24-04-2025
Boleslaw Ostrowski obituary: Polish ‘bridge too far' paratrooper
The Poles could be magnificent fighters, but at times also turbulent allies. Perhaps the most celebrated turbulence came during Operation Market Garden, Field Marshal Montgomery's ambitious attempt in September 1944 to 'bounce' a crossing of the Rhine at Arnhem. As a lance corporal in the signal company of Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski's 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade, the 25-year-old Boleslaw Ostrowski — its last surviving veteran — had a ringside seat at the ill-fated attempt to capture the famous 'bridge too far'.
The plan for Market Garden was straightforward. The Allied Airborne Corps comprising three divisions — two US, one British — and Sosabowski's brigade was to capture successive bridges to secure a route through occupied Holland for the 30th (British) Corps to race 65
