The Last Bridge

Our final stops were in the Arnhem area.  After driving across the John Frost Bridge, named for the lieutenant colonel commanding the parachute battalion that seized the north end of the Rhine Bridge but then became isolated from the rest of 1st Airborne and forced to surrender on Sept. 21, we headed west a few miles to Oosterbeek, the Arnhem suburb containing the British landing zones and where the last stand of the paratroopers took place.  It's where the Hartenstein Airborne museum is located in the building that served as 1st Airborne HQ during the battle.

 

Make sure to visit the museum.  Exhibits and artifacts are outstanding.  The special exhibit was the standout, telling the story of General Stanislaw Sosabowski, commander of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, and of his son, Stanislaw Janusz "Stasinek" Sosabowski.  The father fought against the Germans in 1939, escaped from Poland and eventually made his way to the UK, where he became one of 250,000 Poles who fought with the Western Allies.  The son remained in Poland, joining the Home Army and participating in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.  And thereby hangs a tale we learned about on our visit.

Outside the museum is this tribute from the British and Polish airborne to the Dutch people who came to their aid during the battle.

But for several decades after the battle relations between the British and Polish veterans was troubled.  We learned some of the story at the Sosabowski exhibit but only learned the rest when we finished our visit at the small town of Driel on the south side of the Rhine, directly opposite Oosterbeek.

The Polish Parachute Brigade was organized with the intent that it would be eventually dropped into Warsaw to help with its liberation.  Its soldiers would be the first Poles to return from exile.  However, the British insisted that it be placed under their command and participate in Market Garden.  Sosabowski was an abrasive and outspoken commander, a style that clashed with British military manners, and he was disliked for that reason.  He also expressed doubts about the feasibility of Market Garden.

While Sosabowski parachuted in on the third day of the operation, most of his command did not arrive until Sept 21.  The plan was to have the Poles seize the ferry at Driel and cross the river to help 1st Airborne.  However, the ferry had been disabled the day before by the locals to prevent the Germans from using it, so only a couple of hundred Poles made it across on rubber boats.  The rest of the brigade remained in Driel, eventually fighting its way out.

With the failure of Market Garden, the British military, specifically Field Marshall Montgomery and British Airborne Army Commander Browning sought to pin the blame on Sosabowski and the Poles (Perfidious Albion strikes once again).  Though it was nonsense, they succeeded in forcing the Polish government-in-exile, dependent on British goodwill, to dismiss Sosabowski, who would spend the rest of his life trying to reclaim his reputation.

Because of the communist takeover of Poland, Sosabowski could not return, living in the UK until his death in 1967.  His family was given permission to have him buried in Poland.  In  1945 Sosabowski was reunited with his son Stanisek, who managed to flee Poland at war's end.  Stanisek had been a member of the Home Army, led attacks on Germans, and fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.  Badly wounded he lost sight in his remaining eye (the other eye was lost in a childhood accident), leaving him blind.  Saved by a nurse, who later became his wife, after coming to the UK he became a doctor.

Meanwhile, in Driel, a local woman Cora Baltussen, made it her life's mission to restore the reputation of the Poles, who were fondly remembered in the town.  She discovered that plans for the Dutch Queen to award ten Poles medals for bravery were derailed by British objections.  Over the years, and with the help of historians, the Poles began to be treated more fairly and in the 21st century the Dutch government awarded the medal and has held events honoring the parachute brigade.  Today, the square in the center of Driel is filled with monuments and displays celebrating the Poles and Sosabowski, and the church on the square contains a large exhibit explaining their story and the efforts to rehabilitate their reputation.

Driel

Crossing The Waal

Confusingly the bridge the British Airborne attempted to seize at Arnhem went over what the Dutch call the Rhine River.  In reality, it's a smaller branch of the Rhine, which splits off a few miles before the main channel reaches Nijmegen.  For some reason the Dutch call the bigger and broader channel, which passes Nijmegen, the Waal instead of the Rhine. 

