 = Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery = 
 
 The Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery , more commonly known as the Airborne Cemetery , is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Oosterbeek , near Arnhem , the Netherlands . It was established in 1945 and is home to 1759 graves from the Second World War . Most of the men buried in the cemetery were Allied servicemen killed in the Battle of Arnhem , an Allied attempt to cross the Rhine in 1944 , or in the liberation of the city the following year . Men killed in these battles are still discovered in the surrounding area even in the 21st century , and so the number of people interred in the cemetery continues to grow . 
 
 = = Background = = 
 
 In September 1944 the Allies launched Operation Market Garden , an attempt by the British 2nd Army to bypass the Siegfried Line and advance into the <unk> , Germany 's industrial <unk> . The operation required the 1st Airborne Corps to seize several bridges over rivers and canals in the Netherlands , allowing ground forces to advance rapidly through the Netherlands and cross the River Rhine . 
 The British 1st Airborne Division was tasked with securing the most distant objectives ; bridges over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem . The division dropped onto the area on 17 September and a small force was able to secure the Arnhem road bridge . However the unexpected presence of SS Panzer troops of the II SS <unk> meant the Allies were never able to fully secure their objectives and so after nine days without sufficient reinforcement by the advancing ground forces , the division was withdrawn on 25 September . 
 In the 9 days of battle almost 2000 Allied soldiers were killed ( some of whom died of their wounds or in captivity after the battle ) . These included over <unk> men of the British 1st Airborne Division , 219 men of the <unk> Pilot Regiment , 92 men of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade , 368 men of the RAF , 79 re @-@ supply <unk> of the RASC , 25 men of XXX Corps and 27 men of US IX <unk> Carrier Command . The exact number of German dead is unknown , but is believed to be at least 1300 . Additionally it is believed 453 Dutch civilians were killed during the battle . 
 
 = = Cemetery = = 
 
 Owing to the Allied withdrawal , the vast majority of their dead had to be left on the battlefield . Here they were buried in simple field graves ( some little more than their own slit trenches ) or in small mass graves dug by the Germans . Kate <unk> <unk> , whose house was used as a first aid post during the battle , found the graves of 57 men in her garden when she returned after the war . After Arnhem was liberated in April 1945 , Grave <unk> Units of the British 2nd Army moved into the area and began to locate the Allied dead . A small field north of Oosterbeek was offered on perpetual loan by the Netherlands government to the Imperial War Graves Commission ( now Commonwealth War Graves Commission ) in June 1945 and the dead were reburied there . Many of those killed during Arnhem 's liberation were also buried at the same site . The cemetery was completed in February 1946 , originally with the graves marked by metal crosses , although these were replaced by <unk> in 1952 . Most of the German dead were buried in the SS Heroes Cemetery near Arnhem after the battle , but reburied in <unk> German war cemetery after the war . 
 The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records 1759 graves in the cemetery as of 2004 . <unk> of these are Commonwealth , including British , Canadian , Australian and New Zealanders . The cemetery is also the last resting place of 73 Polish soldiers , ( many of them exhumed and moved from <unk> , to the disappointment of <unk> 's residents ) and 8 Dutch civilians – some killed in the fighting and some former Commission employees . 253 of the graves are unidentified . 
 As of 2003 there were still 138 Allied men with no known grave in the area , and they are commemorated at the <unk> Memorial . However , evidence of the battle is often discovered even today , and the bodies of Allied servicemen are <unk> at the Airborne Cemetery . When found , bodies are exhumed and Dutch Graves <unk> staff attempt to identify them before they are reburied . One soldier of the Border Regiment was discovered and reburied in the cemetery in 2005 and another who had previously been unidentified was reburied in 2006 . 
 Five men were awarded the Victoria Cross after the battle , four of them posthumously . Three of the men now rest in the cemetery ; Lieutenant John <unk> <unk> of the 2nd Battalion , Parachute Regiment ; Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony Lord of 271 Squadron , Royal Air Force and Captain Lionel Ernest <unk> of the 10th Battalion , Parachute Regiment . Lance @-@ Sergeant John Daniel <unk> of the 2nd Battalion South <unk> Regiment has no known grave and is commemorated instead at <unk> Memorial . Major Robert Henry Cain , also of 2nd Battalion , South <unk> Regiment , survived the battle and was buried on the Isle of Man when he died in 1974 . 
 <unk> the Airborne Cemetery is a civilian graveyard with a small Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot containing the graves of nine airmen shot down shortly before the battle . It is also home to <unk> <unk> , a surgeon with the 16th ( Parachute ) Field Ambulance during the battle , who wished to be buried near his men after his death in 1986 . Similarly , the <unk> Cemetery three miles east contains the graves of thirty six aircrew killed before the battle , and one unidentified soldier . Not all of the Allied dead from the Battle of Arnhem are interred at the cemetery . Some 300 men who were killed when flying into battle , while trying to escape or who succumbed to wounds later , are buried in civilian <unk> in the Netherlands , Belgium , the UK and the USA . Sixty men who died in prisoner of war camps after the battle are buried in Germany . 
 
 = = Airborne commemoration service = = 
 
 In the summer of 1945 several hundred veterans of the battle were detached from operations in Norway and returned to Arnhem to take part in filming for the war movie <unk> Is the Glory . While there they attended the first commemorative event at the cemetery . This event continued every year , and was attended by veterans , local residents and over 1000 school children who laid flowers on the graves of the dead . After the 25th anniversary in 1969 , the Parachute Regiment approached Dutch organisers to suggest ending the ceremony , believing the battle to have passed sufficiently into history . The Dutch were vehemently and emotionally opposed to the idea and thus the ceremony continues to be held annually . 
 
 