 After the division arrived in England , Ernest Down was posted to India to oversee the formation of the 44th Indian Airborne Division , and was replaced by Major General Roy Urquhart . In September 1944 , for Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands , the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade was attached to the division . Following Market Garden , fewer than 2 @,@ 200 men from the 10 @,@ 000 that were sent to the Netherlands returned to the British lines . Having suffered such severe casualties , the 4th Parachute Brigade was disbanded , with its surviving men being posted to the 1st Parachute Brigade . The division then went through a period of reorganisation , but had still not fully recovered by the end of the war , due to the acute shortage of manpower throughout the British Army in 1944 @-@ 1945 . Still under strength in May 1945 , it was sent to Norway to disarm the German army of occupation ; returning to Britain in November 1945 where the 1st Airborne Division was disbanded . 
