The British on the north-west side of the perimeter were pushed back step by step. The British were also pushed back from the east along the Utrechtseweg road.

Late in the afternoon of 20 September 1944, the Polish troops were ordered to move their pieces to the south of the perimeter, where stiff resistance was offered to the advancing German forces. With their jeeps, guns and trailers they moved from the positions around the Oranjeweg road through the woods to the old church. In the area of ​​Sandersweg road the column came under fire. One of the glider pilots, Sergeant Nixon: “drove through the woods south of Hartenstein park, where we came under mortar and shell fire”. Gorzko and Pawłowski were seriously wounded and were taken to the Tafelberg where they died of their wounds.

The artillery pieces were put into position at the old church, at the bottom of the Blidersweg road (now the junction at the bottom of Dr. Brevéestraat) and opposite the Kneppelhoutweg / Benedendorpsweg T-junction. One of these pieces was later moved east to the Ploegseweg.

At the time that Smaczny’s men occupied positions in Villa Transvalia as part of the Breese Force, the pieces of the Poles were still active. In the early morning of the 23rd the men were preparing for advancing German armoured vehicles when a gun came from behind (from the direction of the Polish position) “an Anti-tank gun appeared, manhandled by its crew, stopped and fired a single shot, which struck the lead tank, damaging it” whereupon the German troops withdrew “manhandled by its crew back the way it came”.

Despite this adequate performance, the guns were knocked out one by one or the crew was killed. On the morning of the 25 September, three Polish soldiers were killed when artillery support came down on their own positions. Chartonowicz and Skaczko were given field graves in the garden of local resident Kate ter Horst, whose house had been set up as a dressing station. Skaczko is buried in the Airborne Cemetery, whilst the final resting place of Chartonowicz is currently under investigation. The remains of Corporal Zawistowski, who also died, are still missing.

On the evening of 24 September, Nixon recorded: “Most of our transport has gone, many of the guns have ceased to function[…] the position becomes hopeless."

A day later, the troops did indeed withdraw across the Rhine. Dozens of Polish soldiers were then killed in or around Oosterbeek. The others who could not cross the Rhine were captured or tried to escape the German occupiers, with or without the help of the local population.