Johnson, Dennis

Died

30th March 1945

Serjeant Dennis Alfred Johnson (2344943)

No. 1 Wing Glider Pilot Regiment, Army Air Corps

IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF
SGT. DENNIS A. JOHNSON, GLD. PLT.
BELOVED SON OF
Wm & MARY A. JOHNSON
MARSH FARM, ASKAM
WHO DIED A PRISONER OF WAR IN GERMANY
AGED 25 YEARS
HE DID HIS DUTY
ALSO THEIR SON
NORMAN
WHO DIED 28TH FEB. 1944
AT REST.

Dennis Johnson appears first on the grave of his brother Norman. Askam residents, and those further afield, have done a great deal of the research on Sgt. Johnson.

Betty Nichols (née Johnson), who lives in the house which overlooks the churchyard, remembers Dennis, although she was only about 5 years old. She remembers that he was engaged to a French girl named Yvette, who visited Marsh Farm after Dennis's death. She thinks Dennis died on a march, probably as the Germans were moving their prisoners of war as the German position became hopeless. She remembers him as being a very nice man and very much loved by his family. [Source]

Dennis was the youngest child of William Langhorn Johnson and his second wife, and had older brothers and a sister, Sarah. The family farmed at Askam (Marsh Farm) and Ireleth (Brookside Farm). Sarah was ten years older than Dennis, and had a good deal to do with his upbringing. She talked fondly of him being tall and handsome.

Sarah’s daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Jones, confirmed that Dennis was captured during the attack on Arnhem (Operation Market Garden) in September 1944. The Market referred to the airborne phase; the Garden to the ground-based fighting. This attempt to shorten the war was dramatized in the film ‘A Bridge Too Far’ (1977) Dir. Richard Attenborough, and failed for a number of reasons: reinforcements couldn’t reach Arnhem from Nijmegen, radios didn’t work to provide effective communications; German resistance was fiercer than expected, and perhaps it was too ambitious in the first place.

September 1944. DJ middle row centre

A letter from the War Office accompanying the photograph of the temporary grave cross, and dated 30 June 1948, read:

‘The inscription on the cross may not agree in every respect with the correct particulars of the deceased at the time of his death, but under present conditions, owing to the shortage or personnel, I regret it is not possible to have the inscriptions on temporary crosses altered.’

CWGC tells us that he was originally buried at Wegschiede POW Cemetery [Source] (T2 19876 Grave 72), and was reburied on 30 September 1947 at Durnbach War Cemetery, 45kms south of Munich. It states

‘The great majority of those buried here are airmen shot down over Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Austria, Hessen and Thuringia, brought from their scattered graves by the Army Graves Service. The remainder are men who were killed while escaping from prisoner of war camps in the same areas, or who died towards the end of the War on forced marches from the camps to more remote areas.’

Another website tells us that he was originally in Stalag XIB, then in 1CB. It also says that he died of dysentery.

The Glider Pilot Regiment:

The War Office decided the glider pilots were to train and fight as soldiers once they were on the ground. They were trained to fight with any weapon used by airborne troops. All were either officers or NCOs. An extremely high degree of intelligence, initiative and discipline was required. Once qualified pilots wore the Army Flying Badge, their numbers reached a peak of 2,500 pilots in 1945. [Source]

Various sources quote a figure for losses by the Glider Pilot Regiment at Arnhem of 90%, either killed, wounded or taken prisoner [Source]. The Regimental website gives a lower figure:

‘Over 1300 pilots landed in Holland and of these 229 were killed and 469 wounded or taken prisoner.’ i.e. 50-55%. [Source]

Brief and accessible accounts of Operation Market Garden can be found at:

There is plenty of other information about Operation Market Garden: