My youngest wants to know all sorts of things about (modern) history. Has to do with a great teacher at school, History Channel docs and his interest in this sort of things in general. We live somewhat close to the Market Garden 'theatre of operations' so we went on a road trip: trying to re-do the paths of the 1st Airborne Division from the moment they landed and took the roads to the bridge near Arnhem.
First lesson learned: I always assumed that the troops took two roads to the east, but there was a third one as well! 3 parallel routes towards -initially- 3 bridges: the rail bridge, the pontoon bridge near the centre of Arnhem and the 'normal' bridge, just on the SE side of the town.
We visited the heathlands near Wolfheze where the gliders landed and the paras came on the ground. Then we drove east towards Arnhem. We parked the car at Hartenstein, then the 1st Airborne's HQ and took our bikes into Arnhem. We noticed that the grounds around the heathlands are easily defendable for (in this case) German Troops! Although the distance to be covered was only 12 kms from the LZ/DZ to the most-eastern bridge, it took the troops more than 3 days to get there. In the mean time, the Germans had blown up the railway-bridge and the pontoon bridge was unsafe to cross as well. Only the troops that took the northern route managed to reach the bridge, the others: in the middle and the south were pinned down by the germans.
We managed to get there by bike (now: the John Frost Bridge) and almost half of the trip was between houses, estates and large gardens. Easy positions for the Germans to install snipers, machine gun nests etc.
At the same time, Polish Airborn troops landed on the south river bank. That area is as flat as a piece of paper: no hills, hardly any protections. The Germans on the North side of the river managed to bombard the Polish troops with German artillery from the high grounds!
Our guide for this tour was this: https://www.tracesofwar.com/themes/3...-om-Arnhem.htm
This website offers tons of info about WWII in the Netherlands.
In the end, the 1st Airborne had to pull back towards the west, near the HQ in Oosterbeek and finally they had to surrender. Lots of these men managed to escape over the water towards the south in what's called Operation Pegasus.
We returned to the Airborne Museum and took a tour. Very, very impressive. It's displayed from a Polish and British point of view. Of course, there's room for the German side as well (Arnhem only being 20kms from the German border). After the tour, we crossed the road to the War Cemetery. Perhaps one of the most impressive things my youngest and I have done. We walked along the graves, reading names, ages and sometimes a short 'In Memoriam'. My son wondered if it's not 'rude' to stand on the grass between the stones, knowing that there are men under our feet. I told him that walking up to the stones and reading their names, is showing respect for those who are buried there.
We left in silence!
In short: I can only say that this is highly recommended when you're in The Netherlands.
The heathlands near Wolfheze. Pic is taken towards the south, we're driving east towards Arnhem. From there it's just over 12 kms to the bridge.
At the end of the heathlands, this monument.
Inside the HQ: a maps of the troops moving eastwards.
The War Cementery, more or less across the street.
For once a pic of one of my boys. Here paying his respect.
Last edited by thieuster; 25th April 2018 at 18:29.
What an excellent post, thanks. We lost more there than in D-Day. I would love to visit one day.
I recommend a read of a bridge too far followed by it never snows in September. Sobering stuff.
Both books will give you the opinion and the accounts of our troops and the German soldiers.
Our American, Polish and Dutch friends suffered.
A great post and good to read that your son is interested. As a child of the 60’s and with a dad who was in the British army (after ww2) I was raised on war films and these stories. I get the sense that much of the next generation don’t know or really care too much about what happened and the sacrifices made.
Lest we forget....
This week is a school holiday over here and I always try to go out with my youngest - especially since my oldest's sailing escapades take a lot of time. A friend of mine who's a school teacher like me, visited the Airborne Museum last week with his class and was very enthusiastic about the displays, the 'dioramas' and information. He and his class didn't go to the Cemetery, though. That school trip inspired us (my son Mathieu and me) to do a 'road trip'.
We noticed that ±50% of the people attending the museum this afternoon were talking in English. All older people. The other 50% were Dutch-speaking and a lot of them were parents with kids in the age between 12 and 16, like us. The lady behind the counter told us that a lot of Polish people who work here in Holland find their way to the Museum as well - especially the last few years. Perhaps this is because Polish history education highlights this event and museum? She was not sure.
When we drove home, my son was clearly impressed by the number of graves and asked me if there were more cemeteries like this. I told him that the Commonwealth Cemeteries are spotted all over the country and that there are also airmen buried in civilian cemeteries in the eastern part of the country (often shot down during their bombing trips to Germany). I also mentioned the large US Cemetery in Margraten in the Southernmost part of the country. And outside our country the WWI graves in Belgium and WWII graves in Normandy.
This evening he'd dug up 'A Bridge Too Far' on Netflix.
A well-spent day.
Menno
It's good to see someone taking an interest and, as I have noted before (link), the Dutch are very good at preserving the memory of those involved.
In case he's not already aware of them (I suspect that you will already have clued him in), your son may find these links relevant to his interest:
- Apeldoorn (Ugchelen-Heidehof) General Cemetery...mainly aircrew and not related to Market Garden
Thanks for that!
