After the decision was made in the early morning of Monday, September 25, to withdraw the remnants of the British Airborne Division, General Urquhart was faced with the question of how to organize the retreat from Oosterbeek. Urquhart feared that the Germans would soon discover that the British were retreating, and that this would lead…
The night of September 25 to 26 seemed to have been made to leave the British perimeter without the Germans realizing this. It rained all night, so sounds could not be heard. Due to the clouds there was no moon, making it very dark that night. General Urquahart had chosen to leave a light screen…
Early in the morning of Tuesday, September 26, General Bittrich, who led the attacks in Oosterbeek, received a telephone call from Field Marshal Walter Model.“Bittrich, when will everything here finally be over?” he wanted to know. The German general replied that the day before he had done everything he could to force a breakthrough in…
Now that the Battle of Arnhem had ended on Tuesday, September 26, there was finally an opportunity to evacuate all the wounded from Oosterbeek. Two days earlier, on Sunday, September 24, Colonel Warrack, who headed the British medical department in Oosterbeek, had already agreed to a ceasefire with the German staff physician Major Skalka. During…
Now that the British had left Oosterbeek on Tuesday, September 26, the Germans immediately took measures. All residents of Oosterbeek were ordered to leave their homes that same day. Just like a day earlier in Arnhem, the evacuation order was given. The Germans assumed that the fighting was far from over. With no civilians walking…
Because the battle against the British Airborne Division resulted in a victory for the German army, the Germans had sent many Kriegsberichter to Oosterbeek to portray the Battle of Arnhem. The photos they took were to convince the inhabitants of the German Reich that Germany was far from defeated. Of all the German photographers who…
The German Kriegsberichter Erwin Seeger made a series of photos after the British retreated over the Rhine. The photos show in detail how great the chaos and destruction was in Oosterbeek. Seeger was a war photographer who was sent to Oosterbeek by the German army command after the end of the fighting to portray the…