Operation Berlin (Arnhem rescue)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Operation Berlin

caption=Paratroopers land in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden leading up to their required rescue.

partof=Operation Market Garden
place=Oosterbeek perimeter, Rhine River
date=September 25-26, 1944
result=Pyrrhic Allied Success
combatant1=flagicon|United Kingdom Britain
combatant2=flagicon|Germany|Nazi Germany

commander1= Robert Urquhart
Miles Dempsey
commander2= Wilhelm Bittrich
Hans von Tettau
Sepp Kraft
Walter Harzer|strength1=Remnants of 1 division: 2,500 able to cross river
strength2=1 division, 2 battalions
casualties1=Only 2,163 crossed Rhine out of 10,005 in beginning of siege [Ryan, Pg 450]
casualties2=3,300 in total Arnhem Battle [Ryan, Pg 457] |

Operation Berlin (September 25, 1944 - September 26, 1944) was an Allied military operation in World War II in the Netherlands. The overall goal was to attempt to rescue stranded forces of the 1st British Airborne Division surrounded by the Germans west of Arnhem and get the remaining division across the Rhine and into the safety of the British 2nd Army south of the river. The British paratroopers had been cut off from the Arnhem highway and thus the relieving XXX Corps tanks during Operation Market Garden. The plan was a major success compared to the failures of attempting to relieve the British via an amphibious landing; the majority of the mobile and living British made it across the Rhine river and safely back to American occupied Nijmegen. [Ryan, 1999]

Efforts to save the 1st Division

In the original Market Garden plan, General Horrock's XXX Corps of the 2nd British Army was to follow up the corridor of the highway running south to north which was to already be cleared of German resistance by the 1st Allied Airborne Army. However, Horrock's tanks were delayed by fierce Nazi fighting and the renewal of the "lost" German 15th Army. This severed the corridor and prevented the British corps from reaching their destination of Arnhem. Also, the discovery of the II SS Panzer Corps under the command of Wilhelm Bittrich came as a surprise to the British 1st Airborne Division upon landing in Arnhem. This brutal engulfment caused the 1st Airborne to lose control of their key objective, the Arnhem bridge, which was vital to their relief via the XXX Corps. [Ryan, 1999]

On the 21st, the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, under Major-General Stanislaw Sosabowski landed on the south side of the Rhine. The next night, in an attempt to bring th Poles to the other side, the 1st Brigade began crossing the Rhine. German flares caused enemy observation and fire during the night of the 22nd, and only 52 soldiers of the 8th Polish Parachute Company survived the crossing before a halt was called at dawn.

When the 2nd British Army finally arrived to the south side of the Rhine River on September 23, the British had been fully cut off from Arnhem as well as cut off from their newly arrived aiding Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. As time dragged on, the British were being forced into a tighter perimeter in the Oosterbeek area west of Arnhem. [Ryan, 1999]

Boats and engineers from the Canadian army with the XXX Corps arrived, and another river crossing that night landed 150 more troops of the Polish 3rd Parachute Battalion on the northern bank of the Rhine.

Another attempt was made on the 24th to reinforce the slowly being destroyed British Division with the 4th Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment. Two companies were put across the river, but the location of the crossing point was known to the Nazis, and the Dorsets landed among prepared German positions. Fragmented by their landing and immediately pinned down, of the 315 men who crossed only 75 reached Oosterbeek; the remainder were taken prisoner. As a result of this failure, it was decided to withdraw the 1st Airborne Division from the northern side of the Rhine.

The Plan

At a conference between Miles Dempsey, Frederick Browning, and Brian Horrocks, it was decided that the British needed to be immediately evacuated from Arnhem.Urquhart's plan called for small groups of men to thin out and span the Oosterbeek perimeter. Then, under cover of night, the main bulk of the force would slip across the river. The remaining defenders would slowly withdraw and soon they too would make it across the Rhine. To trick the Germans into thinking that the British were still fighting, radio traffic was planned to continue heavily and artillery would bombard the eastern shore of the Rhine to trick the Germans into thinking that there would be another landing to the east. Meanwhile, the division would go by boat across the Rhine to the village of Driel. The wounded would all be left behind to be cared for by the Germans. [Ryan, Pg 436]

Another part of Urquhart's plan called for the 4th Dorsets Battalion of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division to be deployed across the Rhine prior to the British retreat. These forces would open up the base of the Oosterbeek Perimeter and prevent it from being bottled-up by the Germans while the 1st Airborne crossed to safety. [Ryan, Pg 430]

Outcome

Of the original 10,005 men who landed in Arnhem, 2,500 were fighting capable on the night of the 25th. Of these, 2,163 British, along with 160 Poles and 75 4th Dorsets, made it across the Rhine and into the safety of Driel.

Notes