Depicted above is the Nijmegen Bridge, the target of the 82nd Airborne which had been scheduled to seize it the day of, or day after, the drop on Sept. 17.  However, due to intense German counterattacks on the Groesbeek Heights and stubborn resistance on the southern approaches, the Germans still held the bridge on the morning of Sept. 20.  

While XXX Corps had finally reached Nijmegen, the plight of the increasingly beleaguered British 1st Airborne at Arnhem, ten miles north of the Waal, required desperate measures by the 82nd.  The 1st Airborne had failed to take the bridge at Arnhem and was being pushed back towards its landing zones several miles west of the town.  Unless the 82nd and XXX Corps could reach them very soon Market Garden would fail.

It was decided the 82nd would attempt a crossing by boat about a mile downstream of the Nijmegen Bridge.  After landing, the paratroopers would advance along the north shore of the river and take the bridge from that direction while XXX Corps attacked from the south.  The plan called for the crossing to be attempted early in the morning of Sept. 20.

(Site of the boat crossing.  The Nijmegen Bridge is the further of the two in the photo.)

 

Unfortunately, the boats were late in arriving.  They were also made of canvas instead of wood or metal and thus very vulnerable to enemy fire.  But the need to get to Arnhem as quickly as possible was paramount so the crossing began at 3PM on a sunny day under enemy fire. The crossing was a success and the bridge seized but 48 soldiers died in the crossing. Today a memorial stands on the north shore with the names of each of those who died.

The most moving part of our trip was centered on the Waal crossing.  In 2013, the Dutch built a new bridge across the Waal to carry the circular road around the city.  The bridge was in the very location where the 82nd crossed on canvas boats. The planners placed 48 pairs of lights on the structure, one for each American soldier who perished in the crossing with a stairway on the north end allowing pedestrians to walk down to the memorial.

In conjunction with the opening of the bridge, a volunteer group of Dutch military veterans began conducting sunset walks across the bridge every day of the week.  On October 2 we joined the walkers at the south end of the bridge (my friend served in the 82nd during the 1980s).  We set off promptly at sunset with about 15 walkers that evening, with us as the only Americans.  The walk is made in complete silence.  The veteran set off at a military marching pace and as he came to each pair of lights they would go on in perfect coordination with his pace. On the north side he led us down the steps to the memorial, said a few words about the sacrifice of those who died and then we stood in silence in remembrance and honor.

(Starting our walk, led by Dutch veteran)

 

 

 (At the memorial, with the bridge in background)

 

(Plaque on bridge.  Inscription reads "From this spot, paratroopers from the 3rd and 1st Battalion,504th Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, with  the aid of C Co. 307th AEB and forward observers of the 376th PFAB, fearlessly crossed the Waal river in vulnerable boats on September 20, 1944.  Many did not reach the other side.  The survivors succeeded in securing the bridges on the north bank.  Nijmegen could now be liberated.  We salute their heroism.") 

 --------------- 

Earlier that day, while visiting the Freedom Museum, I became aware of two aspects of what happened at Nijmegen during the war that I had been unaware of.

Though the Nijmegen bridges were finally seized it was too late for the British at Arnhem.  Fierce German resistance slowed down the Allied advance and finally stopped the British and Americans south of the Rhine, and most of the survivors of the 1st Airborne went into German captivity.

The result was the Nijmegen remained on the front lines until April 1945, subject to frequent German artillery fire which destroyed more of the city causing many civilian deaths and injuries. One of the stories told in the museum was of a young Jewish women who had successfully survived the German deportations by hiding in a Nijmegen attic, only to be killed by a German barrage after emerging when the occupation ended.  

There is larger story about what the failure of Market Garden meant for the Dutch people as instead of the country being liberated it remained under German occupation until the end of the war seven months later.  Nazi reprisals against those suspected of helping the Resistance during Market Garden were brutal and up to 250,000 Dutch may have starved to death that winter. 

