9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen

SS-Sturmbahnführer Ludwig Spindler builds it through the night.

He commands all the Warnungskompanien, the alarm companies, of the 9th SS Panzer Division and other units nearby.

They include unarmed men of the Reichsarbeitsdienst, the Reichslaborservice.

These men have to be armed with captured British weapons.

We, we...

No. It's, "Bring up the, the PIAT," and it's just so perfect because obviously this is a light infantry airborne trying to take on [clears throat] elements of the 9th SS Panzer Division, which is coming across that bridge.

So the whole purpose, obviously, the operation, is for Para to, to grab that bridge.

But it's a, it's like, to me, it's a classic kind of meeting engagement which neither side really controls the objective per se.

Machine gun fire from the bluff halts Company A.

The troops there belong to the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen.

Möller's 90-strong SS Panzer Pioneer Abteilung 9 has just occupied the parkland on top.

It has come down from its billets at Brummen, some 19 kilometres northeast of Arnhem.

It's heavier weapons.

are two Panzerjäger IV self-propelled guns and a handful of towed 7.5 cm PAK 40 anti-tank guns.

These are the advanced elements of the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen.

They form the northern shoulder of a German Sperlini, a blocking line.