Operation Berlin (Arnhem)

The aim of the operation was to withdraw the remnants of the division while covered by the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade and surrounded on three sides by more German troops with more heavy equipment and tanks and being in danger of encirclement.

Members of the Glider Pilot Regiment laid white tape through the woods, leading from the perimeter, the grounds of the Hartenstein Hotel, to the north bank of the Neder-Rijn (Lower Rhine) where the Royal Canadian Engineers and Royal Engineers were waiting with small boats to ferry the men across the Rhine to a landing point north of Driel.

In September 1944 the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, an attempt to bypassing the northern end of the Siegfried Line and advance into the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland.

[1] Major General Roy Urquhart, commander of the 1st Airborne Division, originally requested the 1st Polish Brigade to cross the river and take up their positions on the night of 21 September.

[2] Elements of XXX Corps reached Driel the following day but at the same time the Germans formed a blocking line to the west to prevent an Allied advance on the road bridge.

That night the plan was put into operation but the tow rope to pull the boats across snapped and the oars were too small to row against the river's strong current.

The operation was to start at 22:00 on 25 September but the field companies had left many hours earlier and moved through German positions to the south bank of the Neder Rijn.

In dismal weather and under constant German machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire, the boats shuttled back and forth across the wide swift river through the night.

[10][11] On the south bank of the Rhine there is a monument commemorating the role of the Canadian and British engineers who participated in Operation Berlin.

The text on the monument is It is 25th September 1944: The battle of Arnhem is still raging, but the position of the surrounded British and Polish troops on the northern Rhine bank has become untenable.

In that rainy night hundreds of soldiers come in small parties to the river forelands, between the farmhouse and the Old Church – both clearly visible from here – and wait to be rescued.