The other aspect was about the Dutch reaction to the Allies.  On May 10, 1940 the Germans invaded the Netherlands.  Dutch resistance continued until May 14 when the German air force launched a terror raid on downtown Rotterdam, killing 800 to 900 civilians and destroying the city center, an event still remembered with horror and a marker of German brutality by the populace.  The Netherlands surrendered the following day.

At the Freedom Museum we learned of an event in February 1944, seven months before Market Garden and four months before D-Day.  An American bombing raid into Germany was aborted because of bad weather.  Our bombers had standing orders if this occurred to find other targets to drop bombs.  However, bombing in the Netherlands was forbidden unless specific instructions to the contrary were given.  For some reason, the returning bombers dropped their ordnance on Nijmegen, only a few miles from the German border, with its rail yards as the intended target.  About 800 civilians were killed and much of the city destroyed.

The museum reports these events as part of Nijmegen's experience during the war, but there is no hint of censure or reproach for the American actions.  There is no sense of intended moral equivalency with the Rotterdam raid or deployment of 21st century post-modern irony.  The museum pays tribute to the people of Nijmegen and to its American liberators.  

Groesbeek Heights

Heading north from Eindhoven, we entered the area of the 82nd Airborne, driving across the John S Thompson Bridge spanning the Maas River.  The bridge was captured on the first day of Market Garden by 82nd Lt. John Thompson who led 16 men in an attack on the span.  In 2004 the bridge was renamed in honor of Thompson at a ceremony attended by his widow.

Though mis-dropped and understrength, Thompson decided to attack the bridge with his 16 man platoon rather than wait for additional troops. The bridge was defended by German forces supplemented by two 20 mm flak guns. Thompson's platoon destroyed "electrical equipment and cables that they expected were hooked up to demolitions", and their bazooka team destroyed the one of the flak guns, permitting the establishment of a roadblock on the bridge while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. 

Thompson also fought at the Bulge, was wounded twice, and a recipient of the Bronze and Silver Stars.  "Jocko"Thompson was also a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1948 to 1951.  Thompson, a native of Beverly, MA started his professional career in the Boston Red Sox farm system in 1940 after graduating from Northeastern University. Volunteering immediately after Pearl Harbor, Thompson missed four seasons while in the military and did not make his major league debut until he was 31.

The 82nd landing zones were south of Nijmegen and the division's initial objectives were to seize the high ground of the Groesbeek Heights, southwest of the city, in order to block any German counterattack, and then seize the bridge across the wide Waal River on the north side of Nijmegen.

Groesbeek Heights contains the Freedom Museum, commemorating Market Garden, the Dutch Resistance, and the story of Nijmegen during the war as well as many memorials and markers. Below is the memorial to the 82nd and its commander, General James Gavin.

Notice the wreath and photo atop the memorial.  Here's what it looks like up close.

Placed there by the grand children of PFC Kenneth R Holden.  Turns out it was placed there only two weeks before our visit.  On the 82nd anniversary of the landings, September 17, 2026, American and Dutch speakers gathered at a Groesbeek church to honor and commemorate those events.  One of the speakers was Chief Warrant Officer Ken Holden, one of the grand children.

 

This is another memorial a couple of miles away, commemorating the American defense of a small town against German counterattacks. 

The Freedom Museum contained this striking piece showing the dead paratroopers who liberated Nijmegen emerging from their graves to reminisce.

The Highway

The start point for Operation Market Garden is less than a two hour drive from the northern part of the Battle of the Bulge.  The plan for Market Garden (Sept 17-25, 1944) was for three airborne landings - 101st in the area of Eindhoven to seize bridges over rivers and canals in the area; 82nd near Nijmegen to seize bridges over the Meuse and Waal, and for the British 1st Airborne to take the Rhine bridge at Arnhem.  British XXX Corps was to drive up the highway from Lommel on the Belgian/Dutch border to reinforce the lightly armed paratroopers.  Once the Rhine bridge was secure the Allies would have outflanked the Siegfried Line/Westwall and could race into Germany.

We retraced the XXX Corps route from its start, stopping at markers and memorials along the way.  As in the Bulge battle area, local citizens and towns have erected and maintained these along the entire route.  I wanted to highlight two.

