John Daniel Baskeyfield, born 18-11-1922, in Burslem/Staffordshire, England, the son of Daniel and Minnie Baskeyfield. He trained and worked as a butcher during the early years of the Second World War, until he received his call up papers in February 1942 at the age of 19. John served as a Lance Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, British Army. “The Staffords”
under command of Major General Percy Ryan Conway Commings,
CB, CMG, DSO. Commings died in 1958 (aged 77−78). John Daniel served with the 2nd Battalion’s anti-tank platoon. The 2nd Battalion was part of the 1st Airlanding Brigade, itself part of the 1st Airborne Division and Baskeyfield accompanied them to North Africa, from where they took part in Operation Ladbroke, the glider-borne element of the Invasion of Sicily in 1943. The division then landed in Italy as part of Operation Slapstick and spent some weeks fighting their way through the country before sailing back to England
The Battle of Arnhem was part of Operation Market Garden, an attempt to secure a string of bridges through the Netherlands. At Arnhem the British 1st Airborne Division , under command of Major General Robert Elliott “Roy” Urquhart CB DSO,
and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade
, under command of Major General Stanisław Franciszek Sosabowski,
were tasked with securing bridges across the Lower Rhine, the final objectives of the operation. However, the airborne forces that dropped on 17 September were not aware that the 9th SS
under command of SS-Oberführer Walter Harzer
and 10th SS Panzer
under command of SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel
, divisions were also near Arnhem for rest and refit. Their presence added a substantial number of Panzergrenadiers, tanks and self-propelled guns to the German defences and the Allies suffered heavily in the ensuing battle. Only a small force managed to hold one end of the Arnhem road bridge before being overrun on 21 September. The rest of the division became trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge and had to be evacuated on 25 September in Operation Berlin. The Allies failed to cross the Rhine, which remained under German control until Allied offensives in March 1945.
Men of the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment advance toward Arnhem, towing a 6 pounder anti–tank gun with them, 18 September.
Owing to a shortage of aircraft, the Allies planned to fly the entire division to Arnhem over three days. The South Staffordshire Battalion was split between the lifts on day one and day two; most of the unit arrived on day one, with the rest arriving with the second lift. The battalion’s anti-tank guns were flown from RAF Manston on day one.
Major General Roy Urquhart’s original plan envisaged the 1st Airlanding Brigade securing the drop zones for subsequent lifts, but by the end of day one the Allied advance into Arnhem had stalled. Only a small group of the 1st Parachute Brigade, mainly elements of Lieutenant Colonel John “Johnny” Frost‘s
2nd Battalion, were able to reach the bridge.
The 1st and 3rd Battalions were unable to penetrate the outer suburbs of the city and their advance stalled, so in order to support them the first lift of the South Stafford’s were sent forward on the morning of 18 September. When the second lift arrived later that day they too were sent forward and arrived at the outskirts of Arnhem that night. The South Staffordshire’s anti-tank platoon was kept in the divisional area.
In the early hours of the morning of 19 September, an attack was launched on a narrow front between the river and the railway line, in order to force a passage through to the bridge. Most of the support weapons were left in the rear, as they were unable to suitably deploy in the dark and in the narrow confines of the urban surroundings. However, in the face of strong enemy positions and armour, the attack faltered and the British were routed.
A 6 pounder anti–tank gun of the Border Regiment engages enemy armour on the western perimeter of Oosterbeek, on the same day as Baskeyfield’s action.
The remnants of the four battalions fell back in disarray to the main divisional positions at Oosterbeek. Here they were gathered into defensive units by Lieutenant Colonel William Francis Kynaston “Sheriff” Thompson,
Commanding Officer of the 1st Airlanding Light Artillery Regiment, who forcibly stopped many of the panicked troops and had Major Robert Cain
form them into a defensive screen half a mile in front of his own 75 Millimetre Howitzers positions. The sector was designated “Thompson Force”, but Thompson actually sent Major Richard “Dickie” Lonsdale
forward to take command of these outlying troops later in the day. Major Richard Thomas Henry Lonsdale died 23-11-1988 (aged 74) in Bath, Somerset, England
The German forces made determined attacks against Lonsdale’s force on 20 September, starting soon after dawn. Baskeyfield was in charge of two 6 pounder anti–tank guns defending a T junction on the Benedendorpsweg, the southernmost road between Arnhem and Oosterbeek. Baskeyfield’s guns faced up the Acacialaan, which joined the Benedendorpsweg from the north, and covered the likely enemy approach along this road and from open ground to the north east. His right flank – to the east – was covered by another anti-tank gun commanded by Lance-Sergeant Arthur Randal Mansell.
Death and burial ground of Baskeyfield, John Daniel.

After Arnhem was liberated in April 1945, Grave Registration Units of the British 2nd Army moved into the area and began to locate the Allied dead. Over 1700 men were buried in the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, but Baskeyfield’s body was never identified. Although several hundred burials in the cemetery are unidentified, there are no records of any unidentified soldiers being exhumed from Acacialaan. Instead Baskeyfield’s name is inscribed on the Groesbeek Memorial which commemorates all those Allied servicemen killed between August 1944 and the end of the conflict who have no known grave. Four more VCs were awarded after the battle, including one for Major Robert Cain, commander of B Company, 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment. The 2nd Battalion thus became the only British battalion to receive two VCs during one engagement in the Second World War.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Staffordshire Regiment Museum in Whittington, Staffordshire. A twice life size memorial statue of him was erected in 1990 at Festival Heights in Stoke-on-Trent, by sculptors Steven Whyte and Michael Talbot.
The John Baskeyfield V.C. Church of England Primary School in Burslem was named after him but was renamed Saint Nathaniel’s Academy on 01-03-2014. Baskeyfield is commemorated by the retirement community at Baskeyfield House, Angels Way, Burslem, built in 2015, and by the Army Reserve Centre, also called Baskeyfield House, at Anchor Road, Stoke on Trent. The artist Terence Cuneo made a painting of Baskeyfield’s action, and in 1969 a Staffordshire filmmaker spent three years making a short film about his role in the battle, entitled Baskeyfield VC.
A tree on the site of Baskeyfield’s second gun, on the corner of Benedendorpsweg and Acacialaan, has been named the Jack Baskeyfield Tree.
Major Robert Cain
was one of five British soldiers to earn a Victoria Cross, the highest British military award, during the Battle of Arnhem. Of these five soldiers, Robert Cain is the only one who survived the Battle of Arnhem. The other were Luitenant John “Jack” Hollington Grayburn,
Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony “Lummy” Lord,
Lance-sergeant John Daniel Baskeyfield, Kapitein Lionel Ernest Queripel.
John Daniel Baskeyfield was buried at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, near Nijmegen. in a grave without name.


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