July 9, 1973
-2-
The Reverend A. D. Bestebreurtje, Ph.D., D.D.
as fast as he could. I raised my rifle to shoot at him, but in all
probability, I would have gotten nothing but richochets [sic] which
could have hit some of our own people, so I let him go. There were no
other Germans about at that moment, although quite a number of them must
have been in the woods, because just after landing and reaching the edge
of the woods, Captain Johnson of the Engineers told me that he had
engaged in a fire fight and that he had gotten a fine pair of German
binoculars. There was still some spasmodic German fire.
When I came back down to the road, I asked you how you
got off such a fine shot so quickly. You said that all you saw when the
German fired at you and missed was the white forehead of the German
between the top of the machinegun and the rim of his helmet. Shooting
from the hip, you fired at it. I must say the whole affair made the
remainder of our march an exciting one, but it seemed to me at the time
that there was no other choice but to move promptly and to take a chance
by giving the Germans the first shot, being confident that we could
handle them thereafter. Fortunately for us, we did not get into another
fire fight until we reached the site of the Division Command Post which
must have been in about 20-30 minutes. When we
reached the outskirts of Groesbeek, you asked me to delay a few minutes
while you made a phone call to Arnhem and downtown Nijmegen, which you
did. In any event, I mentioned this incident to
Connie Ryan yesterday and he was very much interested in it, so I am
going to send a copy of this letter to him. I know he would like very
much to hear directly from you your own version of it, which may be
somewhat different from mine. I have found his
manuscript extremely interesting. I did not know until reading it that
many of the combat troops that we were to engage were from the German
15th Army that managed to escape across the mouth of the Antwerp Estuary
to the mainland of Holland. None of the Allied high command was aware of
its presence. Of course, Von Student did have a copy of our landing
plan, which he sent to Model. The Germans, in Connie Ryan's words, "were
amazed and dumbfounded, never having expected such a thing from Field
Marshal Montgomery. On the other hand, they were delighted to know
precisely where we were, what our intentions were, and when and where
reinforcements would be airlifted.
I hope that all goes well with you.
With best regards,
P.S. I suggest that you write directly to Cornelius
Ryan, Old Branchville Road, Ridgefield, Conn. 06877.
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