 

This is the memorial to Medal of Honor recipient Private First Class Joe Eugene Mann, located on a path near the Wilhelmina Canal near Best, north of Eindhoven.  The drop zones for the 101st were in the Best area and one of their goals were to seize the bridges over the canal.  After landing on Sept. 17, the following day Joe Mann knocked out a German 88 mm gun and an ammo dump.  His MOH citation goes on to read:

Completely disregarding the great danger involved, he remained in his exposed position, and, with his M1 rifle, killed the enemy one by one until he was wounded four times. Taken to a covered position, he insisted on returning to a forward position to stand guard during the night.

The wounds to his arms required they be strapped to his torso, making them unusable.  The following morning he was in a crater with several other wounded when the Germans counterattacked and a grenade landed in the crater.  Unable to use his arms to toss it away, Joe called "grenade!" and fell on it, saving his fellow troopers.  He received the MOH posthumously.  Joe Mann was 22 years old.  As you can see in the photo, the marker is well maintained and surrounded by fresh flowers and American flags.

 (Joe Mann)

This is a memorial at St Anthony's Mill in the town of Eerde, north of Best.  Much of the Eindhoven and Nijmegen areas seized by the Americans was under constant German counterattack for a week.  St Anthony's Mill, an actual windmill, was the site of prolonged fighting.  This memorial, which today sits next to a modest neighborhood of small well-kept homes, is maintained locally.  A few feet away is another memorial with the names of 75 men from the 101st who perished in the area around the mill. 

Highly recommended for a visit in this area is the Wings of Liberation Museum in Best.  It can be a little difficult to find, located within what is primarily a children's park.  The museum is directly adjacent to the 101st landing zones which, for the most part, remain open fields, and boasts an excellent collection of military equipment and an accompanying audio tour that highlights the bravery of the Dutch resistance.

Nuts

Bastogne is surrounded by monuments, memorials, and museums. of which we visited two.  The Bastogne War Rooms museum was disappointing.  Located in the downtown barracks that served as General McAuliffe's HQ it seemed rather thin on materials.  However, the Bastogne War Museum, located just outside the town was well worth a visit.  Artifacts, displays, and explanatory materials were all outstanding.  The audiophones also present a coherent and well-designed explanation of the events from four perspectives; American and German soldiers, a young schoolteacher who is part of the Resistance, and a young boy of 10 sent by his family in a small village to find shelter in Bastogne.

North of the town we visited Bois Jacques and the village of Foy, scene of two memorable episodes in Band of Brothers.  The Bois Jacques is where Easy Company was stationed for three weeks.  You can still see the foxholes in the forest.  Foy was the village just downhill from the forest attacked by Easy on January 13, 1945.  You can see the village from the edge of Easy's position.

Bois Jacques

 Foy from the edge of Easy Company position.

Memorials at the church in Foy.  The church was repaired after the war but still bares scars from the battle.  First photo is of church after the Americans took Foy.

 

  

 

This last photo tells the story of the return of treasured church artifacts returned by American soldiers many years after the war.

 

Luxembourg

My first time in this tiny country.  The northern part is very hilly and heavily forested, the central area more open with rolling countryside.  Quickly overrun by the Germans at the start of both world wars.

Clervaux, the small town where we stayed for the night, sits at the bottom of a bowl, surrounded by steep wooded  hillsides, with only narrow, twisting and steep roads providing access.  Within the town is a small hill upon which sits a castle, today the site of the history museum filled with artifacts of the Battle of the Bulge.

The town's significance is that on December 16 it sat about five miles from the German front lines and it is only 20 miles from Clervaux to Bastogne via a direct road.  The German timetable called for the attack to begin at dawn on the 16th, quickly seize Clervaux, and take Bastogne by noon on the 17th.  The importance of Bastogne lay in the road network centered on the town and it was to be the path for the German army to advance upon Brussels, protecting the flank of the main effort toward Antwerp.

