ABSTRACT
The story of the Dorsets' experience on the north bank can quickly be told. The battalion landed in small groups, in the dark, and companies never did assemble properly. The 4th Dorsets, meanwhile, spent the day preparing for their crossing. The Dorsets experienced all the problems previously experienced by the Poles. The boats were late in arriving and had to be manhandled to the river bank. Many accounts say that the plan to put the whole battalion across was whittled down to only two of the four rifle companies. That artillery support provided by Captain Rose and his signallers was the only significant result of the Dorsets' crossing. Approximately 200 were rounded up and taken prisoner. Not only, as Sosabowski had forecast, had the Dorsets landed among the German positions, but there had been a lack of 'push' about the operation from the highest level of the 43rd Division downwards.
