue-bellied rushers and hurled a perfect 48-yard strike to wide receiver Jeff George with the Vols down three and with time expiring. Unfortunately for the Vols, the end zone was fifty-one yards away.
And so it goes ...
* * * * * * * * *
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery had a brilliant idea. He proposed (then insisted) that the way to defeat Germany was to concentrate virtually the entire Allied effort behind one major thrust (led by himself, naturally) through Holland and across the Rhine River, bypassing the feared Siegfried Line and opening the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr area, to attack. It would be code-named Operation MARKET-GARDEN. Market was the airborne part and Garden the ground attack.
In order to pull this off, Montgomery would land three airborne divisions in along a single road capturing bridges and securing towns along the way so his version of George Patton's Third Army, General Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps could dash up the road and cross the Rhine River at Arnhem. The American 101st Airborne Division would land around the town of Grave and seize and hold the bridges there and at Son. The American 82nd Divison would land near Eindhoven and capture a bridges there across the Maas River. Finally, British 1st Airborne under General Roy Uruquart would get the prize, a modern highway bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem. The whole scheme depended on XXX Corps being able to traverse the sixty miles or so between its then-current position along the Belgian-Dutch border and Arnhem in no more than seventy-two hours.
The thing nobody on Montgomery's staff apparently realized was that despite the fact that XXX Corps mustered some 30,000 men and 20,000 vehicles, trying to send everything up a single road reduced the width of Horrocks' front to exactly one tank. Worse yet, whereas the Americans had adopted a flexible organization for their armored divisions, the British system was a bit ponderous and did not adapt easily to change. Monty (as he was called) was regarded as a master of the set-piece battle where the movements of each unit were worked out in advance and things moved in a predictable manner. Mongomery's most famous victory at el Alamein in North Africa was just this sort of battle. By its very nature, MARKET-GARDEN would require quick thinking, adaptability and a willingness to take risks to succeed.
The operation began on 17 September 1944 with the three airborne divisions landing in the morning and XXX Corps jumping off at 1435 (2:35pm) following a heavy artillery barrage. Things began to go wrong almost immediately.
The 101st managed to capture the bridge at Grave, however, the bridge at Son was blown up almost literally in the troopers' faces. The 82nd landed alright but was unable to move into Eindhoven due to unexpected German resistance and the critical bridge there remained in German hands. At Arnhem, Uruquart's Red Devils (so named because of their maroon berets) landed on their assigned landing zones which was fine except those LZ s were five miles from the bridge. A single battalion under Col. Johnny Frost moved quickly and captured the north end of the bridge but lacked the strength to take the whole thing. Oh, and the Germans had just pulled two entire SS panzer divisions out of line and placed them in the Arnhem area to rest and refit. Finally, XXX Corps had to fight its way through numerous German ambushes. Every time a tank or other vehicle was hit the entire column came to a halt while the wreck was shoved off the road. XXX Corps did not reach even the 101st until the next day and then were held up a further day as the Son bridge was replaced.
There are far too many tales of heroism and gallantry during MARKET-GARDEN to do justice to in the limited space we have here.
In the end, the entire operation came down to fifteen miles. On the 19th, XXX Corps finally linked up with the 82nd Airborne. Unfortunately the Germans still held the all-important bridge there. It was decided that the best way to capture the bridge would be to cross the river and take it from both ends at once. Major Julian Cook's 3 rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry would make the crossing in wood-and-canvas assault boats under the covering fire of XXX Corps tanks and artillery. The boats in question were somewhere back in the column, but nobody knew quite where.
It wasn't until after two on the afternoon of the 20th that the boats made their appearance Cook's men swiftly put them together and set off for the north bank. The river was wide and current swift. XXX Corps tanks laid a combination of explosive and smoke shells on the German positions. The wind changed though and soon the Germans had an unimpeded view of the 33 tiny boats trying to cross. Twenty boats were lost or shot up so badly they couldn't make a return trip, but Cook and those men who made it with him stormed the German positions and took north end of the bridge. Vehicles were heard crossing the bridge and soon the familiar sight of an M-4 Sherman rumbled into sight. XXX Corps had crossed the last terrain barrier to Arnhem.
By this point the Red Devils were in a terrible fix. Johnny Frost was cut off but still held the north end of the bridge. However he was under unrelenting attack by elements of the 9th SS Panzer Division and casualties were mounting. Uruquart and the rest of the division were also being squeezed into an ever smaller perimeter with their backs to the river.
Back at the Njimegan bridge, Cook's men were glad to see the British tanks but were shocked when they just stopped. British doctrine demanded that they await the arrival od supporting infantry before advancing further. They flatly turned down Cook's offer to mount his guys on the tanks and head off for Arnhem. And so, the stunning victory of capturing that bridge came to naught as yet another day was wasted awaiting the infantry who were still fighting their way through town.
Fifteen miles separated Njimegan and Arnhem. It took XXX Corps a further four days to move that far. By that time, Johnny Frost and his survivors had surrendered and, on the night of the 25 th Uruquart and the remnants of the Red Devils were extracted back across the river. Uruquart fumed that not only had his men held out five days longer than planned but only 2,000 or so of the 9,000 he'd started out with made it out.
Back at his headquarters, Montgomery looked at the map and declared MARKET-GARDEN to be a 90 per cent success. Since the whole point of the operation had been to gain a bridgehead across the Rhine
* * * * * * *
As Montgomery said of MARKET-GARDEN the contests with the Kats and Southern Miss were at best 90% successes. Against sUcK the Vols dominated every statistical category except the one that mattered: the final score. It was a mirror image last Saturday as the Golden Eagles exceeded the Vols' output in every category EXCEPT the final score.
Go figure
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2.Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to Kentucky or Souhtern Miss and keep it there for sixty minutes.
So there, now.
It is after midnight and your Fearless Scribe is, as we say in Tennessee, Plumb tuckered.
Thank you all for your patience.
MAXOMG
© 2017 Keeping Your Stories Alive
Suggested Reading:
Gen. James Gavin, On to Berlin (Gavin was
CO of the 82nd Airborne)
Guy LoFaro, The Sword of St. Michael (82nd Airborne in WWII)
Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far
Major Gen. Roy Uruquart, Arnhem
82nd Airborne troopers advance under heavy German fire during MARKET-GARDEN. (US Army)
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