A very good and rare Second World War Battle of Arnhem 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Staff Officer Casualty and North West Europe Mention in Despatches group with accompanying framed Award Certificate, as awarded to Captain and Acting Major Gordon Wilson, East Lancashire Regiment, and second-in-command of the British Liaison Group to the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, 1st Airborne Division. From Mellor, near to Blackburn, Lancashire, between 15 July and 25 September 1944, Wilson was a staff officer with the 1st Airborne Division, and serving as second-in-command of the British Liaison Group to the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade. He jumped to the south of Arnhem on 21 September 1944, and landed in the area of Driel. Whilst descending by parachute, Wilson had the misfortune of being wounded by anti-aircraft fire, when slightly wounded in the leg. He then fought at Arnhem until the withdrawal three days later. Once he was taken prisoner, but escaped after six hours, and rejoined the Allied Forces after walking five miles without shoes. As a local newspaper article recalled: ‘Whilst waiting for the boat to take him across the Rhine he received serious shell wounds. Fortunately, two soldiers saw him and carried him into the boat. He was taken to a front line hospital, where he was operated on and, after nine days, was flown back to England.’ Wilson was awarded a Mention in Despatches for gallant and distinguished services in North West Europe, as gazetted to him on 10 May 1945. At Arnhem, the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade lost 25% of its fighting strength, amounting to 590 casualties.
Group of 4: 1939-1945 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence Medal; War Medal with Mention in Despatches Oakleaf. Mounted swing style as worn.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Together with the recipient’s original framed Mention in Despatches Award Certificate, this issued to: ‘Major (actg) G. Wilson, The East Lancashire Regiment’, with London Gazette date for 10 May 1945.
Gordon Wilson was born on 25 September 1914, and came from Mellow Brow, near to Mellor, Blackburn, Lancashire, where he and his wife, Constance Mary Osbaldiston, who he had married in January 1940, resided at Bay Trees Farm.
Owing to the Second World War, Wilson was granted a wartime emergency commission into the British Army as a 2nd Lieutenant (No.162481) with the East Lancashire Regiment on 21 December 1940, and went on to be promoted to war substantive Lieutenant on 21 June 1942, and then held the rank of temporary Captain from 31 June 1942 through to April 1944, being appointed an Acting Major in September 1944, he would be promoted to war substantive Captain on 2 December 1944.
From 15 July until 25 September 1944, Wilson was a staff officer with the 1st Airborne Division, and serving as second-in-command of the British Liaison Group to the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, and as such he fought throughout the Battle of Arnhem from 17 to 26 September 1944.
The 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade entered combat when it was dropped during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the operation, the Brigade's anti-tank battery went into Arnhem on the third day of the battle (19 September), supporting the British paratroopers at Oosterbeek. This left Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski, the commanding officer, with only PIATs as anti-tank capability. The light artillery battery was left behind in England due to a shortage of gliders. Owing to bad weather and a shortage of transport planes, the drop into Driel was delayed by two days, to 21 September.
The British units which were supposed to cover the landing zone were in a bad situation and out of radio contact with the main Allied forces. Finally, the 2nd Polish Parachute Battalion, and elements of the 3rd Polish Parachute Battalion, with support troops from the Brigade's Medical Company, Engineer Company and HQ Company, were dropped under German fire east of Driel.
They overran Driel, after it was realised that the Heveadorp ferry had been destroyed. In Driel, the Polish paratroopers set up a defensive "hedgehog" position, from which over the next two nights further attempts were made to cross the Rhine.
The following day, the Poles were able to produce some makeshift boats and attempt a crossing. With great difficulty and under German fire from the heights of Westerbouwing on the north bank of the river, the 8th Parachute Company and, later, additional troops from 3rd Battalion, managed to cross the Rhine in two attempts. In total, about 200 Polish paratroopers made it across in two days, and were able to cover the subsequent withdrawal of the remnants of the British 1st Airborne Division.
Not all of the paratroopers were able to withdraw back across the Rhine, due to the numbers involved and a shortage of boats. Those who were trapped on the German-controlled side were either captured by the Germans or, like Stanisław Kulik, were sheltered by the Dutch underground. They were hidden in various houses in the towns and villages, or in huts or makeshift dens in the woods, for about a month until they were rescued in Operation Pegasus on 22 October 1944.
On 26 September 1944, the members of the Brigade who were on the Allied side of the Rhine (now including the 1st Battalion and elements of the 3rd Battalion, who were parachuted near to Grave on 23 September) were ordered to march towards Nijmegen. The Brigade had lost 25% of its fighting strength, amounting to 590 casualties.
One of those casualties was Wilson, who in a letter home to his wife, which was published in a local paper alongside a wartime image of him in uniform. described events at Arnhem as they unfolded for him.
The article reads as follows under the header of ‘Major Twice Wounded at Arnhem’. ‘Major Gordon Wilson has been wounded in Holland and is now in a hospital in Scotland. His wife, who lives at Bay Trees Farm, Mellow Brow, Mellow, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Osbaldeston, 24, Wellington Street (St. John’s), Blackburn.’
‘In a letter home Major Wilson, a staff officer with the Airborne Forces, says that he landed south of Arnhem after being slightly wounded in the leg by anti-aircraft fire during his descent. He was with the Airborne Division at Arnhem until the withdrawal. Once he was taken prisoner, but escaped after six hours, and rejoined the Allied Forces after walking five miles without shoes.’
‘Whilst waiting for the boat to take him across the Rhine he received serious shell wounds. Fortunately, two soldiers saw him and carried him into the boat. He was taken to a front line hospital, where he was operated on and, after nine days, was flown back to England. Major Wilson pays great tribute to the skill and courage of nurses and doctors working under inconceivable difficulties and dangers at the front.’
Wilson, was may or may not have returned to active service, went on to be awarded a Mention in Despatches for gallant and distinguished services in North West Europe, his award being published in the London Gazette for 10 May 1945. This was almost certainly an award for Arnhem. Wilson survived the war, and died in January 1982.
