 Owing to the Allied withdrawal , the vast majority of their dead had to be left on the battlefield . Here they were buried in simple field graves ( some little more than their own slit trenches ) or in small mass graves dug by the Germans . Kate <unk> <unk> , whose house was used as a first aid post during the battle , found the graves of 57 men in her garden when she returned after the war . After Arnhem was liberated in April 1945 , Grave <unk> Units of the British 2nd Army moved into the area and began to locate the Allied dead . A small field north of Oosterbeek was offered on perpetual loan by the Netherlands government to the Imperial War Graves Commission ( now Commonwealth War Graves Commission ) in June 1945 and the dead were reburied there . Many of those killed during Arnhem 's liberation were also buried at the same site . The cemetery was completed in February 1946 , originally with the graves marked by metal crosses , although these were replaced by <unk> in 1952 . Most of the German dead were buried in the SS Heroes Cemetery near Arnhem after the battle , but reburied in <unk> German war cemetery after the war . 
