The night of 25/26 September is the anniversary of the Second World War Operation BERLIN. That operation was the evacuation of some 2500 Allied airborne troops by sappers across the Rhine River after the failure of Operation MARKET-GARDEN. A memorial at Driel in the Netherlands commemorates the British and Canadian sappers of this operation.
An objective of Operation MARKET-GARDEN was to capture the Rhine bridges between Eindhoven and Arnhem with a combination of British, American and Polish Airborne Forces. This operation is known in perpetuity by the movie “A Bridge Too Far.”
The British 1st Airborne Division was to capture the most northerly bridges over the Neder Rijn at Arnhem and they began dropping west of Arnhem at 1300 hrs on 17 September 1944. These 11,000 troops were supposed to hold the Arnhem Bridge for a maximum of two days until the arrival of XXX Corps. After nine days, with little support or reinforcement, only 740 of the 11,000 men had actually made it to the objective.
Attempts by Allied ground forces to link up with the encircled airborne forces failed and eventually, the only option was to evacuate the remnants of the Airborne Division by small boats across the Neder Rijn at night. Four sapper field companies were tasked for Operation BERLIN: the Royal Engineer 260th and 553rd Field Companies and the Royal Canadian Engineers 20th and 23rd Field Companies.
The operation was to start at 2200 hrs on 25 September but the field companies had left many hours earlier and moved through enemy positions to the south bank of the Neder Rijn. In dismal weather and under constant German machine gun, mortar and artillery fire, the boats shuttled back and forth across the wide swift river through the night. The evacuation went on until daylight came and the operation was forced to cease.
Major Michael Tucker, DSO, commanded the 23rd Field Company Operation BERLIN and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for the role he played in its success. In 1994, he wrote a detailed article available HERE. and published in is attached, below. Another narrative on Operation MARKET GARDEN and Operation BERLIN that was prepared for a battlefield tour can be found HERE.
The British 1st Airborne Division was the hardest hit among the Allied forces involved in Operation Market Garden. They starting the battle with 10,600 men and suffered 1,485 killed and some 6,414 captured. Several hundred escaped on their own aided by the Dutch resistance. Operation BERLIN rescued some 2500 airborne troops. 23rd Field Company recovered the majority of the paratroopers by making approximately 150 stormboat crossings. The 23rd Field Company lost seven killed and 14 were wounded while five were decorated for their heroic actions.
A monument to the British and Canadian sappers of Operation BERLIN was unveiled at Driel in The Netherlands on the 44th anniversary in 1989. The inscription on the monument is: "They were just whispers and shadows in the night"- the way one British paratrooper had remembered these heroic sappers.
Annually there is normally a remembrance ceremony held at the Engineer Monument at Driel but that will not be possible this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. Alice van Bekkum, a resident of The Netherlands and a Friend of the Royal Canadian Engineers for many years privately laid a floral arrangement at the memorial. Her research has contributed greatly to the stories of these Sappers.
Links to our tributes to the seven Sappers who were lost during Operation BERLIN are listed below: