British Forces

Escaped from German captivity

Daily Herald**

Four British paratroopers, who escaped from German captivity, found a boat on the bank of the Waal river and floated to freedom. The soldiers were taken prisoner at the Van Limburg Stirum school near the Arnhem Bridge (now the John Frostbridge Bridge) during the Battle of Arnhem (Operation Market Garden, September, 1944) and sent to a transit camp in Emmerich am Rhein (Germany). However, they managed to escape by a boat they found on which they rafted along the river Rhine to the river Waal and Nijmegen, close to the German border. In the photo from left to right: Corporal John Humphreys, Corporal Charles Weir, Lieutenant Dennis Simpson and Captain Eric Mackay, all of the 1st Parachute Engineering Company Para Squadron, Royal Engineers.