War Horsa

In the annals of the British Army… there can be few episodes more glorious than the epic of Arnhem.” Field Marshal Montgomery’s tribute to the men of the First Airborne Division, who in September 1944 battled heroically but unsuccessfully for the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem in the Netherlands, has stood the test of time. Few battles are still commemorated with the same defiant pride as Operation Market Garden, especially in the Parachute Regiment.

While the battle honour ‘Arnhem 1944’ and the Parachute Regiment are forever, and rightly, linked, there were others who fought and died there. Besides the supporting arms and services who jumped with the Paras on 17 September (engineers, signals, medical and more), there were many whose arrival by air was equally, if not more, perilous. More than half the 1st Airborne Division landed by glider. Of Arnhem’s five VCs, two were awarded to the Parachute Regiment, one was won by an RAF pilot and two went to the glider-borne First Air Landing Brigade.

Like so many wartime innovations, the British Army’s glider troops had been decisively championed by Winston Churchill. On 10 May 1940, the day he became prime minister, German troops invaded Belgium and