By 1944 the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron was an integral part of the British 1st Airborne Division. Men of the squadron, commanded by Major Freddie Gough, had seen action in Italy in 1943 and performed well. Parachute trained and qualified to wear their red berets bearing the spearhead and lightning badge of the Reconnaissance Corps, the recce squadron, equipped with well-armed jeeps, provided a highly mobile and hard-hitting capability. Little wonder then that, when the British planners for the Arnhem operation saw they had an eight-mile gap from the drop zones to the prized bridge at Arnhem, they turned to the recce squadron for a coup de main operation in which the jeeps would zoom ahead of the main column to secure the bridge whilst the slower infantry moved up to consolidate the bridgehead. Gough himself was against this idea, preferring an approach that placed elements of his squadron in advance of each of the three routes of march that the airborne men intended to take to the bridge, but he was overruled.
Gough was right to be nervous. Pushing the recce jeeps in this way was a risky manoeuvre, especially in the face of a prepared