Instead the last remnants of the 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division held out at Clervaux until the morning of the 19th, while Combat Commands from the 9th and 10th Armoured Divisions sacrificed themselves to slow down the Germans on the road to Bastogne.  The Germans did not approach Bastogne until the afternoon of the 19th, only beginning their attacks on the town on the 20th, by which time the 101st Airborne had arrived.

Near the gate to the castle is the restored Sherman tank which defended the castle during the German assault until it was damaged.  

 

Clervaux was rebuilt after the war and today is a quiet vacation town.

 

 

 

 From Clervaux we drove 45 minutes south to Dierkirch, another Luxembourg town occupied by the Germans, which houses the country's National Military Museum containing an impressive array of equipment and artifacts.

 

On the 45 minute drive to Bastogne we stopped at the Schummanseck Memorial Path just before entering Belgium, site of the deadliest concentrated fighting of the battle.  Patton's Third Army reached Bastogne on December 26, breaking the siege, but only had a narrow corridor open to supply the town, which remained mostly surrounded by the Germans.  Patton proposed attacking the Germans from both north and south at the base of the salient created by the Bulge attack, believing the enemy would be unable to defend at strength and forcing a withdrawal.  However, he was overruled by Eisenhower, Montgomery, and Bradley, who ordered an attack from the south closer to Bastogne, only ten miles east.

 

The result was Patton's attack in the area of the Schumannseck, resulting in a grueling and bloody fight that lasted for the first three weeks of January, with thousands of casualties on both sides.  The Memorial Path is in a forested area taking you past foxholes and outposts used by Germans and Americans who fought at close quarters.  The eerie part is that life-sized portrayals of Germans and American soldiers are placed along the trail.

 

The Bulge: The Northern Shoulder

We continued our travels through the northern sector of the battle driving through the twin villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt which saw house to house fighting as the 99th and 2nd Divisions delayed the 12th SS Panzer Division, allowing American reinforcements to reach the Elsenborn Ridge where they withstood further German attacks over the next week.  Much of the Elsenborn Ridge is today a training area for the Belgian Army and inaccessible to tourists.  A narrow one-lane road goes up the ridge where there is only one small monument marking this critical point in the American defense line.

From there we went about 10 miles southeast to the tiny village of Lanzareth only a couple of miles from the German border.  With the aid of Google maps we were able to find a small gravel road leading up a hill where we found a monument dedicated to the Intelligence & Recon Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Division.  On the morning of December 16, the 22 man platoon, commanded by 2nd Lt Lyle Bouck Jr, who would turn 21 the following day, found itself confronting a 500 man German battalion.  The German timetable called for the battalion to quickly seize the village and open a path for the Panzers to exploit the breakthrough.  Instead, Bouck's platoon, with the assistance of four forward artillery observers, held off the Germans for eighteen hours before surrendering after running out of ammo, completely disrupting the attack plan and delaying the advance of the panzers by a critical day.  

Because Bouck and his platoon were POWs for the rest of the war, the actions by the platoon were little known and not recognized for decorations until 1981.  Once a full review was made of the I&R Platoon's heroic conduct, it became the most decorated American platoon of the war.  The unit received a Presidential Unit Citation, Bouck and three others received the Distinguished Service Cross, five members received Silver Stars, with nine receiving Bronze Stars with V device for Heroism.  The four soldiers of the 371st Forward Artillery Observation Team (one of whom was killed on Dec. 16) each received the Distinguished Service Cross.

The photos show the position of the memorial.  Lanzareth is at the bottom of the hill.  The hills in the distance are in Germany.  The other photos show the memorial and the information on its panels. Standing on that hillside and imaging what those soldiers went through that day was a powerful moment.

The Bulge

In September 2024 my friend Joe and I spent a week along the French-Belgian border visiting WW1 sites, primarily Ypres, the Somme, Verdun, and Meuse-Argonne, a trip about which I did three posts, Left Behind, Lochnagar Crater, and Butte de Vauquios.

