Memories of Frank Yates Chapter 34

Memories of Frank Yates CHAPTER 34

The Dutch town of Oss was built round a large factory, into which we moved Div HQ. The factory had its own generator and, for the first time, our two faithful sappers did not have to rig up their bulbs and generator. A daft little quirk of memory reminds me that the wall switches had to be moved upwards to switch on and down to switch off! I wondered why they couldn’t have proper switches like us. I quickly found out that we were the illogical ones!
‘s Hertogenbosch is a moated, 11th, century city, the birthplace of Hieronymus Bosch and of immense importance as the capital of Brabant. It guarded the approaches to the Scheldt and is no stranger to strife and warfare. Ramparts, rivers, moats and a citadel made it as difficult to capture in 1944, as it had been over the centuries.
12 Corps got the task of freeing the way westwards towards the sea. Other divisions were to advance in the direction of the Scheldt, our friends, 15th Scottish in the direction of Tilburg, and the 51st (Highland) towards Boxtel, in the south. The 7th Armoured Div was to support us in the attack on Den Bosch, and afterwards to exploit westward, through 51 Div.
During the whole of the campaign, we had always fought with other units, on a broad front, or had been used in a defensive role. Now we had a clear mandate, to act as a division, with a specific aim, the capture of ‘s Hertogenbosch.
In opposition to 12 Corps was the German LXXXV111 Corps, commanded by General Hans Reinhardt, with three divisions in front and another racing to join them. If the city fell it would jeopardise the escape route for the forces denying the Scheldt to the Allies and the German positions south of the Maas would be untenable.

Simultaneously the Canadian Army was ordered to clear Walcheren Island and the mouth of the Scheldt, a thankless, wet, muddy, dangerous job. There are those critics, who hold, that, if Montgomery had cleared the approaches to Antwerp, instead of going for the Arnhem adventure, the war would have been shortened. Without hindsight, the Field Marshall could well say that his intention in going for the dash over the rivers was to shorten the war by months.
The battle began with a massive artillery barrage, which preceded the start, at 0.630 hrs on Oct.22nd. It was hoped that the operation would take two days, but the destruction of all the dozens of bridges and the widespread laying of minefields stretched the estimate to a reality of 6 days.
160 Brigade attacked, using the railway as its axis, 71 Brigade using the main Nijmegen — Den Bosch highway as its line of advance. Flail tanks from 7th. Armoured were used in numbers to clear the minefields. The tanks, in support of 160 Brigade, made a dash down the embanked railway line into the city, causing the captured German commander to bemoan the fact that, if he had had any antitank guns, he would have had a field day! Heavy fighting went on in the eastern outskirts of the City, “Crocodile” flamethrower tanks being in evidence.
The divisional Royal Engineer battalions did heroic bridge building and mine clearing feats during the battle, contributing hugely to the success. Div HQ was moved up to some houses astride the main road, a couple of miles outside the city. The General and the G1 were discussing progress over the large scale map of the town centre. As I happened to be in the firing line, they turned to me and with fingers on the most southerly moat bridge, told me to find out whether it was blown or not. I drove down to the corner and parked, knowing that the bridge was about 20 yards round the corner and exposed to German observation. As I was wondering what to do, a Dutchman, with a little boy holding his hand, came on the scene, out for a stroll. Two bullets ricocheted off the wall, over our heads, and, as he seemed oblivious of any danger, I shouted at him things like “Scram, Vamoose, Allez, and B****r Off.” He got the message and led his offspring away!
The bridge was overlooked by some three storied houses and most of them had lost their tiles, so I went in by the convenient side door and climbed the three flights of stairs. By crawling over the rafters, I reached a viewpoint overlooking the bridge, and risked my head long enough to get a good look at it. Then, not wasting any time, I dashed back to the ops room at HQ and drew the General and the G1 a picture of the bridge. It had a large hole in the middle, but the two main girders were still there. It was certainly not a medieval construction because the two remaining girders appeared to be iron or steel. In any case the bridge was not more than about 25 feet long and I suggested that a bridge laying tank would do the job. They were amused at my bird’s eye view story and, dare I say it, not displeased. Later on in the day I went back to that corner, found that the battle had passed on, and bridging the gap was a scissors bridge, laid by a Churchill tank
It is interesting to recall, that, during our ‘s Hertogenbosch enterprise we used lots of “Funnies” Flails, Crocodiles and Bridgelayers were all put to good use, as they had been on the beaches earlier in the year. Churchills with a bulldozer blade were also in evidence, to remove road blocks and to fill craters. The Yanks, who had so much trouble on the “Utah” and “Omaha” beaches, did not use these “Limey" gadgets, much to their cost!
By October 28th all was over and the Division received fulsome praise from the Corps and, Army Commanders and from “Monty” himself.
In the town hall, used as a German map store, there was a stack of maps of S. Yorkshire, called “Sheffield Und Barnsley”. There were also boxes full of swastika armbands. I brought some home as souvenirs, but I seem to have lost my sample.
I gave one to my brother Len, but when he died, his wife Rosie burnt it. A pity!
During this period we did a “retreat” We set up HQ at a mall group of houses off the road to Oss. Here we were joined by the Engineers and some other units, who camped in a pleasant bit of parkland opposite our houses. As it was the only built up area in the district, and as it had been used by our artillery to bombard the town, the Germans had it ranged and all through the night German shells were whining down and exploding all around. There was much frantic digging in across the road, but Geoff Lucas, the “Phantom” officer and I, decided that we were safer in a substantial house, than in a hole in a field. Whatever our motives, we played “Lie dice”, and smoked cigarettes all night!
General Ross had had his caravan moved during the shelling and, in the morning, we beat a retreat a mile down the road.

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