John Baskeyfield John " Jack " Daniel Baskeyfield VC ( 18 November 1922 – 20 September 1944 ) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces . Born in 1922 , Baskeyfield initially became a butcher but was called up to the army in 1942 . He served with the 2nd Battalion , South Staffordshire Regiment , an airlanding unit of the 1st Airborne Division , in Sicily and Italy in 1943 before returning to the United Kingdom . The division was next deployed in Operation Market Garden and fought in the subsequent Battle of Arnhem . While defending the Oosterbeek perimeter three days into the battle , Baskeyfield commanded a pair of anti tank gun s that destroyed several enemy tanks before the crews were killed . Baskeyfield subsequently fired the guns alone before he too was killed . His body was not identified after the war and he has no known grave . Early life . John Baskeyfield was born on 18 November 1922 in Burslem , Stoke - on - Trent , England , the son of Daniel and Minnie Baskeyfield . He trained and worked as a butcher during the early years of the Second World War , until he received his call up papers in February 1942 at the age of 19 . Second World War . Baskeyfield joined the South Staffordshire Regiment and served with the 2nd Battalion ' s anti - tank platoon . The 2nd Battalion was part of 1st Airlanding Brigade , itself part of the 1st Airborne Division and Baskeyfield accompanied them to North Africa , from where they took part in Operation Ladbroke , the glider borne element of the Invasion of Sicily in 1943 . The division then landed in Italy as part of Operation Slapstick and spent some weeks fighting their way through the country before sailing back to England . Battle of Arnhem . The Battle of Arnhem was part of Operation Market Garden , an attempt to secure a string of bridges through the Netherlands . At Arnhem the British 1st Airborne Division and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were tasked with securing bridges across the Lower Rhine , the final objectives of the operation . However , the airborne forces that dropped on 17 September were not aware that the 9th SS and 10th SS Panzer divisions were also near Arnhem for rest and refit . Their presence added a substantial number of Panzergrenadiers , tanks and self - propelled gun s to the German defenses and the Allies suffered heavily in the ensuing battle . Only a small force managed to hold one end of the Arnhem road bridge before being overrun on 21 September . The rest of the division became trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge and had to be evacuated on 25 September in Operation Berlin . The Allies failed to cross the Rhine , which remained under German control until Allied offensives in March 1945 . South Staffordshire ' s advance to Arnhem . Owing to a shortage of aircraft , the Allies planned to fly the entire division to Arnhem over three days . The South Staffordshire Battalion was split between the lifts on day one and day two ; most of the unit arrived on day one , with the remaining balance arriving with the second lift . The battalion ' s anti - tank guns were flown from RAF Manston on day one . Major General Roy Urquhart ' s original plan envisaged the 1st Airlanding Brigade securing the drop zone s for subsequent lifts , but by the end of day one the allied advance into Arnhem had stalled . Only a small group of the 1st Parachute Brigade , mainly elements of Lieutenant Colonel John Frost ' s 2nd Battalion , were able to reach the bridge . The 1st and 3rd Battalions were unable to penetrate the outer suburbs of the city and their advance stalled , so in order to support them the first lift of the South Stafford ' s were sent forward on the morning of 18 September . When the second lift arrived later that day they too were sent forward and arrived at the outskirts of Arnhem that night . The South Staffordshire ' s anti - tank platoon was kept in the divisional area . In the early hours of the morning of 19 September , an attack was launched on a narrow front between the river and the railway line , in order to force a passage through to the bridge . Most of the support weapons were left in the rear , as they were unable to suitably deploy in the dark and in the narrow confines of the urban surroundings . However , in the face of strong enemy positions and armour , the attack faltered and the British rout ed . Withdrawal to Oosterbeek . The remnants of the four battalions fell back in disarray to the main divisional positions at Oosterbeek . Here they were gathered into defensive units by Lieutenant Colonel Sheriff Thompson , Commanding Officer of the 1st Airlanding Light Artillery Regiment , who forcibly stopped many of the panicked troops and had Major Robert Cain form them into a defensive screen half a mile in front of his own 75 Millimetre Howitzers positions . The sector was designated " Thompson Force " , but Thompson actually sent Major Richard Lonsdale forward to take command of these outlying troops later in the day . The German forces made determined attacks against Lonsdale ' s force on 20 September , starting soon after dawn . Baskeyfield was in charge of two 6 pounder anti – tank guns defending a T junction on the " Benedendorpsweg " , the southernmost road between Arnhem and Oosterbeek . Baskeyfield ' s guns faced up the " Acacialaan " , which joined the " Benedendorpsweg " from the north , and covered the likely enemy approach along this road and from open ground to the north east . His right flank – to the east – was covered by another anti tank gun commanded by Lance Sergeant Mansell . In an initial German assault , Baskeyfield and his gun crews destroyed two tanks and a self - propelled gun as they advanced down the " Acacialaan " . Baskeyfield allowed the armour to come within 100 yards of his positions before ordering his crews to fire , while paratroopers of the 11th Battalion in nearby houses dealt with attacking infantry . In the course of this action , Baskeyfield ' s crew was killed or wounded and Baskeyfield himself was badly injured . However he refused to be evacuated and in a later German attack he worked his gun alone , loading , laying and firing it himself . He fired round after round until enemy fire put his gun out of action , and crawled to the second gun , whose crew had similarly been disabled . From here he engaged another self - propelled gun , dispatching it with two rounds , but was killed shortly afterwards by fire from another German tank . Lonsdale ' s men fell back to new positions later that day and " Thompson Force " was eventually renamed " Lonsdale Force " when Thompson was wounded on 21 September . The force continued to hold the Oosterbeek perimeter until the Allies withdrew in Operation Berlin on the night of 25 September . Victoria Cross . The full citation for Baskeyfield ' s Victoria Cross appeared in a supplement to the " London Gazette " on 23 November 1944 , reading : Legacy . After Arnhem was liberated in April 1945 , Grave Registration Units of the British 2nd Army moved into the area and began to locate the Allied dead . Over 1700 men were buried in the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery , but Baskeyfield ' s body was never identified . Although several hundred burials in the cemetery are unidentified , there are no records of any unidentified soldiers being exhumed from " Acacialaan " . Instead Baskeyfield ' s name is inscribed on the Groesbeek Memorial which commemorates all those Allied servicemen killed between August 1944 and the end of the conflict who have no known grave . Four more VC ' s were awarded after the battle , including one for Major Robert Cain , commander of B Company , 2nd Battalion , South Staffordshire Regiment . The 2nd Battalion thus became the only British battalion to receive two VCs during one engagement in the Second World War . His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Staffordshire Regiment Museum in Whittington , Staffordshire . A twice life size memorial statue of him was erected in 1990 at Festival Heights in Stoke - on - Trent , by sculptors Steven Whyte and Michael Talbot , and the John Baskeyfield V . C . Church of England Primary School in Burslem is named after him . The artist Terence Cuneo made a painting of Baskeyfield ' s action , and in 1969 a Staffordshire filmmaker spent three years making a short film about his role in the battle , entitled " Baskeyfield VC " . A tree on the site of Baskeyfield ' s second gun , on the corner of " Benedendorpsweg " and " Acacialaan " , has been named the Jack Baskeyfield Tree . See also . Four other men were awarded the Victoria Cross at Arnhem :