19th September 1944

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The day of the nineteenth of September 1944 was the day that my uncle Arthur was listed as missing in action. The circumstances and whereabouts are as yet unknown to me, but one thing I do know is that his unit was engaged somewhere around Oosterbeek, on the western approach to Arnhem. Judging from all the accounts I've read so far, the situation was an utter chaos of bloodshed, with lightly-armed airborne troops holed up against German armour and reinforcements and supplies nowhere to be seen where and when it mattered. The enemy strength had been woefully underestimated by the planners of the operation and the comms equipment available really didn't deliver when it mattered. I have a record gleaned from an excellent blog dedicated to those who fought and died at Arnhem: Nine Days in September, relating the story of one of Arthur's HQ Signals Platoon comrades, which I'll post in full on the twenty-second. Arthur was 'lucky': he was captured by the Germans; the other lad, like so many others, didn't make it. He was killed four days before Arthur was taken as a POW. He was twenty-two years of age. My uncle lived on...

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