WO 171/846 - 15-19 The King Royal Hussars - September 1944

Instructions regarding War Diaries and Intelligence Summaries are contained in F.S. Regs., Vol. 1. and the Staff Manual respectively Title pages will be prepared in manuscript.	WAR DIARY or INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY	Army Form C.2118
	WAR DIARY or INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY	Unit: 15th/19th Hussars
Month and Year: September 1944	(Erase heading not required).	Commanding Officer: Lt Col A.D. Taylor, MC.

Place	Date	Hour	Summary	Reference
	20		At 0500hrs the C.O. was called in to HQ American Div in ZON and was there told of a threat to the canal bridge from the South East by a German force including tks. The Regt was immediately ordered to concentrate on the road at the North end of ZON and the C.O. with the S.O. (Lt TCA Goldsmith) driving went off in a scout car to recce the ground to the South East and possible crossings over the R.Dommel. C.O. turned East off the main road along the track at 445245 in order to recce the track crossing the river at 456246. It was only just light and owing to this and the similarity in their uniforms, it was difficult to distinguish between American and German troops and at a bend in the track at 453241 the C.O. and S.O. found themselves standing on the track with some 200 or more Germans walking past in front of them, some of them only about 5 yds away. They dontd to walk past for some minutes looking at the 2 British Officers as they went but appeared to take no notice. It was difficult to know what action to take, whether by adopting immediate aggressive action, in spite of the disparity in numbers, these Germans would have given up the fight and allowed themselves to be taken prisoner. However it was decided that discretion was probably the better course and the C.O. and S.O. therefore got back into their scout car. Just as they did so the Germans opened up on them with a variety of weapons at short range which hit the scout car in many places but neither Officer was touched. Lt. Goldsmith reversed the car back and turned round in the lane and drove away with some skill and he and the C.O. thus got away from a somewhat remarkable and difficult situation. As soon as he returned to HQ in ZON, the C.O. was ordered to send 1 Sqn South of the canal to repel an attack on the main road from the East, as enemy S.A. fire was now falling onto the main road from this flank and stopping the flow of traffic up it. 'B' Sqn was ordered to do this and became involved in a good deal of fighting on the Southern bank of the canal and in the area of the windmill at 445248. The enemy were in some strength in the low marshy country between the main road and R.Dommel where it was difficult for tks to operate. At least 5 Panther tks were located concentrated between R.Dommel and the canal at about 452253 where they were hull down from the West and turret down under the canal bank from the North and therefore very difficult to get at. 'B' Sqn suffered some casualties in tks but managed to clear up the situation and re-open the Centre Line to traffic fairly quickly. Had some good infantry been available to clear the close country running down just West of the R.Dommel in co-operation with the tks, the situation might have been completely cleared up quite quickly but these unfortunately could not be found from the American forces available. Later in the day 'C' Sqn operated to the East, North of the canal in the area BREUGEL 4526 and 1 Panther tk was knocked out by the 17Pdr tk of 4th Tp firing across the canal from North to South after some valuable Recce of this tank had been carried out by patrols of Recce Troop under Lt. Butler and Sgt. Spanton. 'B' and 'C' Sqns remained in position protecting the Corps Centre Line from the East respectively South and North of the canal for the remainder of the day. 'B' Sqn harboured for the night in the area 443251 at the South East corner of the village. 'C' Sqn and RHQ and Recce Troop withdrew to their harbour of the previous night. Meanwhile 'A' Sqn still detached under comd 506 US Para Regt with HQ at EINDHOVEN had a busy and fruitful day. The following is the account of their activities during the period 1000hrs 19th Sept until they reverted to comd the regt in the afternoon of September 21st.

Source: Jeroen Koppes, TracesOfWar.com, transcribing: Mia Litjens.

Disclaimer: This War Diary is based on its original, but typos might be corrected. Locations are calculated, so might not be in the correct place. For historical research, always check the originals.

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