Hotel Dreyeroord, on the north side of the British perimeter, was one of four places where the Germans attacked the British positions on Thursday, September 21. The area at the northern end of the perimeter was defended by troops of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, or KOSB. There had been fighting all day over Hotel…
The 950 Polish paratroopers who had landed at Driel were originally all going to be transferred via the Driel ferry to strengthen the British positions in Oosterbeek. But while the Poles were on their way to the Netherlands in their planes on Thursday, September 21, the Germans managed to capture the landing place on the…
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…
“It was a desperate, terrible day.” General Roy Urquhart drew this conclusion at the end of Sunday, September 24, about the situation in Oosterbeek. After more than a week of continuous fighting and continuous mortar bombardment of the British positions, the airborne troops were close to exhaustion. Because most supplies dropped by the RAF ended…
The British also held out in Oosterbeek on Sunday, September 24. But the price the British paid for this was unprecedentedly high. As a result of the fighting and mortar shelling, approximately 200 British soldiers were killed every day and an estimated 400 soldiers were injured. The wounded could go to the nine emergency hospitals…
After a few hours of sleep, Polish General Sosabowski was woken up on Sunday morning, September 24. Sosabowski had led the crossing of more than 150 Polish paratroopers to the British perimeter at Oosterbeek all night and had gone to bed around dawn. But at 10 o’clock in the morning he was woken up because…
In an attempt to relieve the besieged Airborne Division in Oosterbeek and expand the bridgehead on the north side of the Rhine, General Horrocks, the commander of XXX Corps, ordered a crossing at the Driel ferry on Sunday, September 24. The Westerbouwing was located on the north side of the Drielse veer; a steep hill…
Early in the morning of Monday, September 25, a liaison officer arrived at General Urquhart’s headquarters who had crossed the Rhine during the night to the British perimeter in Oosterbeek. Urquhart received a letter from General Thomas, the commander of the 43rd Division, which was located on the south side of the Rhine. In the…
The pressure from Hitler’s headquarters to destroy the British in the ‘ Hexenkessel ‘, the witches’ cauldron, in Oosterbeek became increasingly greater. On Monday, September 25, the Germans around Oosterbeek did everything they could to deliver the final blow to the British. As on the days before, the Germans bombarded the British positions with everything…