Operation Pegasus

Operation Pegasus
Part of the Battle of Arnhem
Route of escaping soldiers in Pegasus I and II
Type	Evacuation
Location	Lower Rhine at Renkum, the Netherlands
Planned by	Lt Colonel David Dobie Major Digby Tatham-Warter, Dutch resistance
Objective	Safely evacuate survivors of the British 1st Airborne Division
Date	Night of 22/23 October 1944 2100 – 0200
Executed by	Royal Canadian Engineers 506 PIR, 101st Airborne Division Dutch resistance
Outcome	138 men evacuated
Casualties	1 man (missing)

Operation Pegasus was a military operation carried out on the Lower Rhine near the village of Renkum, close to Arnhem in the Netherlands. Overnight on 22–23 October 1944, Allied military forces, Britain's MI9 intelligence organization, and the Dutch Resistance evacuated 138 men, mostly soldiers trapped in German-occupied territory who had been in hiding since the Battle of Arnhem a month earlier.

The fighting north of the Rhine in September had forced the 1st British Airborne division to withdraw, leaving several thousand men behind. Several hundred of these were able to evade capture and go into hiding with the assistance of the Dutch Resistance. Initially, the men hoped to be able to wait for the British 2nd Army to resume its advance and thus rescue them, but when it became clear that the Allies would not cross the Rhine that year, the men decided to escape back to Allied territory. The first escape operation (Pegasus I) was a success, but a second operation (Pegasus II) was compromised and failed. Despite this, the Resistance continued to help the evaders and many more men were able to escape in small groups over the winter.