A week in Oosterbeek, by George Natrass

A lot of personal accounts on the fierce fighting in Arnhem and Oosterbeek have been published over the last
decades. Some are published as part of a comprehensive overview of the battle during the memorable days in
September 1944 and some individually published as personal accounts or diary. The war diary of Sergeant
George Nattrass, D Company, 7th (Galloway) The King’s Own Scottish Borderers, is one of those personal
stories. In 1983 his account was published in a Dutch monthly magazine “Documentatiegroep ’40-‘45” and in
1984, Nico van der Meer translated and published this account in a book called “Door de Hel van Oosterbeek
1944”. An English edition of this personal account has never been published, not by George himself nor by his
descendants.
As the Dutch publications are not literally translations of the original war diary, and translating from English to
Dutch and again reverse to English will, of course, do harm to the original text, we believe it is still worthwhile
making this account available for a larger (non-Dutch) audience.
On the next pages (numbered as in the original article as pages 446 to 462) the translated text of the 1983
article, as published by the “Documentatiegroep ’40-’45”, is included.
October 2020
The Dutch text was translated by Roland de Kwant and edited by Paul Pariso. As the original text as prepared
by George Nattrass is not available, it is not possible to verify if the errors in the Dutch text are the result from
the first translation of the English diary (done in 1983) to the Dutch article published by the “Documentatiegroep
‘40-‘45” or that the original diary also include these mistakes. Notes have been added to this translation to
clarify certain aspects or possible errors and clear omissions.