page_title: 1st Airlanding Light Regiment
section_title: Arnhem
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Airlanding Light Regiment / Operations / Arnhem
caption_attribution_description: English: Operation 'market Garden' (the Battle For Arnhem)- 17 - 25 September 1944 75mm howitzer of 'D' Troop, 2nd Battery, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, 1st Airborne Division in the Oosterbeek perimeter, 20 September 1944.
context_page_description: The 1st Airlanding Light Regiment was an airborne forces unit of the British Army's Royal Artillery during the Second World War.
  The regiment was raised in 1943, by the expansion of an existing airborne artillery battery. Attached to the 1st Airborne Division in 1943, the regiment landed in Italy as part of Operation Slapstick—part of the Allied invasion of Italy—and then, when the division was withdrawn, it stayed behind to support other divisions of the British Eighth Army in the Italian Campaign until the end of the year. In 1944 the regiment rejoined the 1st Airborne Division in England and, in September 1944, took part in Operation Market Garden, which was the airborne assault in the Netherlands. During the battle of Arnhem that followed the regiment was one of the divisional units that formed a defensive ring around Oosterbeek.
  Reformed after Arnhem, the regiment never fought in another battle. They did, however, take part in Operation Doomsday, the repatriation of the German occupation army in Norway in May 1945. After this the regiment returned to England and was disbanded in December 1945.
context_section_description: Landings by the First Allied Airborne Army's three divisions began in the Netherlands on 17 September 1944. Although the allocation of aircraft for each division was roughly similar, the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, under Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, landing at Nijmegen would use only one lift. The U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, under Major General James M. Gavin, at Grave required two lifts while the British 1st Airborne Division, under Major-General Roy Urquhart, at Arnhem would need three lifts. Whereas the two American divisions delivered at least three-quarters of their infantry in their first lift, the 1st Airborne's similar drop used only half its capacity for infantry and the remainder to deliver vehicles and artillery.
  The 1st Airborne Division had the required airlift capacity to deliver all three parachute brigades with their glider-borne anti-tank weapons or two of the parachute brigades and the airlanding brigade on day one. Instead however, the vast majority of the division's vehicles and heavy equipment, plus the 1st Parachute Brigade, most of the 1st Airlanding Brigade and divisional troops were to be on the first lift, with the rest to follow over the next two days. Following the first lift, the airlanding brigade would remain at the landing grounds to defend them for the following day's lifts, while the parachute brigade set out alone to capture the bridges and ferry crossing on the River Rhine.
  On 17 September 1944, the first day of the operation, fifty-seven gliders carried the regimental headquarters and the 1st and 3rd batteries to Arnhem. The 2nd Battery and the remaining men of the regimental headquarters were on the second day's lift.
  With only three of the regiment's men travelling in the gliders, the two pilots stayed with the guns as drivers and to provide local protection, until the rest of the regiment assembled. Immediately after landing the 3rd Battery set up their gun line to the east of landing zone 'Z'. Meanwhile, the 1st Battery set up between the 3rd and the village of Wolfheze. Both were on call to support the 1st Parachute Brigade in their advance to the bridges, and the 1st Airlanding Brigade defending the landing zones.
  In the morning of the second day, 19 September, in order to support the paratroopers in Arnhem, the guns had to move to a new position beside the church in Oosterbeek. The batteries were set up on the slight high ground that existed to the north-east and north-west of the church. At the Arnhem road bridge, the 2nd Parachute Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Frost, and some supporting units, were under attack by the reconnaissance battalion of the 9th SS Panzer Division, which was attempting to force a crossing. The regiment's guns were called into action and caused significant damage to the un-armoured vehicles, armoured cars and half-tracks. Later they targeted German mortars firing at the 1st Parachute Battalion trying to fight through to the bridge in Arnhem. Their guns were also called upon to break up German attacks on the landing zones, still defended by the 1st Airlanding Brigade, which were in danger of being overrun. When the thirty-three gliders of the 2nd Battery that were on the second lift, arrived from around 15:00, one of their guns was damaged on landing and had to be left behind. By that afternoon, the attempt to fight through to the 2nd Parachute Battalion at the Arnhem bridge had failed and the remnants of four battalions involved started arriving at the regiment's position.
  On 20 September the division had been forced into a perimeter around Oosterbeek. The regiment was provided with local protection by five flights of the Glider Pilot Regiment. A group made up from the remnants of the 1st Parachute Brigade known as Lonsdale Force was to their right. While on the left was 'D' Company, 1st Battalion, Border Regiment.
  All that morning the Germans using tanks, self propelled artillery and infantry attempted to break through the British line and reach the regiment's guns from the east.
  On 21 September, the fifth day of the operation
caption: 75 mm gun and crew at Oosterbeek, 20 September 1944.
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