The Chaplains at Arnhem
On
29 September 1944 the Church Times wrote of the sorrow and disappointment of
the nation on hearing of the withdrawal of Airborne Forces from Arnhem. The
article concluded with these words:-
"One BBC
correspondent, describing the escape, remarked that the men slipped off into
the darkness after a prayer by the Padre. The Church may be proud of her clergy
who go into the hazards of such battles with their men."
Fifteen
chaplains were present at Amhem. On Sunday 17 September 1944, eight [nine]took
off by glider and four [six] parachuted in.
The
Rev John Rowell, with the Border Regiment took off in a thick mist from
Burford. As they came out of the clouds they were so out of position in
relation to their towing aircraft that the pilot had to cast off and the glider
landed in a field of stubble close to Oxford. The rest all arrived safely.The
Rev John Morrison, a Presbyterian Minister with the King's Own Scottish
Borderers, was most heartened to hear the skirl of Pipe Major Laidlaw's pipes
as he left his glider.
Late
that afternoon the three Parachute Battalions moved off on their six mile
approach to the bridge at Amhem. The Glider Borne troops were to secure the
dropping and landing zones for the second lift. Already the chaplains were
occupied in burying the dead and in assisting with the wounded. The 2nd
Battalion The Parachute Regiment got through and held the northern end of the
bridge until the Thursday morning. The fighting here was bitter, with lightly
armed Airborne troops holding off repeated tank and infantry attacks. The
Regimental Aid Post was set up in a cellar underneath the battalion's
headquarters. Here Fr Bernard Bemard Egan SJ MC who had been the battalion's
chaplain since 1941 assisted the two doctors. At one time there were over
two hundred wounded in that cellar. On the Tuesday evening German tanks shelled
the headquarters and the building was filled with acrid, choking smoke. Fr Egan
was hit and was evacuated into captivity the next day.
The
German respect of the Red Cross, even in the confusion of battle was of a high
standard. The Rev George Pare on the second day went to some injured in a small
clearing. A covering party was left at the edge of the clearing, and Pare,
after committing himself to God, went out alone and then summoned his medical
orderlies and their jeeps. As they left the clearing there was a fusillade of
shots from the Germans on the far edge of the wood.
The
other two battalions were increasingly pinned down on the outskirts of Amhem.
Whole companies were wiped out and the situation began to be precarious. The
Rev GL Phillips with the 3rd Battalion moved into the outskirts of Amhem. They
went to ground and Phillips found himself in a house with the doctor, and their
brigade and divisional commanders on the floor above. German tanks clanked
along the sweet outside. On the Tuesday the doctor decided to visit a nearby
hospital where there were British wounded. The chaplain went with him and they
slipped in through the back door. A little later Phillips found that the
Germans had surrounded the place, and he was taken prisoner. Fr D McGowan
though, who came with the Parachute Surgical Team working In that hospital, was
allowed to remain there throughout the battle. The Rev A Buchanan with the
South Staffordshires was also taken prisoner in the vicinity of the hospital.
The
second lift on the Monday met heavy opposition on landing. The Rev RF Bowers,
with the 10th Battalion, broke his leg on the drop. He did what little he could
with assisting the wounded and burials and then on the Tuesday tried to get a
jeep loaded with wounded to a hospital. He came under intense mortar fire and
had to turn back. He rejoined the Aid Post as it was overrun by Germans.
Bowers, remaining with the wounded, found himself at the wrong end of a German bayonet
and had to point firmly at his Red Cross armband. The Rev Alastair Menzies with
156th Battalion The Parachute Regiment also had the misfortune to be taken
prisoner almost immediately on landing. The Rev HJ lrwin dropped with the 11th
Battalion The Parachute Regiment. He moved with them towards Amhem, and ferried
some wounded to a hospital set up in a hotel by the Divisional Headquarters.
Here Pare encouraged him to wear a dog collar so that his men could immediately
recognise him. He made one out of paper. A short time later he was killed by a
mortar bomb.
By
the Wednesday it was obvious that there was no hope of reinforcing the 2nd
Battalion at the bridge and a perimeter began to emerge, just touching Arnhem
and going to the bank of the Neder Rijn, about two miles long and half a mile
wide. For the next six days this area was held by the 1st Airborne Division
against continuous bombardment and repeated attacks. The Chaplains worked with
the wounded with the exception of the Rev R Talbot-Watins, a Methodist minister
with the 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment, who had been with them, like
Egan, from the beginning. Initially he assisted the doctor but after he was
taken prisoner Watkins took over his duties. However, by the Wednesday the 1st
Battalion was reduced to three officers and less than two hundred men. This
remnant looked to Watkins for military as well as spiritual leadership. They
were not disappointed.
