Other Properties - Great Britain Groups

Lot 4917    SESSION 18 (2.30PM FRIDAY 28 JULY)    Other Properties - Great Britain Groups

Estimate $1,500
Bid at live.noble.com.au

GROUP OF SEVEN: General Service Medal 1918-62 (Geo VI D:G:Br Omn) - clasp - Palestine; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; France and Germany Star; Defence Medal 1939-45; War Medal 1939-45. 4123417 Pte H.Tollitt CHES.R. First medal impressed, others unnamed. Very fine extremely fine.

A rare WWII Arnhem, casualty group to Private Herbert Tollitt, KIA 24Sept1944.



Herbert Tollitt, age 28, son of Mr and Mrs J.H.Tollitt of Stockport, England; served in the Cheshires before joining the Parachute Regiment. He had been in the Army for ten years with service in the Middle East, Malta and Sicily before he was killed in action on 24 September 1944. He is buried at Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.



Private Tollitt volunteered to join the 11th Parachute Battalion when it was raised in the Middle East and underwent training with the unit in Palestine. On 18 September he jumped with the battalion under fire at Arnhem during Operation Market Garden. Joining up with the 1st Parachute Battalion and the glider-borne infantry, 2nd South Staffords, the group was located in the town about 1,000 metres short of the Arnhem bridge where they were attempting to break through and relieve the 2nd Parachute Battalion. The attempt stalled under heavy fire so the 11th Parachute Battalion was about to try a left flanking attack on the German positions when the divisional commander, Major-General Roy Urquart intervened and cancelled the planned attack as he considered it futile.



The 1st Parachute Battalion and the South Staffords had been annihilated and the 11th Parachute Battalion was being worn down as it withdrew through the town. When an attempt was made to reach high ground the battalion was caught in the open and the unit was decimated. The commanding officer was killed and second in command, Major Richard Lonsdale, took charge of the battalion as well as the remains of the 1st and 3rd Parachute battalions and the 2nd South Staffords forming them into what became known as Lonsdale Force. This force withdrew to Oosterbeek where the division was forming a defensive perimeter with its right flank on the river. Before the German attack stated, Major Lonsdale addressed the men giving a rousing speech to stir them onto feats above and beyond what one would normally expect.



When the Germans arrived the defence held, but only after desperate hand-to-hand fighting. The Germans continued their assault on the position and by 21 September the perimeter was less than 910 metres across. Some relief arrived on 22 September when the bulk of the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade dropped south of the river and drew off some of the Germans. However, there were now over one hundred German artillery guns firing into the Lonsdale Force defensive positions. Two days later on 24 September, the day that Private Tollitt was killed in action, the commander of XXX Corps, Lt-General Horrocks decided to withdraw what was left of the division. However, the next morning, units of the 9th SS Panzer Division attacked the battalion attempting to cut off its exit across the river.



This attack was repelled by bayonets and hand grenades and ensuing attacks were driven off by direct fire from guns of 1st Air Landing Light Regiment, Royal Artillery and the 64th Medium Regiment dropping their shells on the battalion's positions. Finally the men of the battalion were evacuated during the nights of 25 and 26 September across the Lower Rhine in Operation Berlin. Such was the loss of men to the battalion that it was disbanded after the Battle of Arnhem and amalgamated with the 3rd Parachute Battlion.



Private Tollitt's brother, Sergeant James Henry Tollitt, 4Bn Royal Welch Fusiliers, formerly employed by Fairey Aviation Company and an Army Reservist, was called up for service two days before the outbreak of war and he was killed in action in North-West Europe in October 1944.



Together with fourteen photcopy pages of research including newpaper notices and photographs (2).