HACKETT'S HOLLOW: OOSTERBEEK 1944

This Airborne Marker is on the site where Brigadier John W. 'Shan' Hackett, commander of 4th Parachute Infantry Brigade, took command of around 150 men from the 156th Battalion Parachute Regiment on 20th September 1944 and ordered them into a charge into the woods. In a hollow inside the tree line they were pinned down for more than eight hours, but fought off heavy German attacks. Hackett was in the thick of the fighting, firing a rifle, throwing grenades and leading charges. Finally he led a bayonet charge that got the survivors out of the Hollow and into the western lines of the Oosterbeek perimeter. From here he resumed command of what was left of his Brigade on the eastern flank of the perimeter.

Detail of Airborne Marker.

©Paul Reed 2005