ABSTRACT
The 1st Airborne Division took no part in the next airborne operation, the Rhine crossing in March 1945, which was carried out by the 6th British and 17th United States Airborne Divisions, the latter a new division flying from bases in France. The Airlanding Brigade became conventional infantry again and the 1st Parachute Brigade was transferred to the 6th Airborne Division. The Polish Independent Parachute Brigade suffered the humiliation of being criticized for its behaviour at Arnhem and then seeing its commander dismissed from his position. The airborne and Royal Air Force (RAF) dead in and around Arnhem and Oosterbeek and the Polish dead from Driel were reinterred in a new war cemetery just north of Oosterbeek. The surviving men who fought at Arnhem in 1st Airborne and the Polish brigade and those who flew with the RAF and American squadrons nurse an intense pride in having taken part in the battle.
