Following another uneventful night for the 21st Independent Company at the Dreijerheide, they stood to at day break, however the threat of a German attack didn't materialise so breakfast and a brew was prepared. It was going to be a busy day for the Coy.

Elsewhere the 3 Battalions of 1st Parachute Brigade were still engaged on and along the approches to the Bridge. https://twitter.com/3468marsh/status/1307211226208964608?s=19

To the north east the 10th and 156 Battalions of the 4th Parachute Brigade along with the 7th KOSB had smashed headlong into the blocking line along the Dreijenseweg formed by the 9th SS.

No 1 and No 2 Platoons were briefed on their days tasks.
No 1 Platoon were returning to LZ-L to prepare for the 3rd flight of gliders bringing in the anti-tank guns of the Polish Brigade. No 2 Platoon were to mark a supply drop eastwards near to Warnsborn.

No 1 Plt set up the markers & eureka set ready for the arrival of the Poles. The LZ was straffed twice by German fighters & despite the amount of lead expended the Plt had no casualties. Ron Kent the Plt Sgt describes when it was clear 'heads bobbed up from all sorts of cover'

Remembering that less than a mile to the east the 10th and 156 Battalions were engaged in heavy fighting, at 16:00 the gliders lift arrived at LZ-L. The gliders came in under intensive machine gun and small arms fire which continued on landing. The LZ soon descended into chaos.

The Plt was tasked with locating commanders & updating them on the change of circumstances and under extremely difficult conditions the orders were accurately passed. Plt members also assisted in the rescue of trapped troops from crashed gliders and applying first aid.

After the Plt had beaten off a German attack with the assistance from Glider pilots & 7th KOSB, a group of German SS prisoners were interrogated by Pte Harold Bruce, a German speaker. The prisoners stated they were not Germans but Alsatians from the Alsace-Lorraine region.

Whilst the Poles were trying to get of the LZ, the 10th and 156 Battalions had been ordered to withdraw & as they did so persued by the Germans conditions on the LZ deteriorated rapidly. Lt Eastwood Plt CO, decided they had completed their tasks and made their way back to Coy HQ

2nd Platoon unable to reach thier supply drop zone due to being East of the blocking line along the Dreijenseweg, were ordered to the Hartenstein were they placed markers on the lawn outside in a hope that this new SDZ would be noticed.

Privates Reg Burgess (L) & Don Day (R) volunteered to take the Eureka set to the top of a water tower on Zonneheuvelweg for a better reception for the approaching supply planes. However due to heavy German interest each time they raised the aerial rifle fire cut it down.

By the end of the day the Company was together again at the Dreijerheide, however Major 'Boy' Wilson felt that with the build up of German forces and the Dreijerheide in the low ground between the railway and Graaf van Rechterenweg would soon become untenable.

Wilson moved the Coy south across Graaf von Rechterenweg to an estate known as Ommershof. It was atop a small rise and therfore provided better defence. The view from No 2 Platoons position looking back towards the Dreijerheide. Ommershof is no longer there having burnt down.

Whilst the Coy dug in, welcome reinforcements arrived in the form of some 60 men of the GPR under the command of Major Burton Henry Parker Jackson (L) and 35 men of the 4th Parachute Squadron RE. Amongst them was Capt Henry Faulkner-Brown (R) who will feature later

At this point the 21st Independent Company along with the reinforcements formed part of the Northern part of the Oosterbeek perimeter with the 7th KOSB to their right.

With the remnants of the Battalions who had been trying to fight through to the bridge now falling back, the Oosterbeek perimeter is now forming. For the 21st Independent Company, the ferocity of the fighting in the 'Cauldron' is yet come.