Britain at War - 09.2019

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THE AMBITIOUS GRAB FOR ARNHEM BRIDGE RAPIDLY BECAME A PROTRACTED

CAMPAIGN, WITH THE ALLIES FACING A TOUGHER, MORE DOGGED FOE THAN

ANTICIPATED. JOHN ASH EXAMINES THE COST IN LIVES TO THE AIRBORNE FORCES

THAT FOUGHT FOR A BRIDGE TOO FAR.

LEFT

The Airborne

Memorial

Oosterbeek, at the

top, four stone-

carved soliders

support a free man.

PAUL HERMANS

ABOVE

A paratrooper

armed with a PIAT

covers a road at

Arnhem, September

18, 1944.

COURTESY NATIONAL

ARMY MUSEUM

O

AIRBORNE UNIT LOSSE |ARNHEM

Market

Garden

PAYING

THE PRICE

peration Market Garden proved to be a costly operation.

In the push, XXX Corps lost around 70 tanks, numerous

other vehicles, and approximately 1,500 men became

casualties. US airborne, USAAF air crew and glider pilot

casualties were put at just under 4,000 – 2,110 or so of

those being paratroopers or glider infantry. The RAF lost

89 of the aircraft that were flying hazardous resupply

sorties, with more downed on close air support taskings

for an approximate 300 aircrew killed.

German casualties sustained around

Arnhem and Oosterbeek were

recorded at 1,300 killed, with 2,000

more wounded, missing or captured.

However, during XXX Corps advance,

historians estimate that between 6,000

and 8,500 German soldiers became

casualties.

Thankfully, civilian casualties,

considering the scale of the destruction

to Nijmegen, Arnhem and Oosterbeek,

are thought to be low – less than 500

killed. However, who can tell how

many thousands of those disaffected

succumbed to starvation or disease

in the terrible winter that followed

Market Garden.

The most serious casualties were

sustained by 1st Airborne Division

and the attached Poles. Many 

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