The British airborne troops had been in action continuously for six days on Saturday, September 23. Not much was left of the once proud 1srt British Airborne Division. Of the division’s more than 10,000 elite troops who landed at Wolfheze on September 17 and 18, fewer than 4,000 were still fit to fight. The rest…
Colonel Charles Mackenzie was General Urquhart’s chief of staff in Oosterbeek. Mackenzie had been sent south across the Rhine by Urquhart the day before to make clear to General Horrocks of XXX Corps and General Browning how dire the situation in Oosterbeek was. The British commanders at Nijmegen seemed to have no idea of the…
While the situation of the remnants of the British Airborne Division in Oosterbeek became increasingly precarious on Saturday, September 23, the German army leadership was not yet convinced of a positive outcome. The Germans knew that the British in Oosterbeek only had a quarter of the combat strength they had at the landing on September…
While there was still heavy fighting in Oosterbeek, a war crime took place on September 23, 1944 that receives little attention in reporting on the Battle of Arnhem. Six British prisoners of war were shot dead in Brummen by a crazed SS non-commissioned officer. After the Battle of Arnhem, the prevailing image on both the…
