Paul Gräbners fate

Hello,

Today I read in a book that Paul Grabner's body has never been recovered after his 9th SS Hohenstaufen reconnaisance convoy tried to cross the Arnhem bridge.

I knew he died on the bridge, but not that his body was never found.

Is it also true he used a Daimler Scoutcar in that action?

################################## < I never heard that name mentioned at the Arnhem Bridge. There was a Knights Cross winner, Viktor Graebner who led an ill fated charge of 22 vehicles across the bridge on 918. Graebner was in a captured Humber armored car. A few vehicles actually got across the bridge, most didn't. The SS were slaughtered as the British Paras cheered 'Whoa Mahomet!' Grabner was dead 24 hours after receiving the Ritterkreuz. Strangely, it seems his body was *not* found. Was he one of the men who leaped off the bridge, and swept away by the fabled Rhine?

Hi,

That might be plausible. But I've read both firstnames Paul and Viktor. The wat it is depicted in 'A Bridge Too Far' is that his vehicle was ablaze and that he died inside. It's been a while since I read the book.

Also, the build up of his charge, it's been stated that the first 2 vehicles were SdKfz 234 Puma's, which crossed the bridge almost unhindered. The bulk of the rest of his charge has been described as mostly SPWs, which could be either SdKfz 250's or 251's, but maybe 222's are also possible.

The aerial photographs are from such a height that identification is nigh impossible. The painting that covered the book ABTF shows a number of 251's.

Anyone have more (accurate?) info?

Most of Graebner's vehicles were described by Kershaw as 'half-tracks' and 'fully laden lorries'. You can imagine a battalion of paratroopers firing mostly down on no roof vehicles moving no faster than 25 mph. Add mortars and lobbed grenades landing in open, full half-tracks, you have ducks-in-a barrel slaughter. Once lead vehicles stopped after drivers killed, you had traffic jam - slaughter. Even if Graebner burned, they'd still find his remains on Sept. 22. There was a book last year, using models that gave a pretty good account of the Bridge To Far battle. Don't know the title or author.

This sounds pretty typical of Waffen SS tactical skills. Pointless suicidal charges were something of a speciality, which helps to explain the Waffen SS' catastrophic casualty

{snip} The

Viktor Graebner is his more commonly used name.

Umm, bit of dramatic licence there, in the film he is depicted as a tall jut jawed silent 'Aryan hero' type, whereas IRL he was reputedly headstrong & impetuous and was also rather short & fat!

Most of the functioning armoured vehicles available to 9th SS were concentrated in the recon battalion, including a number of SP guns (presumably on halftrack chassis), so I would expect there to be a wide variety of vehicle types, including both Sdkfz 250 and 251 variants. Detachments were left both at Nijmegen and on the south side of the bridge though - IIRC the assault was only conducted by two companies with fire support from a third.

251's.

In Kerhsaws 'It Never Snows in September' are some much more detailed aerial photos rather than the more commonly seen blurry one of the bridge covered in wreckage. The majority of the vehicles appear to 250s, but fully a third of the German losses were accounted for by a single 6pdr AT gun which destroyed seven vehicles on its own - you can make out the hole in the concrete wall it shot out first, then picked the german vehicles off one by one as they passed.

I have also read that Graebner was in a captured British armoured car, but I can't make out any such vehicle in the photos.

Marcel Zwarts in 'German Armoured Units at Arnhem, Sept 1944' lists the armoured vehicle strength of 9th SS PzAA as:

10 x Sdkfz 234/1 or 234/3 15 x Sdkfx 251/19 15 x Sdkfz 250 & 251

However I suspect this must be a misprint as the 251/19 is a mobile telephone exchange! The 251/9 is the Stummel which seems rather more likely, giving the Abteilung an armoured car company, an SP gun company & a panzergrenadier company, plus presumably some guys in trucks as well as are mentioned in all the accounts. No mention of captured vehicles at all, although it is possible they are included in the armoured car company, or more likely, in battalion HQ (if the Humber was Graebners personal vehicle).

Cheers

{snip}

It seems a little ironic that the 9th SS recon group didn't conduct better recon of the position on the north side of the bridge before charging headlong across it. It was certainly not German doctrine to conduct (halftrack) mounted assaults against seriously defended positions.

See above.

There is no reason why they couldn't have used the ferry, it was busy shuttling KG Euling across the Rhine (which included a number of heavier armoured vehicles than anything 9th SS PzAA had), so they could have hitched a ride going in the opposite direction. It seems more likely that having motored across the bridge without any opposition the previous evening, they assumed that any enemy oppositon in the morning would be light - despite the north end of the bridge being scattered with the debris from the previous nights fighting.

Even the most cursory bit of recon would have revealed that they weren't facing a few lightly armed paras, but the best part of three companies with mortar, anti-tank and artillery support (as long as the ammo lasted anyway).

Cheers

A tactical advance on foot using maximum use of cover and of suppressing fire, obviously. Not a machismo suicidal charge.

Has anyone seen the large, slim hardback, with the dioramas of the bridge battle? It was in a local bookstore about six months ago. It used models and figures to illustrate Frost's situation. Can't remember if Oosterbeek fighting was included, but I don't think any 'Hell's Highway' fighting was shown. Title was something like BRIDGE AT ARNHEM, or BATTLE OF ARNHEM. It probably mentioned Graebner's vehicles available. Remember, by September the Germans were using a hodge-podge of equipment - not the textbook units of 42-43.

Recent books claim Graebner was *not* ordered to cross the bridge; he made his own decision. Guess he felt he needed to justify his new Knights Cross medal. Still figure he decided a desperate leap over the bridge, and possible drowning was preferable to a flaming

Sounds plausible, for both issues.

About his orders, I suppose he was ordered to link up in Arnhem, but that he did not get the specific order to take the Rhine-bridge as his way into Arnhem. Also, is it not a fact the Germans in the first days greatly underestimated the force of paratroopers that had landed?

Even with the complete plans, it still took a while for the Germans to fully realise what the goal of Market Garden was.

In that light, Grabner's decision might not be that foolish. If he expected to encounter only a few para's armed with light weapons, racing over the bridge in armoured cards doesn't sound that stupid.

However, if you run your convoy into mines and a large contingent of para's armed with Piats and who can call in artillery, the situation is quite different.

Since the Germans started firing first, this might imply they merely wanted to give suppressing fire, to allow them the cross-over safely. I can imagine that Grabner was mightily surprised, if not shocked, when he was greeted with the fire from the British troops.