This year we traveled to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands spending three days each on the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Market Garden.  We also spent an afternoon in Amsterdam which I didn't care for being overrun by tourists, somewhat shabby, and reeking of weed everywhere.  The rest of the trip was memorable.

 I'm writing of the Bulge and Market Garden separately but something we were impressed with in both areas was the extent to which these battles are still remembered today and the Allied participants honored.  We saw many American flags, not only at museums and major combat sites, but in small towns and the countryside where small American units fought.  These include memorials to individual soldiers and units, maintained by local volunteer groups or municipalities eight decades after the events.  And the same can be said for the way British and Polish airborne are honored in the Arnhem area.

The Ardennes, the forested and hilly area of Belgium and Luxembourg, is beautiful country filled with small towns and villages, narrow scenic roads, narrow valleys and rolling countryside.  At the same time you see constant reminders of the terrible events that occurred between December 16, 1944 and January 28, 1945, in which 80,000 Americans were killed, wounded, missing, or captured. 

Growing up most of what I knew about the Battle of the Bulge was centered around Bastogne, the 101st Airborne and its acting commander, General Anthony McAuliffe, responding "Nuts" to the German demand he surrender his forces.  The prominence of Bastogne and the 101st has been heightened further by the popular series Band of Brothers which includes several episodes on Easy Company of the 101st at Bastogne.  

In recent years as I've done more reading and listening to the 8-part series on the battle on the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast, I've come to a better understanding of the battle and we designed our tour to reflect this.  We only spent the last of our three days in the Bastogne area, instead focusing on the northern sector where the Germans planned their breakthrough only to be thwarted by outnumbered and outgunned American forces and the central front where the 28th Infantry Division and Combat Commands from the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions fought desperately and successfully to delay the German timetable enough for the 101st to reach Bastogne.  The four American infantry divisions on the front line on December 16 (south to north: 4th, 28th, 106th, and 99th) were outnumbered 5-1 in infantry and 10-1 in tanks.

Our first day we initially traced in reverse the route taken by Kampfgruppe Peiper which broke through American lines until finally stopped at the village of La Gleize in the town of Stoumont.  We then traveled through Stavelot and Malmedy (the site of the notorious massacre of American prisoners by the SS troops under Peiper's command, and on towards the German border.  We then visited St Vith, Lanzereth, and the Elsenborn Ridge where the green 99th Infantry Division, quickly reinforced by other American units, stopped the main German thrust towards Antwerp.

Our second day was primarily in Luxembourg where we stayed in Clervaux, HQ of the 110th Regiment of the 28th Division, the unit which bore the brunt of the German attack in the center, losing 85% of its strength, but gaining precious time by disrupting the German timetable.  Clervaux today is a lovely little town set in a bowl and surrounded by forests.  In 1944 it gained the nickname of Alamo in the Ardennes.  We also visited the country's National Military Museum in Diekirch, a town initially captured by the Germans in the offensive.  Finally, we visited the Schumannseck Memorial Path, where Patton's troops fought the Germans for three weeks in early January.

At the December '44 Museum in La Gleize, the little village where a collection of American units, including the 82nd American (Joe served in the 82nd during the 1980s) stopped Peiper.  That's me in front of a German Tiger Tank abandoned by Peiper's attack group.  The museum contains a large collection of artifacts, most of which were left behind by the Germans.  Also below is a memorial to the 82nd in the nearby town of Werbomont.

Stavelot. This little town saw fierce fighting with the Germans occupying parts of the town for over three weeks.  Peiper's SS Panzer troops executed more than 130 Belgian civilians during the occupation.  Photos below are from the Memorial Park along the River.  Second photo is memorial to the civilians murdered.  It took us a couple of minutes to realize what we were looking at in the picture in the third photo.  It shows a German tank and if you look beyond the picture you will see that still standing today is the building in front of which the tank was emplaced.