By
the Thursday nine chaplains remained with their units. This number was reduced
to eight when a Tiger tank shelled the temporary hospital where Fr Benson was
working. His right arm was shattered when he went to the help of other wounded.
The arm was amputated immediately. When he heard that he would never be able to
celebrate Mass in the usual way he lost the will to live and died two days
later. His place in the hospital was taken by Pare, whose work typified that of
the other chaplains. He constantly went round encouraging the wounded, helping
them and the doctors, comforting the dying, scrounging food and water, and
every evening taking a brief service on each of the packed wards.
The
Senior Chaplain, the Rev AWH Harlow, was either at the Divisional Headquarters
or assisting in an Aid Post. He was an older man with grey hair, whose calm and
sense of humour gave a peace to those around him. Throughout the battle the
chaplains reminded the others of normality. The prayers offered by those men
were as much a part of that battle as each round fired. Harlow himself went
into voluntary captivity on the Saturday. A truce had been arranged to enable
the wounded to be handed over to the Germans, and Harlow was asked to accompany
a group of these.
In
the southern part of the perimeter the Gunners had set up their Aid Post in the
house of a Dutch solicitor. His wife, Kate ter Horst, and their children
remained there throughout the battle, living in the cellar. Eventually this was
the only place providing medical care in the southern part of the perimeter.
The house became so packed with wounded that it was only possible to move by
walking on stretcher handles. The dead were piled outside. Mrs ter Horst never
complained. Instead she offered every help possible. From the Saturday night
onwards she went round even room reading the 91st Psalm from the Chaplain's
Bible.
The
Chaplain the Rev S Thorne was a quiet, shy man who never left the vicinity of
the house and who was the exact opposite to Watkins and his more military
approach. Mrs ter Host was surprised to see him clearing out a lavatory, a task
which no German officer would have done. But this man had another side to him.
On the second Monday German tanks broke into the perimeter and shelled the Aid
Post. Thorne and a Bombardier Bolden went out and confronted the tank, holding
up a Red Cross flag between them. The tank withdrew.
The
withdrawal across the river took place on the Monday night. The Rev WR Chignell
was the chaplain who said prayers in the cellars of The Divisional
Headquarters. Then, with his boots bound to deaden the noise like the others,
he joined the silent procession down to the river. It was a wild dirty night,
ideal for a withdrawal, and Chignell was glad when he got to the bank of the
river and found an assault boat, as he was a non-swimmer. The Rev J Rowell, who
had reached Arnhem on the second day after his glider's emergency landing, took
a party of wounded across the river. The Rev R Talbot-Watkins asked Bombardier
Bolden to gather those wounded who could make it, and he took thirty severely
wounded men across. Then he went back to look for more. He could find none on
the other side but dawn broke, so he had to lie up during the day in the river
bank, and swim across the river the next night.
Three
chaplains remained with the wounded. The Rev S Thorne felt it his duty to stay,
and once the withdrawal started he collapsed into a deep sleep. The Rev G Pare
also fell asleep for the first time in days. He did not know about the
withdrawal and was surprised at the silence the next morning. It was then his
job to tell the wounded in the temporary hospital what had happened. The Rev J
Morrison decided to stay with his wounded.
After
the battle many of the wounded were moved to a converted barracks at Apeldoorn.
Harlow, Pare, Buchanan and Thorne still had a vital ministry to perform. But
eventually the numbers decreased and the chaplains themselves began to be moved
into Germany. Thorne and Pare went together. Thorne decided that he should stay
with the wounded but Pare jumped the train, and after several narrow escapes
was sheltered by the Dutch underground. Fr McGowan was eventually moved to
Apeldoorn from the hospital at Arnhem. Before moving he literally buried two loads of arms which
the Dutch underground later retrieved and then he escaped from Apeldoorn with a
Dr M Herford. They took four days to reach the Rhine, but at the bank they got
split up, and McGowan was stumbled upon by a German sentry, who almost
bayoneted him, and was recaptured. He had come so close, it must have been a
bitter disappointment.
On
the 25th anniversary in 1969 twelve of those fifteen chaplains still survived.
Five were parish priests, one a bishop, one a headmaster, others a school
chaplain, a Circuit superintendent, a Benedictine monk, an Army Chaplain and
one had resigned his orders to become a probation officer.
Reproduced from the Pegasus Journal December 1987.
