Arnhem 80th Anniversary (Part 1)
The 1st British Airborne Division in 'Theirs is the Glory' (1946)
I will be visiting Arnhem later this month for the 80th anniversary of the first landings of Operation Market Garden, the attempt by the Allies to bypass the Siegfried Line and enter Germany to the North. The operation was ‘90% successful’ according to Field-Marshall Montgomery, but crucially it failed to secure the final bridge at Arnhem and failed to end the war by Christmas 1944. As preparation for my visit, as well as listening to Al Murray and James Holland on the We Have Ways podcast, I’ve been watching the 1946 film, ‘Theirs is the Glory’.1 Having grown up spellbound by ‘A Bridge Too Far’ (ABTF), this article considers the earlier film’s portrayal of the heroic action of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem.
This remarkable film, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst (who also directed the famous 1951 adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim), was performed by many of the men who served in Arnhem a year earlier. In the opening titles, the authenticity of the portrayal is underlined:
The action is filmed in the ruins of the city, and the audience is left with no doubt about the desperate fighting that happened there. The film opens by reminding the audience that the first landings on Sunday 17th September 1944 coincided with the Battle of Britain Thanksgiving service in churches across England. Given the plethora of aborted attempts at a large-scale airborne operation over the previous few months, I can only imagine that this was more a case of happy chance than design. ‘Theirs is the Glory’ is bookended by a before and after view of the barrack room. The narrator describes the ‘ordinary men’ who fought at Arnhem and emphasizes the role of the citizen soldier, describing the men’s professions before the war; an electrician, a fish & chip shop owner, etc. The viewer is reminded that these are friends and neighbours in civilian-life being asked to do extraordinary things during war.
The film contains actual footage of the battle for Arnhem and the viewer gets an idea of the epic scale of the operation transporting 10,000 troops by glider and parachute to the Netherlands. Unlike ABTF, plenty of jeeps and even bren-carriers are in the footage. Some important figures from the battle were unavailable for ‘Theirs is the Glory’, including Major General Roy Urquhart (Sean Connery in ABTF) and Major General John Frost (Anthony Hopkins in ABTF). As a consequence, the role of the Reconnaissance Squadron is overrepresented in the film by Major ‘Freddie’ Gough, who appears to take on the role of John Frost as the commander of the troops at Arnhem Bridge. Challenges with radios is mentioned but Major General Urquhart’s attempts to talk to his commanders in person is not included in the film.
A scene on the second day shows the CO shaving casually whilst his troops fight desperately to hold the bridge. The RP accents and restrained dialogue of the officers stands in stark contrast to the scurrying figures of the other ranks around the ruins of Arnhem and the sounds of battle. For example, on the 8th day of battle, a major says, “I hope to God they [2nd Army, not XXX Corps] make it; everyone’s getting a bit tired.”2 A bit tired? Steady on old boy!
More emotive descriptions are there from Stanley Maxted, reprising his role as the Canadian war correspondent for the BBC. He describes the bravery of the pilots flying over Arnhem trying to supply the troops during the battle and the decline of morale as the Paras realise they are not going to be relieved. The role of the Canadian engineers in organising a boat crossing to rescue the stranded Paras is also highlighted in Theirs is the Glory – a fact that is often overlooked in other retellings of the story. Unfortunately, the Polish barely get a mention in the film (a shameful oversight, which probably has more to do with the political sensitivities with Russia).
For further online viewing, to get a sense of the scale of the operation, I recommend watching the actual footage of 1st Parachute Brigade over Renkum Heath from the IWM.3 Clips from this footage was used in Theirs is the Glory. I also recommend watching the Richard Holmes Battlefield episode on Arnhem, where he discusses Operation Market Garden as a whole.4[4] Holmes reminds us of the prize had the operation been a success and suggests that the map of Europe would have been quite different had the British managed to get to Berlin by Christmas 1944 before the Russians. To what extent this counter-factual argument could have been achieved is a moot point. Holmes is less critical of Urquhart running around the battlefield rather than staying in one place than other historians have been. The episode interviews Lord Carrington, a tank commander with the Grenadier Guards and one of the first to cross the bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen, explains why they couldn’t continue to Arnhem on that road. It also shows the frustration of Captain Moffat Burriss, Captain with US 82nd Airborne Division, who took part in that extraordinary river crossing and felt that Horrocks had misled them about his intention to carry on to Arnhem. Holmes states that nothing stood between the Guards and Arnhem only eight miles away. Operation Market Garden is a story full of ‘if only’ moments like this.
More after my visit to Arnhem!
We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast episode:
Theirs is the Glory (1946) on YouTube:
The topic of references to 2nd Army have been gradually replaced over time by XXX Corps is discussed in the WHW podcast.
IWM A70 168-2: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060024166
Battlefields, Arnhem, BBC (2001) on YouTube: