Airey Neave of MI9 arrived in Nijmegen in early October 1944 to assist in the rescue of the British soldiers located near Arnhem and hiding from the Germans. Major Hugh Fraser of the Special Air Service (SAS) joined him as his second-in-command. Nijmegen (captured by the allies in Operation Market Garden) was south of Arnhem with two large river crossings, the Waal and the Lower Rhine separating the two cities. Neave and Fraser found a way to communicate by telephone from Nijmegen to the Dutch Resistance in Ede where many of the British soldiers were hiding and received nightly reports about casualties and evaders. The telephone link was crucial in planning Operation Pegasus I.