ABSTRACT
Major-General Stanislaw Sosabowski's Polish Independent Parachute Brigade had been raised with the hope of flying to Warsaw to assist in the liberation of its soldiers' home country. Sosabowski had been increasingly anxious over the prospects for his brigade during the two days of delay and had prepared notes of protest to be sent both to Brereton and to Browning. The brigade's depleted units marched off according to plan, the 2nd Battalion towards the ferry and the 3rd to a point directly opposite Oosterbeek church, both units remaining behind the cover of the steep bank which bordered the river. Sosabowski ordered his men at the river bank to withdraw just before dawn and the brigade took up defensive positions around Driel. One group, which included Lieutenant-Colonel Rotter the brigade's Quartermaster and Captain Wardzala the commander of the Anti-Tank Battery, encountered a German force and surrendered after an exchange of fire.
