Arnhem, Operation Market Garden 75th Anniversary.

[TheSignalEngineer]

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden, the attempt to secure a route into Germany via Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. 

 

My Dad was in the Military Police, having landed in Normandy in June 1944, moving up through France and Belgium to Achel, close to the Dutch border about 10 miles south of Eindhoven. His Provost Company was attached to the land forces trying to hold one of the flanks against German counter attacks. Their job on this operation was to try to open up a route through to the drop zones for the airborne landings further north. Unfortunately the operation as a whole was not a success, and the Allied forces ended up camped in the Netherlands until the spring. Had they managed to take control of the Arnhem area the whole story of the end of the war may have been different, but that is history and conjecture.

 

Let us spare a thought for approximately 17000 Allied men killed, wounded or missing during the 9 day operation. It is estimated that the Germans suffered in excess of 7500 casualties in the same period.

Edited September 21, 2019 by TheSignalEngineer

[TheSignalEngineer]

Looking back at the events of the week it struck me when these lads had done (and been through) at such a young age compared with today's generation.

My Dad was at grammar school when WW2 was declared. The school evacuated but he decided to leave at 15 and take a job with Birmingham City Transport which had been vacated by someone who had joined the army. He then joined up at 18, having lived through the Birmingham Blitz, and trained as a rifleman. During the run up to D-Day his unit was allocated to give cover to heavy machine gun troops. At the time volunteers were being asked for to take part in the airborne landings or to join the Military Police. He opted for the latter, landed in Normandy on D+5 and took up duty marking routes for supplies and reinforcements and stints dispatch riding around Bayeux and Caen. At 20 he was at the liberation of Brussels, moving quickly on towards the Dutch border to take part in Market Garden at Eindhoven.

In the spring of 1945 he was moved to the sub-continent where preparations were being made to invade Japan. At 21 he was a Sergeant attached to the Indian Army, being demobbed just short of his 23rd birthday as a CQMS. He was offered a promotion to sign on for another term but decided he didn't want to spend the next year standing between the rival factions in Palestine.

[t-b-g]

My mum had a cousin who was in the Paras and who was badly injured at Arnhem. When we went to the model show at Utrecht we had a few hours free and visited the museum at Oosterbeek.

 

What a moving and rewarding experience that was! We visited the War Cemetery nearby and were astonished at how warm and welcoming the locals were. Their town was almost destroyed and many civilians died because of our operations there yet we were welcomed like long lost friends.

 

I have posted one of these pictures before but now seems a good time to share it and some others.

 

You can still walk through the woods between the house and the river and make out the remains of foxholes and ditches dug as part of the defensive lines and you are in the company of those who were never found after the battle and given a proper resting place.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by t-b-g

[APOLLO]

A Bridge to far - one of my favourite films.

 

The Briefing - "Christ not us again" !!

 

 

Brit15

 

[J. S. Bach]

I have not seen the movie but have read the book; quite a story there.

[Barry O]

Spare a thought for the RAF who took part in Market  Garden.

My father was at Down Ampney.

He flew (as a wireless operator/despatcher) on Day 1 and next flew on Days 5 and 6.  These were,he said,  dicey doz  (this from a man who had flown in Wellington torpedo bombers in the Med).

 

He lost a lot of squadron members in this time. He saw Lord win his VC .

All of the RAF squadrons who took part  suffered heavy losses but seem forgotten about.

They were all very brave.

Baz

[sir douglas]

there is a convoy of period vehicles going through the landings sites and battlefields, last week the tank museum youtube did 2 videos about preparing 3 of their armoured cars to take part. this afternoon my dad has seen photos on facebook that one of the trucks has caught fire

Edited September 22, 2019 by sir douglas

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On ‎21‎/‎09‎/‎2019 at 19:28, Barry O said:

...All of the RAF squadrons who took part  suffered heavy losses but seem forgotten about...

Were my Pa not robbed of speech by his vascular dementia, he - the last survivor of that generation of the family then living near Helmond - would be able to tell you that were not forgotten. Firstly for the supplies dropped for the civilian population. Secondly for greatly diminishing the German Army's effectiveness during operation Market Garden, which was generally sustained until the Allies completed  liberating the area. What with an opponent present on the ground, and loss of daylight mobility enforced by large scale Allied aircover, they had little to no time to harass the civilian population in their once accustomed charming fashion.

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

- the last survivor of that generation of the family then living near Helmond -

My Dad was based at Helmond from the end of Market Garden until he was moved to India in the spring of 1945.

[t-b-g]

I specifically included a photo of the memorial to air crews to ensure they were included.

 

As the son of a former (now late) Group Captain, I thought it was only right and proper to do so.

 

 

[Barry O]

We visited the big Museum near Arnhem many years ago while visiting family in Wildenrath.

 

My father used to tell us that they flew so low on one mission they scraped the chimneys on the house in a street.

 

We found the street, and, sure enough, there were marks on the chimneys of the houses on opposite sides of the road. Then a lady came out of one of the houses and explained how, as a young girl, she had watched an RAF "bomber" fly down the road very low being chased by a German fighter. Dad explained he had been in the plane.. she was amazed he had survived!

 

Big problem was a lack of close in fighter support for the transport planes.

 

Baz

 

[t-b-g]

Flying slow, low and straight in an effort to get the supplies somewhere near our own troops must have seemed like a suicide mission every time they took off but they kept trying.

