On 24
September 1944 it was decided that the
remainder of the division was to be
evacuated to the south side of the river. To
cover the extraction, 4th battalion
Dorsetshire Regiment, 4 Dorsets in short,
was to be brought to the north bank to cover
the retreat of the weary and exhausted
airborne troops.
The attack
was planned for the evening of the 24th of
September but the delay in getting
sufficient boats in place, meant that the
attack did not commence until 1.00 in the
morning of the 25th.
From their
assembly points near the town of Driel, the
men of 4 Dorsets set out with their boats,
through the orchards towards the river bank.
The
operation turned out a tragedy. The swift
current of the Rhine river made crossing
difficult. Besides that, the Germans had dug
in in positions on the North bank and fired
at the boats with machine guns and mortars.
Scattered groups of Dorsets made it to the
north side and tried to help defend the
perimiter already set up by the airborne
troops.
Many boats
were riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel
from mortars. Several capsized and sunk.
According to Martin Middlebrook in Arnhem
1944 out of the 315 Dorsets who crossed
the river, 13 were killed on the crossing or
the next day in the fighting. Over 200 were
taken PoW by the Germans. Although about
2000 airborne troops were extracted from
across the river, the Dorsets had not been
able to fully complete their mission, with
many men killed and wounded and a great
number taken prisoner.
Corporal
Leech was one of the Dorsets who was
probably killed during the crossing. He is buried in
Lienden General
Cemetery, which lies near the south side of
the Rhine river, approximately 30 kilometers
west of Arnhem. Cpl Leech was 30 years old.