 

 

The next town was Malmedy, today a very pleasant market town.  A little over two miles outside town is a field where, on December 17, Peiper's SS troops killed 84 American prisoners from the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion.  The prisoners were machine gunned and then German soldiers shot any survivors.  However, in the chaos a number of Americans were able to escape and reached American lines.  Peiper's unit had murdered other American POWs earlier that day but this remained unknown for some time but with the Malmedy survivors carrying the news within hours, the military publicized the event and it was quickly picked up by newspapers.  News of Malmedy helped stiffen American resistance and created a desire for revenge.  For the remainder of the war German SS troops would find it difficult to surrender to Americans and survive. Investigations after the war concluded that between 300 and 700 American soldiers were executed by Peiper's column.

 

The photos below are from the Memorial.  Many American family members of those killed have placed photos and other remembrances at the memorial and the names of each of those killed is engraved on the wall.  An American flag flies over it.  

 

 

If You Know You Know

 By all accounts an accurate portrayal of the Churchill-De Gaulle relationship.

The De Gaulle-Churchill relationship is one of the funniest parts of WW2, you could write a comedy about it https://t.co/5pibsPwCbA

— François Valentin (@Valen10Francois) August 27, 2026

Operation Pedestal

On this date in 1942, the SS Ohio, an American built oil tanker requisitioned by the British Navy the month before, and loaded with 13,000 tons of aviation fuel, reached the Grand Harbor at Malta.  The rudderless tanker, a gaping hole in its stern and its decks awash, had to be towed in.  The Ohio was one of 5 ships of the original convoy of fourteen that had survived repeated German attacks to reach the island.  The fuel carried by the ship would save Malta.

The story of WW2 is dominated by great battles and campaigns, but lesser known events proved just as critical.  The arrival of the Ohio is one of those.

The Mediterranean island of Malta was the object of one of the two great sieges of the war, lasting from June 1940 to November 1942, the other being Leningrad which lasted from September 1941 to January 1944 (1).

Malta had been a British possession since 1800, its position between Italy to the north and North Africa to the south, and midway between Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria and the Suez Canal to the east, making it of immense strategic importance and a major base for the British Navy.

The events of June 1940 were to make its importance even more critical.  With the surrender of France, that country's possessions in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco were now under the control of Vichy, the French government collaborating with the Nazis and hostile to Britain.  That same month Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, making Libya, Italy's North African colony, a threat to Egypt and the Suez.  That same month, Italy began undertaking aerial bombing of Malta, which proved ineffective.

Over the next two years, Axis efforts against the island waxed and waned, going through various levels of effectiveness.  For the British it was critical to maintaining the supply lines to its forces in the Middle East where the 8th Army was fighting the Italians, and beginning in early 1941, the Germans under Rommel, as well as interfering with German and Italian efforts to supply their forces in North Africa.  For the Germans and Italians, neutralizing Malta would enable support for Rommel and cripple British defenses in the Middle East.

At times, the Luftwaffe deployed a large part of its fighter and bomber fleet against the island, but the failure of Germany to ever launch an invasion of the isolated island was a major strategic failure on its part.

Malta had multiple vulnerabilities. It required constant supply of food for its population,  In addition, the British garrison, particularly the air force and navy required large amounts of fuel oil.  This necessitated the need for supply convoys to undertake the dangerous passage through the Med.  In early 1942, the Germans and Italians began their fiercest campaign to cut off the island and by mid-summer Malta was in desperate conditions, the food supply nearly gone and the aviation fuel essential to its defense almost gone.  An effort to send two supply convoys in June was a costly failure and by the beginning of August, rationing on Malta reached a critical point; adult male workers got 1,690 calories a day, while women and children received 1,500 calories daily.

As a last chance gamble to keep Malta going, the British launched Operation Pedestal on August 3, 1942.  The convoy, consisting of fourteen merchant ships of which the Ohio was the most important, left Britain on that date.  On the night of August 9/10, the convoy passed Gibraltar and it was at that point that the German and Italian navies and air forces pounced.  To protect the convoy the British deployed at various times, four aircraft carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, thirty two destroyers, four minesweepers, and eleven submarines.  The Axis deployed six cruisers, twelve destroyers, twenty one submarines, and nearly 600 fighters and bombers.

