XXX Corps

So welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland for a two part series that we are calling Hurrah for the CRE.

CRE meaning Corps of Royal Engineers, of course, just in case.

Of course, everyone knows that now.

But also Commander Royal Engineers, because that's what we're going to be looking at here.

these soldiers about, and I'm in particular talking about the armoured soldiers, without a massive engineering effort.

In this episode, we have two episodes here about the sappering involved in really in the armoured thrust side of Market Garden.

what's it like being Commander Royal Engineers of Guards Armoured Division? What's that role? And how close does this guy, who's a brigadier, how close does the CRE get to the action? So what we're going to look at is the operations that the Commander Royal Engineers with Guards Armoured Div, which is part of 30 Corps, the spearhead of 30 Corps, What they had to mount for Operation Garden, because market, of course, is the airborne component.

Garden is the land ball component.

In part one, we followed the planning, the Allied breakout from Normandy, the supply crisis, the arguments between Eisenhower and Montgomery, and the three airborne plans that came out of them.

In Part 2, we turned to Garden, the ground half of the operation, and to Lieutenant General Horrocks' XXX Corps.

In Part 3, the 1st Airborne Division came down west of Arnhem and the Germans began to react.

In Part 4, we followed the 1st Parachute Brigade's advance through the afternoon and evening of Sunday, September 17th, 1944.