| Operation Berlin | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Battle of Arnhem Operation Market Garden | |
| Type | Withdrawal |
| Location | |
| Planned | 25 September 1944 |
| Planned by | Major General Roy Urquhart |
| Objective | Safely withdraw the British 1st Airborne Division |
| Date | Night of the 25/26 September 1944 2200 – 0500 |
| Executed by | 1st Polish Parachute Brigade 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division 260th and 553rd Field Companies, RE, 43rd Wessex Division 20th and 23rd Field Companies RCE, II Canadian Corps |
| Outcome | Approximately 2,400 men evacuated |
| Casualties | c. 95 killed |
Operation Berlin (25/26 September 1944) was a night-time evacuation of the remnants of the beleaguered British 1st Airborne Division, in German-occupied territory north of the Lower Rhine in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in the Second World War. The aim of the operation was to withdraw the remnants of the division while covered by the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade and surrounded on three sides by more German troops with more heavy equipment and tanks and being in danger of encirclement.
The operation evacuated about 2,400 men of the British 1st Airborne Division, thus ending Market Garden, the Allied plan to cross the Rhine and close the European Theatre of World War II by the end of 1944. Members of the Glider Pilot Regiment laid white tape through the woods, leading from the perimeter, the grounds of the Hartenstein Hotel, to the north bank of the Neder-Rijn (Lower Rhine) where the Royal Canadian Engineers and Royal Engineers were waiting with small boats to ferry the men across the Rhine to a landing point north of Driel.