page_title: 4th Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)
section_title: 25 September
hierarchical_section_title: 4th Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom) / Arnhem / 25 September
caption_attribution_description: British paratroops being marched away by their German captors. Some 6,400 of the 10,000 British paratroops who landed at Arnhem were taken prisoner, a further 1,100 had been killed.
context_page_description: The 4th Parachute Brigade was an airborne, specifically a parachute infantry, brigade formation of the British Army during the Second World War. Formed in late 1942 in the Mediterranean and Middle East, the brigade was composed of three parachute infantry units, the 10th, 11th and 156th Parachute Battalions.
  The brigade was assigned to the 1st Airborne Division, just prior to the Allied invasion of Sicily, but played no part in the invasion. Instead the brigade first saw action in September 1943, during Operation Slapstick, an amphibious landing at the port of Taranto, as part of the early stages of the Allied invasion of Italy. Largely unopposed, the brigade captured the ports of Brindisi and Bari before being withdrawn. By the end of the year, the 4th Parachute Brigade was in England, preparing for the Allied invasion of North-West Europe. The brigade did not see action in France, being instead placed on standby for an emergency during the Normandy landings. Between June and August 1944 the speed of the subsequent Allied advance obviated the need to deploy airborne forces.
context_section_description: By now the perimeter along the river was only about 700 yards (640 m) wide. In the south-east a large force of Germans managed to break through the brigade's perimeter and overran one of the division's artillery batteries, located at the rear of Lonsdale Force. The other artillery batteries opened fire on the Germans from a range of 50 yards (46 m) and requested infantry as well as anti-tank weapons to come to their assistance. The German force including two Panther tanks and SP guns, came close to cutting the defenders off from the river and were only defeated by the artillery, followed up by bayonet and grenade counter-attacks. Lonsdale Force spent the rest of the day in close quarters battles with Waffen SS infantry. The fight was likened to a "snowball fight with grenades" and at least one tank was destroyed with a Gammon bomb. In the afternoon, more Germans managed to infiltrate the perimeter. Only intervention by the guns of 64 Medium Regiment firing on the British positions prevented the division's headquarters from being overrun.
  South of the river Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, commander of XXX Corps and Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning of I Airborne Corps, decided not to reinforce the position north of the Rhine. Instead they ordered the Corps staff to prepare a plan to withdraw the division (Operation Berlin). The evacuation of the surviving 2,500 men able to make the crossing was to begin at 20:45. The evacuation would be from north to south, and was modelled on the evacuation from Gallipoli in the First World War. During the day's fighting, some units had become isolated and never received the order to evacuate. Those capable of taking part were formed into groups of fourteen (the maximum capacity of the boats) and guided to the river by men from the Glider Pilot Regiment who during the day had reconnoitred and marked out two routes to the river. Under cover of an artillery barrage the evacuation started at 22:00. German infiltration of the perimeter caused problems during the withdrawal and some groups got into fire fights or were captured. When they reached the river, priority was given to the wounded and regardless of rank the soldiers waited in line for their turn to get into the boats.
  The crossing was not secure and when the Germans realised something was happening they opened fire with machine-guns and targeted the south bank with artillery fire, sinking some boats or killing their crews. At dawn the evacuation ended with around 500 men still waiting on the north bank. A small number of men tried to swim across and some made it to the far bank. Of the men left behind, 200 evaded capture and reached the safety of the south bank over the following days.
caption: Airborne prisoners of war many of them wounded, being marched into captivity.
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