I'd forgotten about Clarkson's work. Nice thing is, that having a Canadian wife, makes listening to English pretty easy in this household. My youngest' English vocabulary and listening skills are more than excellent, so this documentary will not be a problem.
Heidehof, the Cemetery is in the southern part of the town (we live in the north). Perhaps it's nice to address the fact that local Primary Schools have adopted war monuments here in the city. My boys' former Primary School has 3 monuments adopted: the Korean War Monument, the Dutch East Indies War Monument and the Canadian Monument. Mainly because the school is situated in the centre of this 'Monument Triangle' and because the Canadian set up their NW Europe HQ in this town after April 17 when my town was liberated. As a result, the school kids put down flowers on Remembrance Day every year! And the Heidehof Cemetery is adopted by a school with the name Bouwhof School. These youngsters go out on April 17 as well.
Here's a nice website: http://www.ugchelen.org/heidehof/herdenkn.htm with pics of the school kids cleaning and sweeping the Commonwealth Cemetery near their school. Perhaps a little old, but it's still be done these days.
For those interested, Anthony Beevor’s new book ‘Arnhem’ is out soon. On pre-order at Amazon.
He wrote what are pretty much the seminal works on Stalingrad and Berlin so this should be good.
Thanks for that...it's out on 17 May and is now on my books list.Originally Posted by CriticalMass
It follows on from his books D-Day and Ardennes. I found an article about the latter that may be of interest (link):
...As we talk, it is clear that Beevor struggles with these issues. Outside academia, there are few people who are prepared to look unflinchingly at the less flattering parts of our behaviour – and certainly no one with Beevor’s large readership has. What’s more, it is one thing to state that such events happened – an admission that many historians have shied away from – but quite another to know how to react to them. The whole subject runs counter to our most cherished communal myths about British and American heroism and gallantry.
Beevor knows instinctively that he must tread carefully, neither condoning the revenge nor reaching for outright condemnation.
“I think what one should try to do is to leave the moral judgments up to the reader. There’s no use in being judgmental. Far from it; we can only speculate as to how we would react in the circumstances ourselves,” he says.
For the first time in our conversation, he displays a flicker of discomfort...
What struck me after watching Clarkson's documentary late last night is the fact that the Theatre of Operations is so small. And so recognisable in today's landscape, infrastructure and landmarks (buildings, houses). You can easily trace every step set by the paras heading for the bridge! The whole area is not larger than 12 X (estimated) 4 kms, including heathlands, woodlands and buildings. It's really fascinating. All can be done by bike - I know that bikes are popular here on the forum. A few days on the safe Dutch bike paths exploring the Market Garden Route is something I would like to recommend!
In the basement of the museum, several dioramas are very explicit. At on point, the visitor looks through a hole in the wall into a field-hospital. The first thing you notice is a person holding a bible in one hand and holding another man's hand in with his other hand. Then, when you look closely down the hole, you can see a deadly wounded para lying on the floor, partly against the wall. Your mind leads you: one sees a bible and we know what that means in war-time... then we look further into the room and see what we expect to see. A dying soldier. Knowing that it's all a display and that it's all wax figures doesn't help. It's very realistic and in a way shocking.
There was a wall with all sorts of data as well. I never realised that the Germans lost more men than the Paratroopers! That leads me to the question that I really would like to know more about the German side of the story as well. It will not change my opinion about this (like bravery of men who came to liberate our country), but it will fill in blank spots as well. Like the situation that the Germans allowed British Troopers to carry off their wounded (Clarkson's doc). And the German side of the story will also give an answer my son asked: what happened to the men that became PoW? We know that the Germans attitude towards PoW was very different in situations.
I do know what happened with the wounded. They were transported to my hometown, Apeldoorn. First in the newly erected Willem III Barracks (the build had started just before WWII and was finished by the Germans during the war). A lot of the wounded escaped from that hospital, being helped by the local resistance. The Willem III is located next to a large forest and provided easy escape routes to all directions! Then the Germans changed plans; the wounded were transported to a former psychiatric hospital St Joseph and stayed there until April 17, 1945, when the town was liberated. All that time British MOs and staff were running the hospital(s), helped by Dutch nurses - all allowed by the Germans.
Last edited by thieuster; 26th April 2018 at 10:45.
You may find some useful info from the links on the Arnhem 1944 Fellowship Website, in particular Defending Arnhem - the Battle of Arnhem from the German perspective. Unfortunately the latter's page on PoWs is not finished. They do, however, have a page on The Medical Effort (link).
Edit Then there is this blog Oflag IX A/H and Oflag IX A/Z:
I am working at an exhibition on the Jakob-Grimm-Schule in Rotenburg as a camp for POWs to be shown later this year. I would be VERY grateful to you if you could provide me with a photo of your father as a prisoner of war in Rotenburg. Of course, any additional information and/or document is highly welcome...Heinrich Nuhn...www.hassia-judaica.de.
Update For your research try Arnhem 1944 and Prisoners of War, plus Market Garden Veterans Association.
Last edited by PickleB; 26th April 2018 at 11:57.
It's worth reading The History of the Glider Pilots Regiment by Claude Smith, its gives a good insight into the delivery and problems involved in getting equipment into the landing grounds in one of the chapters. Some of the inter service politics talked about then are still applicable today.
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