 

After our visit, I looked out the story of "Theirs is the glory" in which the survivors of the battle were sent back to the area in 1946 to re-enact scenes to create a feature film. The veterans were worried about going back so soon after all the destruction and were not sure what sort of welcome the locals might give them but they needn't have worried. They were greeted like returning heroes.

 

By then, very little had been done by way of repairs so you get a good idea of the state the area was in by the time the battle had finished.

 

It is worth looking up if anybody is interested in the battle.

[monkeysarefun]

Tis on ewetube...

 

 

[t-b-g]

36 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Tis on ewetube...

 

 

 

I know! I put a link at the bottom of my post!

[monkeysarefun]

Hmmmm, not in my browser...

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

8 hours ago, t-b-g said:

...The veterans were worried about going back so soon after all the destruction and were not sure what sort of welcome the locals might give them but they needn't have worried. They were greeted like returning heroes...

 

My Pa and his brother Henk were deeply impressed by several Mosquitos comprehensively ruining a wehrmacht armoured column with rockets; such that some years post war when De Havs came recruiting electronics engineers in Eindhoven he applied for interview on the spot, and landed a job at Hatfield where he got to meet those responsible.

[t-b-g]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Hmmmm, not in my browser...

 

Can't explain why but the link has vanished. After I put the post on, I thought that I would check that it was on youtube and add a link. So I did via the "edit" function.! I was given the choice of "embedding" the video or adding a "link" and I chose the latter.

 

When I responded to your post, the link and the "edit" and the link were there (and working) because I checked before I responded. This morning they are gone and my post is as it was when I first put it on, without the link or the "edit" note..

 

I have no idea why and many apologies for the confusion and thanks for adding the link that I tried to!

 

At least people can find the video if they wish. It isn't high quality in true movie making terms but it is hugely evocative of the events that happened there.

 

 

 

 

[t-b-g]

33 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

 

My Pa and his brother Henk were deeply impressed by several Mosquitos comprehensively ruining a wehrmacht armoured column with rockets; such that some years post war when De Havs came recruiting electronics engineers in Eindhoven he applied for interview on the spot, and landed a job at Hatfield where he got to meet those responsible.

 

My dad did something similar. He was just too young to be involved with WW2 but joined Rolls Royce as an engineering apprentice and got to work with people like Cockerill and Whittle. He knew Barnes Wallis and I got to meet him myself but I was too young to really appreciate who he was or what he had done. He had many friends who had been involved during the war, including a Mosquito pathfinder pilot who had won the DFC but I never found out what he did in any detail as we were always tucked up in bed when they were around for dinner parties and the stories started to come out.

 

Dad saw some action in Korea but spent most of his career in this country looking after Canberras and Vulcans.

 

I have many happy memories of spending school holidays at the end of Scampton runway watching the Vulcan scrambles!

[A Murphy]

I couldn't believe the racket as a couple of Vulcans took off from Scampton...... they were loud.

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair M

[Barry O]

So where two Victoria taking off from Wittering. 

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Two Lancasters recreating the Dambusters training run over Derwent Dam was loud enough for me.

I've seen it done several times by big modern transports but they are just a whisper in comparison.

[TheSignalEngineer]

3 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

 

My Pa and his brother Henk were deeply impressed by several Mosquitos comprehensively ruining a wehrmacht armoured column with rockets; such that some years post war when De Havs came recruiting electronics engineers in Eindhoven he applied for interview on the spot, and landed a job at Hatfield where he got to meet those responsible.

Could even be a crossing of family paths there. From various snippets that came out when my Mom and Dad were interviewed for a living history project at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery a few years ago it seems that a Philips site at Eindhoven was one of the places Dad used to patrol when based at Helmond towards the end of 1944.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

That's THE Philips site at Eindhoven, where my Pa would begin his apprenticeship in 1947 after resuming and completing his education at HBS once peace had properly broken out.

 

If your father had anything to do with the arrest of a group of Dutch teens in Helmond in 1945, then paths probably did cross. Their celebration of VE day involved a considerable quantity of 'liberated' German ordnance. For some reason the allied troops present in the area were a little twitchy about this. Opa (Grandfather) would tell the tale of how he (retired senior civil servant) Dr Lamberti, Kees Groetendorst and other respectable citizens had to go and see the O/C, to pledge that their high spirited teenagers would be made to understand that while at one time the use of liberated German ordnance had been  entirely acceptable, it must now be understood that this was no longer the case, and it was to be surrendered pronto.

 

One of the really interesting aspects of my Pa eventually ending up in Hertfordshire was that nearby was The Frythe, and he got to know some folk who had worked there, including a man who had been part of the effort to produce the Welbrick. Pa's hobby from the time of his youth in Java had been radio, and this was given full employment, he spent much of latter stages of the occupation repairing damaged Welbricks.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I'm not sure when he left Helmond. He was in Holland until at least March 1945 and was transferred to the Indian Command sometime in May 1945.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Straying off-topic a bit, various snippets of family history come to all of us at some time. One was after the death of a great uncle, the youngest of a large family who was in North Africa and Sicily in WW2. He was listed as missing in action on one occasion with several of his unit from the Royal Irish Fusiliers. They said they had 'got lost' behind the enemy lines during a desert patrol, getting back to their unit a few days later with a quantity of German supplies they had somehow managed to 'liberate' including alcohol and cigarettes.