page_title: Battle of Arnhem
section_title: Day 4 – Wednesday 20 September
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Arnhem / Battle / Day 4 – Wednesday 20 September
caption_attribution_description: English: A Dutch school damaged by mortar fire, being searched for German snipers by Sergeant J Whawell and Sergeant J Turrell of the Glider Pilot Regiment. An empty weapons supply cannister lies open on the ground in the doorway of the school. 20 September 1944
context_page_description: The Battle of Arnhem was a major battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze and Driel and the surrounding countryside from 17–26 September 1944.
  The Allies were poised to enter the Netherlands after sweeping through France and Belgium in the summer of 1944, after the Battle of Normandy. Market Garden was proposed by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, who favoured a single thrust north over the branches of the Lower Rhine River, allowing the British Second Army to bypass the Siegfried Line and attack the Ruhr. Allied Airborne troops were dropped in the Netherlands to secure key bridges and towns along the Allied axis of advance. Farthest north, the British 1st Airborne Division landed at Arnhem to secure bridges across the Nederrijn, supported by men of the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade. British XXX Corps were expected to reach the British airborne forces in two to three days.
context_section_description: By now, the division was too weak to attempt to reach Frost at the bridge. Eight of the nine infantry battalions were badly mauled or scattered and only one – 1st Battalion, The Border Regiment – still existed as a unit. Urquhart made the difficult decision to abandon the 2nd Parachute Battalion. By forming a defensive perimeter around Oosterbeek and securing the Driel ferry crossing, Urquhart hoped to hold out until XXX Corps could reach them and establish a new bridgehead over the Rhine.
  The eastern side of this new perimeter was fairly stable after the previous day's retreat from Arnhem, with numerous ad hoc units under company commanders defending the approaches to Oosterbeek. Major Richard Lonsdale had taken command of the outlying units and their positions weathered heavy German attacks before falling back to the main divisional perimeter. This sector was later designated Lonsdale Force and would remain the main line of defence on the south eastern perimeter. The Border Regiment held most of the western edge of the town, with scattered units filling the gaps to the north. As more units fell back to the new defensive area, they were re-organised to establish a thumb-shaped perimeter using the Nederrijn as its southern base.
  The mixed units at Wolfheze began to fall back in the morning but several were surrounded and captured, including one party of 130 men. 150 men of 156th Parachute Battalion – led by Hackett himself – became pinned down and took cover in a hollow some 400 m (440 yd) west of the Oosterbeek perimeter. The men broke out of the hollow in the late afternoon and approximately 90 of them made it to the Border Regiment's positions.
  The afternoon's supply drop was little better than the previous day's. Although a message had reached Britain to arrange a new dropping zone near the Hotel Hartenstein, some aircraft flew to LZ 'Z' where their supplies fell into German hands. At Oosterbeek, the Germans had used British marker panels and flares to attract the aircraft to their positions and the aircraft were unable to distinguish the exact dropping zones. Ten of the 164 aircraft involved were shot down around Arnhem for only 13% of supplies reaching British hands.
  At the bridge, Frost was finally able to make radio contact with his divisional commander and was given the difficult news that reinforcement was doubtful. Shortly afterwards, at about 13:30, Frost was injured in the legs by a mortar bomb and command passed to Major Gough. Despite their stubborn defence of the few building they still held, by late afternoon the British position was becoming untenable. When fire took hold of many of the buildings in which the wounded were being treated, a two-hour truce was organised in the late afternoon and the wounded (including Frost) were taken into captivity. Overnight, a few units managed to hold out for a little longer and several groups tried to break out toward the Oosterbeek perimeter, although almost all of them, including Major Hibbert, were captured.
  By 05:00 on Thursday morning all resistance at the bridge had ceased. In the final hours of the struggle, a radio message was sent from the bridge. It was not picked up by the British but was heard by the German forces, who recalled that it ended with the sentences: "Out of ammunition. God Save the King."
caption: Men of the Glider Pilot Regiment search for snipers, 20 September.
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