TUE 26 SEP 1944War day 1,853Western Europe
Operation Berlin: the Rhine crossing at Oosterbeek
By dawn, the evacuation had carried about 2,400 men across the Lower Rhine. The last defenders had not all made it to the boats.
On the night of 25–26 September 1944, Major General Roy Urquhart’s 1st Airborne Division left its shrinking perimeter at Oosterbeek. The division had been cut off north of the Lower Rhine after the failure to hold the Arnhem crossing. Urquhart’s plan was to withdraw under cover of darkness, with the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade and soldiers of the 4th Dorsets helping to cover the retreat. Rain and darkness helped conceal the movement, though the route to the river remained dangerous. Some men took more than three hours to reach the assembly point at the Oude Kerk.
Glider pilots laid white tape through the woods from the perimeter near the Hartenstein Hotel towards the river. At the crossing, Royal Engineers and Royal Canadian Engineers ferried troops south in small boats, landing north of Driel. The work involved the 260th and 553rd Field Companies, RE, and the 20th and 23rd Field Companies, RCE. German machine-gun and mortar fire struck the boats; some motors failed, and men had to paddle. The 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division’s guns bombarded German positions near the perimeter, but the crossing remained exposed.
The boats carried the wounded as well as the men still able to walk. As the night wore on, some soldiers tried to swim across, and some drowned in the current. The evacuation was slow, and daylight raised the risk of continuing. By early morning on 26 September, about 2,400 men had been brought across the river. They included British airborne troops, Polish soldiers, men of the Dorsets and glider pilots. The figure marked a substantial withdrawal, not a complete escape: some of the rearguard reached the river after the crossing had stopped.
The operation had been planned for the night of 25 September and ran into the morning of the 26th. Its completion ended the Battle of Arnhem. The 1st Airborne Division had not held the bridge or opened the route across the Rhine, but Operation Berlin removed a remnant of the force from the north bank. At Driel, survivors found shelter, food and blankets. The evacuation had closed the Arnhem fight with a crossing under fire, and with men still missing from the riverbank.