The German High Command under Generalfeldmarschall Walther Model, in command of Heeresgruppe B, regarded the allied bridgehead north of the Waal River as a severe threat. They feared that the allies could still use the area as a springboard to the north to cut off the German Fifteenth Army in the western part of Holland and threaten the plains of North-Western Germany. Hitler, in a special Führer Directive issued on 25 September, had personally ordered the destruction of the allies in the Nijmegen - Arnhem area. For Model it was imperative to recapture the ground they had lost in the Betuwe in order to restore the situation by acting quickly, before the allied front had settled. Model, therefore ordered Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich, of II SS-Panzer Corps, to destroy the allies between the Nederrijn and Waal by coordinated armour and infantry attacks from the north and east. With 10th SS Panzer Division already engaged on the Island, Bittrich was given the 9th Panzer Division and 116th Panzer Divisions for the counterattack. These latter formations were brought up from the critical Aachen sector, where the US 1st Army had penetrated the Westwall defences. Upon arrival the 9th Panzer Division took over command of the battlegroups Knaust and Bruhn, ad hoc formations composed of reserve and depot infantry, which previously had engaged the British 1st Airborne. The other armoured formation in the Arnhem area, the 9th SS Panzer "Hohenstaufen" Division was pulled out of the line for a move to Paderborn for a rest and refit.