This list gives an overview of the casualties sustained by the 4th Battalion The Dorsetshire Regiment during Operation Market Garden.
At the moment the page contains the names of 13 Officers and 184 Other Ranks who appear in the British Army casualty lists. The British Army casualty lists 1939-1945 include over a million entries from the volumes which were updated by the War Office on a regular basis from 1939 to 1947. The lists document the names of officers, nurses, and other ranks who were reported as killed in action, dead as a result of illness or accident, missing, or taken as a prisoner of war. Later records show the names of those who were previously listed as a prisoner of war or missing but had died or those who were listed as a prisoner of war and were now free. Individuals can appear in the lists more than once if their status was reported to have changed. For example, Private L W Allen was first reported missing, then reported a prisoner of war and finally reported not a prisoner.
According to Martin Middlebrook’s “Arnhem 1944, the Airborne Battle”, 315 men crossed the river Rhine during the night of 24/25 September. 75 were able to escape. Also, the Battalion's War Diary shows a similar decrease in the unit's strength between 23 September (833 men) and 26 September (583 men). Based on these sources the actual number of casualties should be somewhere around 240 men. Therefore it is assumed that this list - based on the British Army casualty lists - as it appears at the moment, is incomplete.
Making the list online available, aims first of all to provide detailed information on the casualties for those with an interest in the subject or next of kin. From time to time new information will be added to the individuals already on this page. If you can help to provide any additional information (for example personal information like date and place of birth/passing, company/platoon served, battle or prisoner of war related information or medals awarded) you can use the ‘inform us’ button in the individual’s entry.
In case you have information on a casualty whose name is not yet on this website, you’re kindly invited to get in touch.