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The Battle of Arnhem. Picture shows the first pictured of the evacuated British
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The Battle of Arnhem. Picture shows the first pictured of the evacuated British
The Battle of Arnhem. Picture shows the first pictured of the evacuated British Airbourne forces from Arnhem. They were taken by a sergeant photographer of the British Army Film and Photographic Unit. He writes, " On 26th September at 22.04 hours the withdrawal of the 1st British Airborne Division from Oosterbul commenced. The troops were ferried across the Rhine under heavy fire from the enemy. He shows no mercy. He machined-gunned our men in the water and at 6.30 hours, September 27th, about six hundred men were left go the Northern bank of the river. Unfortunately it was daylight and it was impossible for them to cross the river. They the enemy opened up with his machine guns. I was lucky enough to get away with only a bullet wound in the right shoulder. Picture shows a group of the British forces who came back.
The Battle of Arnhem was a major battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze, Driel, and the surrounding countryside from 17 and 26 September 1944.
The Allies were poised to enter the Netherlands after sweeping through France and Belgium in the summer of 1944, after the Battle of Normandy. Market Garden was proposed by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, who favoured a single thrust north over the branches of the Lower Rhine River, allowing the British Second Army to bypass the Siegfried Line and attack the Ruhr. Allied Airborne troops were dropped in the Netherlands to secure key bridges and towns along the Allied axis of advance. Farthest north, the British 1st Airborne Division landed at Arnhem to secure bridges across the Nederrijn, supported by men of the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade. British XXX Corps were expected to reach the British airborne forces in two to three days.
The British airborne forces landed some distance from their objectives and were hampered by unexpected resistance. Only a small force was able to reach the Arnhem road bridge while the main body of the division was halted on the outskirts of the town. Meanwhile, XXX Corps was unable to advance north as quickly as anticipated and they failed to relieve the airborne troops according to schedule. After four days, the small British force at the bridge was overwhelmed and the rest of the division became trapped in a small pocket north of the river, where they could not be sufficiently reinforced by the Poles or XXX Corps when they arrived on the southern bank, nor by the RAFs resupply flights. After nine days of fighting, the shattered remains of the division were withdrawn in Operation Berlin. The Allies were unable to advance farther with no secure bridges over the Nederrijn, and the front line stabilised south of Arnhem. The British 1st Airborne Division lost nearly three quarters of its strength and did not see combat again.
Picture taken 29th September 1944
Crown Copyright
Mirrorpix
London
South East England
England
B/W Print
Media ID 21861458
© Mirrorpix
1944 Arnhem Evacuation Gathering Posed Safe Survival Survivors Together Uniform
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