The British Army, whose tradition lists gallantry in defeat alongside glory in victory, had one more gallant fight against insuperable odds to add to its lists.
There had been about 8,000 men in the First Airborne Division when red-bereted Major General Robert Eliot Urquhart made the drop with them to seize the bridge over the Lek (TIME, Oct. 2). Last week, when they came out after nine terrible days & nights, about 2,000 of them were left—exhausted, nerve-shattered men, many burned and many wounded. They had been through probably more concentrated hell than any...
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