Liberation Route Marker 021: Retreat from Oosterbeek

Retreat from Oosterbeek
After a week of fighting it became clear that Operation Market Garden had failed. At that point many British and Polish paratroopers were still trapped on the wrong side of the Rhine. On 25 September 1944 many were evacuated across the river. Of the 10.600 paratroopers dropped near Arnhem, 2.398 managed to escape.

After days of fighting, it became clear on Sept. 25 that the Allied positions north of the Rhine were untenable. That very night the Allies tried to get as many of their soldiers out of the Oosterbeek area as possible. This operation was codenamed “Berlin. On the south side of the river, Canadian and British engineers coordinated the escape, which took place during heavy downpours. Repeatedly, the engineers crossed the river to help the exhausted soldiers across. Meanwhile, the British 30th Army Corps tried to mask the evacuation through heavy artillery fire.

The evacuation was possible in part because of the determined Polish paratroopers who stood their ground near

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar & Liberation Route Europe
• Photos: Arjan Vrieze

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