Editing Battle of Arnhem (section)

===Day 4&nbsp;– Wednesday 20 September===
[[File:Arnhem Map 4.jpg|thumb|The British battalions break off their engagements and withdraw into the Oosterbeek perimeter, 19–21 September.]]
By now, the 1st Airborne Division was too weak to attempt to reach Frost at the bridge. Eight of the nine infantry battalions were badly mauled or scattered and only the 1st Battalion, The Border Regiment existed as a unit.<ref>Middlebrook, p. 325</ref> Urquhart made the difficult decision to abandon the 2nd Parachute Battalion to fend for itself.<ref name= Waddy121>Waddy, p. 121</ref> By forming a defensive perimeter around Oosterbeek and securing the [[Driel]] [[Pontoon (boat)|ferry crossing]], Urquhart hoped to hold out until XXX Corps could reach them and establish a new bridgehead over the Rhine.<ref name=Waddy121/>

The eastern side of this new perimeter was fairly stable after the previous day's retreat from Arnhem, with numerous ''ad hoc'' units under company commanders defending the approaches to Oosterbeek. Major [[Richard Lonsdale]] had taken command of the outlying units and their positions weathered severe German attacks, before falling back to the main divisional perimeter.<ref>Waddy, p. 134</ref> This sector was later named Lonsdale Force and would remain the main line of defence on the south-eastern perimeter.<ref>Waddy. p. 135</ref> The Border Regiment held most of the western edge of the town, with scattered units filling the gaps to the north. As more units fell back to the new defensive area, they were re-organised to establish a thumb-shaped perimeter using the Nederrijn as its southern base.<ref name= "Middlebrook, p339">Middlebrook, p. 339</ref> The mixed units at Wolfheze began to fall back in the morning, but several were surrounded and captured, including one party of 130 men.<ref>Middlebrook, pp. 282–286</ref> One hundred and fifty men of 156th Parachute Battalion, led by Hackett, became pinned down and took cover in a hollow some {{cvt|400|m|order=flip}} west of the Oosterbeek perimeter.<ref>Waddy, p. 117</ref> The men broke out of the hollow in the late afternoon and approximately 90 of them made it to the Border Regiment's positions.<ref>Waddy, pp. 117–118</ref>

[[File:Dutch school being searched for German snipers.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Two men in doorway of bomb damaged building|Men of the [[Glider Pilot Regiment]] search for snipers, 20 September.]]
The afternoon's supply drop went little better than the previous day's. Although a message had reached Britain to arrange a new dropping zone near the Hotel Hartenstein, some aircraft flew to LZ 'Z' where their supplies fell into German hands. At Oosterbeek, the Germans had used British marker panels and flares to attract the aircraft to their positions and the aircraft were unable to distinguish the exact dropping zones. Ten of the 164 aircraft involved were shot down around Arnhem and only 13 per cent of the supplies reached British hands.<ref>Middlebrook, p. 392</ref><ref>Evans, p. 12</ref>

At the bridge, Frost was finally able to make radio contact with Urquhart and was given the difficult news that reinforcement was doubtful.<ref name="Frost, p229">Frost, p. 229</ref> Shortly afterwards, at about 13:30, Frost was injured in the legs by a mortar bomb, and command passed to Major Gough.<ref name="Frost, p229"/><ref>Middlebrook, p. 311</ref> Despite their stubborn defence of the few buildings they still held, by late afternoon the British position was becoming untenable.<ref name=Waddy75>Waddy, p. 75</ref> When fire took hold of many of the buildings in which the wounded were being treated, a two-hour truce was organised in the late afternoon and the wounded (including Frost) were taken into captivity.<ref>Waddy, p. 76</ref> Overnight, a few units managed to hold out for a little longer and several groups tried to break out toward the Oosterbeek perimeter, although almost all of them, including Major Hibbert, were captured.<ref name=ParaData /><ref name=PegasusArchive>[http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/tony_hibbert.htm Major James Anthony Hibbert], The Pegasus Archive – The Battle of Arnhem Archive</ref><ref name=ArnhemAccount>[http://www.paradata.org.uk/article/857/related/13389 Personal account of Major Tony Hibbert's experiences of the Battle of Arnhem] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022034811/http://www.paradata.org.uk/article/857/related/13389 |date=22 October 2014 }} ParaData, Airborne Assault (Registered Charity)</ref> By 05:00 on Thursday morning, all resistance at the bridge had ceased.<ref>Middlebrook, p. 321</ref> In later years, Walter Harzer claimed that, during the final hours of fighting, his men intercepted a radio message sent from the bridge that ended with the sentences: "Out of ammunition. God Save the King".<ref>Ryan, p. 430</ref>