Axis attacks began on August 11, with the sinking of the carrier Eagle.  The following day the cargo vessel Deucalion was badly damaged and forced to leave the convoy, and another carrier and a destroyer also badly damaged.  That night the cruisers Nigeria and Cairo were sunk and the Ohio suffered a hit, blowing a 23x26 foot hole in the hull, blowing the steering gear apart, and starting a fire which its crew was able to extinguish. The deck was blown open so one could look down into the ship. Later in the night of August 12/13 several of the cargo ships were sunk or damaged.  

(First hit on the Ohio)

 

On the morning of the 14th, the cargo ship Waimarama, carrying ammunition and high octane fuel, was hit and disintegrated but on the 13th and 14th four cargo ships reached Malta.  Right after the Waimarama exploded a damaged German plane crashed into the deck of the Ohio, causing more damage. Bombs hit the boiler room and the stern.  The crew abandoned ship but Captain Dudley Mason, looking at his burning ship, decided to return with a volunteer crew and got the ship underway again.

(Dudley Mason)

 

The destroyers Penn and Braham lashed themselves to the sides of the Ohio, running cables under the ship to hold it together as they towed it toward Malta.  Later that day, Ohio was hit by another bomb which broke its keel.  Captain Mason once again ordered the ship abandoned and then, once again, decided to reboard and restart. The following afternoon, the Ohio finally made it to Malta, still towed by the destroyers lashed to its sides, with a minesweeper acting as a stabiliser at its stern, even as it was attacked by twenty bombers that hit the ship several more times, destroying its rudder.  We'll let Wikipedia describe its entrance into the harbor:

Ohio was towed into Grand Harbour at 09:30 on 15 August, to cheering crowds and a band playing Rule Britannia. The crowd fell silent as the ships entered harbour, men removed their hats, women crossed themselves and a bugle sounded Still.  The tanker discharged oil into two tankers and water was pumped in at the same time, to reduce the chance of structural failure. Ohio settled on the bottom just as the last of the fuel was emptied.

(Ohio entering Malta Harbor)

 

(Another view of Ohio entering the harbor.  You can see how low it is in the water.)

 

Captain Mason stood at salute as the welcoming band played. Mason and his chief engineer were both badly burned and flown back to Britain for treatment. For his actions, Mason, a member of the British Merchant Navy, was awarded the George Cross, the highest British award for non-operational gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy and is considered the equivalent of the Victoria Cross, the highest military valour award.  In addition, the crew of the Ohio received a Distinguished Service Order, five Distinguished Service Crosses, and seven Distinguished Service Medals.  This is the text of Mason's award, after which he was granted a private audience with King George.

The KING has been graciously pleased to award the GEORGE CROSS to Captain Dudley William Mason, Master, SS Ohio. During the passage to Malta of an important convoy Captain Mason's ship suffered most violent onslaught. She was a focus of attack throughout and was torpedoed early one night. Although gravely damaged, her engines were kept going and the Master made a magnificent passage by hand-steering and without a compass. The ship's gunners helped to bring down one of the attacking aircraft. The vessel was hit again before morning, but though she did not sink, her engine room was wrecked. She was then towed. The unwieldy condition of the vessel and persistent enemy attacks made progress slow, and it was uncertain whether she would remain afloat. All next day progress somehow continued and the ship reached Malta after a further night at sea. The violence of the enemy could not deter the Master from his purpose. Throughout he showed skill and courage of the highest order and it was due to his determination that, in spite of the most persistent enemy opposition, the vessel, with her valuable cargo, eventually reached Malta and was safely berthed. (The award is dated 4th September, 1942.) 

Along with the nine cargo ships, Britain lost one carrier and another damaged, two cruisers and one destroyer sunk and two cruisers damaged, along with 500 dead, but Malta was saved. In November the Allies landed in North Africa and the tide of the war in Europe changed.

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(1) Leningrad was, by far, a more deadly siege with more than a third of the city's prewar population of more than 3 million perishing, most by starvation.