Steve Morgan II Para MMG Platoon Arnhem 1944 - Part 1 

When you hear history alive and not read its very different. Addictive viewing for me. Many thanks for posting this I have done a visit to Arnhem and its a very moving experience to go to all the sites and cementeries.

This sort of interview is invaluable

Brilliant to hear about the battle from Steve who was there!!!

Thank you for posting, these remarkable men will not be forgotten.

brilliant narrative from someone who was actually there.wonderful man,one of that band of heroes.

Sgt joy who he mentioned was my great grandfather who was 2ic in the machine gun platoon

Remarkable account I was there in June and walked miles following in the footsteps of heroes.

A remarkable story, Stephen. Utmost respect to you and your comrades. It was a pleasure and a privilege to host you today, and I look forward to catching up with you again in the near future. Best wishes, Frank C

Excellent and Sincere Respect for This My old Neighbour Georgie Greaves RIP would have loved this He went into Arnhem With the Recce Corps to Mark out the Drop Zones and then Somehow managed to survive the Fighting around Osterbeek and after being Mortared out of the Cow Barn where He and a few of his pals were hid managed to Escape from the German Ring around them and swam across the Rhine to safety..He Kept returning for Reunions for many years until he passed away in the early Millennium. We owe His Generation so Much !

Thank you and all the best to you all.

My mother older brother was a glider pilot in the first wave on 17th September 44, but he was killed in a ambush along with 3 others on 21st September 44

Priceless. Well done and thank you for uploading.

we owe them our freedom

Sincere thanks & respect.

13:00 wow talking about Gräbners attack on the 18 sept at 0900 with the recce force of the 9th ss.

He is such a nice man. :)

Amazing, thank you for creating and uploading.

An honest man .Terrific story from an old soldier .Balls of steel. Ps 13.30 What's that crackpot shouting about?

Middlebrook states the Dakota went round with one man on board was a refusal to jump and they gave him another chance to jump. Refusal was a court martial offense.

8 stone 5 lbs.......if you are American that is a whopping 117lbs. I would imagine that 90 per cent of women weigh more that that today. This is history that no book could relate as well.

When was this filmed? He looks amazing!

Hi uncalle steve morgan I wish I could speak to you xxxxx love you

Not many of these guys around anymore. The overall concept of creating a corridor and punching through the western front on a narrow front was good and in that I think Montgomery was right. The detailed planning let it down. Brereton (troop carrier command) refused to permit more than one airlift per day for fear of running into flying in darkness. In retrospect this was mistaken. 1st Airborne had to drop over 3 days, 82nd over 2 days and 101st on one day. Lucky 101st. 1st Airborne were furthest away so at greatest risk . Too much attention was paid to the Groesbeek heights. In my opinion the biggest error as Nijmegen bridge was really the key. Armies are obsessed with taking high ground. No Germen attack came from the Groesbeek heights. 82nd airborne should have focused 100% on taking Nijmegen road bridge. Even on day four when 30 corps entered Nijmegen the road bridge was still in German hands. General Urquhart said in his opinion THAT and the fact that he was out of contact with the division for two days (trapped in a house near the St. Elizabeth hospital)) were the two main reasons for failure. The RAF refused to drop closer to Arnhem road bridge for fear of flak guns at Deelen airfield. In actual fact there were NO flak guns at Deelen airfield. In this matter Dutch spys / intelligence info. might have been useful but the Dutch underground/resistance were known to have been infiltrated and compromised earlier in the war in what was known as 'der England Spiel'. For a long time S.O.E were parachute dropping agents who were immediately arrested. The fact that on the first day the entire plan in detail was captured on the corpse of a dead American officer in a crashed glider didn't exactly help matters. With specific regard to the Battle of Arnhem, if you look at a map of the area there is a good drop zone / glider landing zone on the north bank of the river just to the west of the railway bridge. There is also an area directly opposite on the south bank of the river just west of the railway bridge where the Polish brigade dropped anyway a few days later. On the 17th (the first day) both could have been used for parachute drops and glider landings. A battalion on each or even one on the north bank and two on the south bank. Then 1st Airborne would have had the railway bridge and a good 1,000-1,600 troops around it ready for 30 corps and not far from the road bridge. Or sent one battalion or two battalions via the southern riverbank or via Malburgen West (3 miles or an hours walk) to the road bridge (whist still holding the rail bridge) On the afternoon of day 1 (the 17th) the road bridge was virtually undefended apart from one pillbox. That would have been my preferred plan but even if that was not done it would probably have still been better to drop all 3 battalions on Malburgen about a mile south of the road bridge. Worth the risk of a few injuries to be much closer to the bridge and Malburgen was less built up in those days. Either Montgomery or Fredrick Browning should have revised the plan. All easy in hindsight I suppose.

Hi Will, chance in a million but.. my grandad Walter William Stevens was also in the MMG PLATOON on Arnhem Bridge, is there any way you could ask Steve Morgan if he remembered him? It would be great to know, as he died in 1985 and it is our family history... thank you..

Did you know Paddy hannan?

I wonder if Stephen knew Jonny McKnight and Dick Smullens.

1:46 a dakota..over arnhem and NOT FIRED on by german flak ???? Hullo ! so most of the parachuted paras COULD have been dropped closer to the bridge....?!?!?!?