The 1977 movie A Bridge Too Far, about the attempt to capture the Arnhem Bridge in World War II, features various scenes of a British officer leading his into battle while carrying an umbrella. There actually was such a real life British, who had one of the most British-sounding names imaginable: Allison Digby Tatham-Warter.
A Classic British Upper Class Character
British Army paratrooper Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter was a classically quirky British figure who seemingly stepped out of bad fiction. He was born in 1917 to a wealthy landowner. His father passed away when Digby was eleven-years-old, from the delayed effects of grievous wounds suffered in World War I. Son followed father into the military. Tatham-Warter graduated in 1937 from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst – Britain’s West point, in charge of training infantry and cavalry officers for the British and Indian armies. He joined the Indian Army and served in the subcontinent.
Tatha-Warter had a grand time indulging himself in pig sticking and tiger hunts and similar activities that rich British scions did back then. When WWII began, he did not seek an active assignment to take him away from his fun. That changed when his brother was killed in the Battle of El Alamein in 1942. When he received the news, Tatham-Warter volunteered to join the Parachute Regiment. He was appointed commander of a company in the 1st Airborne Division, and began his journey from dilettante to legend. Tatham-Warter got started on building a reputation when he managed to get a Dakota airplane to fly his fellow officers to a posh party in London’s Ritz Hotel.
The Major With the Umbrella
Tatham-Warter partied hard, but he also worked hard. His company was always in tip top shape, and he became known as an aggressive commander, unafraid of difficult assignment. His company was selected to spearhead the attempt to seize the Arnhem Bridge in Operation Market Garden on September 17th, 1944. Worried about the radios’ unreliability, Tatham-Warter trained his men to respond to Napoleonic era bugle calls. He had difficulty remembering passwords. So he decided to carry something distinctive that would make him instantly recognizable: an umbrella. Even if he forgot a password, Tatham-Warter figured that any paratrooper who saw him would immediately realize that “only a bloody fool of an Englishman” would carry an umbrella into battle.
Tatham-Warter’s company was dropped some distance from its target. So he and his men had to fight their way through Arnhem to reach the bridge. They scrambled through backstreets to avoid enemy armored cars on the main thoroughfares. In heavy fighting over the next few days, Tatham-Warter was often seen strolling through the wrecked town, a paratrooper’s red beret on his head instead of a helmet, with a pistol in one hand, and an umbrella in the other. As seen below, the umbrella actually came in handy when a German counterattack placed armor on the Arnhem Bridge.
On the Lam Behind Enemy Lines
Tatham-Warter led a charge against the German armor on the bridge, pistol in one hand, umbrella in the other. To add to the incongruity of it all and make matters even more madcap, he was wearing a bowler at the time. The umbrella even came in handy: he reportedly disabled an enemy armored by thrusting it through the viewport, poking out the driver’s eye or otherwise incapacitating him. The plan for Operation Market Garden was that the paratroopers would hold the Arnhem Bridge for two days, until relieved.
Unfortunately, the relief force got stuck and never made it. After eight days of desperate fighting, a wounded Tatham-Warter and the surviving paratroopers were forced to surrender. He was sent to a hospital, but soon as the German nurses were out of sight, he snuck out. A friendly local woman put Tatham-Warter in touch with the Dutch Resistance, who furnished him with civilian clothes and fake identity papers that described him as a deaf mute. For the next few weeks, he bicycled around, lending the Resistance a hand wherever and however he could.
In one of his escapades during that period, Tatham-Warter helped push a German car that was stuck in a ditch without arousing its occupants’ suspicion. Eventually, he managed to gather about 150 Allied soldiers who were also on the lam in the Dutch countryside, and led them to the safety of friendly lines. For his heroics, Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross. He settled in Kenya, and lived out the rest of his days there as a safari operator until he passed away in 1993.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
History Halls – Henry Frenay: Organizer and Pioneer of World War II’s French Resistance
Pegasus Archives – Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter
Sky History – The Major Who Led His Men Into Battle With an Umbrella
