Historical documents relating to the Battle of Arnhem

These links are to transcriptions of historical documents contemporary (or nearly so) to the events at Arnhem. I must emphasise they are transcriptions – any errors or misinformation in the originals are reproduced here.

• Major-General Urquhart’s instructions as of 13th September 1944 and from the same document, the 1 Airborne Division Order of Battle.
• By Air to Battle HMSO 1945
  This gives a fairly concise summary of the events around Arnhem; identifying the people and places involved.
• Daily war diary of 1 Airborne Division H.Q.
• A gallery of archive photos taken just before and during the Battle of Arnhem. These still need some organisation and better annotations – I’m presenting them ‘as is’ for the moment, just to make them available for viewing.
• Original newspaper reporting of the events.
• There is a separate section of the site containing material relating to the commander of the 4th Parachute Brigade, John Hackett.
• Letters written directly after the battle.
• Wartime and post-war images of the Arnhem area.

I am also starting to try and gather together some other multimedia resources relating to the battle – at present these are limited to the following

• German newsreel footage of the attack, obviously presenting a different viewpoint from that of the Allies
• Extract from a radio broadcast by Stanley Maxted, a journalist accompanying the Allied troops

but I hope to expand on these soon.

Reference pages that may assist in the reading of some of the written documents are

• Arnhem map with approximate grid references
• Table of acronyms and abbreviations