Arnhem75 commemorated the battle during the Second World War. It was at Arnhem in Holland to say the obvious, in September 2019; 75 years after Arnhem0, after the Battle of Arnhem. It was a major airborne attack on the Nazis' war machine in 1944. 10 PARA was just one of the battalions there. 10 PARA goes back each year to the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery. Over 1700 lie there, mainly Brits, Poles, and men of the Commonwealth.
This time they were not so lonely. The crowds were huge. The Telegraph mentions 50,000. They included Charles, Prince of Wales and Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Today children from local schools lay wreaths on the graves at Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery. It takes a lot of children.
Battle of Arnhem ex Wiki
The Battle of Arnhem was a major battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze, Driel, and the surrounding countryside from 17–26 September 1944.The Allies were poised to enter the Netherlands after sweeping through France and Belgium in the summer of 1944, after the Battle of Normandy. Market Garden was proposed by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, who favoured a single thrust north over the branches of the Lower Rhine River, allowing the British Second Army to bypass the Siegfried Line and attack the Ruhr. Allied Airborne troops were dropped in the Netherlands to secure key bridges and towns along the Allied axis of advance. Farthest north, the British 1st Airborne Division landed at Arnhem to secure bridges across the Nederrijn, supported by men of the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade. British XXX Corps were expected to reach the British airborne forces in two to three days.
The British airborne forces landed some distance from their objectives and were hampered by unexpected resistance, especially from elements of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions. Only a small force was able to reach the Arnhem road bridge while the main body of the division was halted on the outskirts of the town. Meanwhile, XXX Corps was unable to advance north as quickly as anticipated and they failed to relieve the airborne troops according to schedule. After four days, the small British force at the bridge was overwhelmed and the rest of the division became trapped in a small pocket north of the river, where they could not be sufficiently reinforced by the Poles or XXX Corps when they arrived on the southern bank, nor by the RAF's resupply flights. After nine days of fighting, the shattered remains of the division were withdrawn in Operation Berlin. The Allies were unable to advance farther with no secure bridges over the Nederrijn, and the front line stabilised south of Arnhem. The British 1st Airborne Division lost nearly ¾ of its strength and did not see combat again.
Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery ex Wiki
The Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, more commonly known as the Airborne Cemetery, is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Oosterbeek, near Arnhem, the Netherlands. It was established in 1945 and is home to 1764 graves from the Second World War besides 4 later non-war graves and there are special memorials of two personnel buried elsewhere. Most of the men buried in the cemetery were Allied servicemen killed in the Battle of Arnhem, an Allied attempt to cross the Rhine in 1944, or in the liberation of the city the following year. Men killed in these battles are still discovered in the surrounding area even in the 21st century, and so the number of people interred in the cemetery continues to grow.
75 years On, Sandy Cortmann Parachutes Into Arnhem Once Again - This Time With A Smile On His Face
QUOTE
Floating down under a parachute onto Ginkel Heath near Arnhem in the Netherlands on Saturday, 97-year-old veteran Sandy Cortmann thought to himself: “It’s nice not to be shot at this time”. Mr Cortmann was just 22-years-old when he last parachuted onto Drop Zone Yankee, one of the launch points for the ill-fated mission to seize Arnhem bridge from the Germans in September 1944.This time, to mark the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, he jumped with the Red Devils, the Parachute Regiment display team, and was greeted when he landed by the Prince of Wales and a peal of applause from thousands of onlookers. Mr Cortmann obligingly waved to the crowds from his wheelchair as he took his place for a memorial service on the Heath, still wearing his red jump suit.
The Prince, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment, and Princess Beatrix of The Netherlands, met veterans of the operation at the service..............
The Prince, wearing a multi-terrain patterned military shirt and trousers with the maroon beret of the Parachute Regiment, laid a wreath during the service bearing the handwritten message: "In everlasting remembrance, Charles."
He later went to Driel to lay a wreath at a service commemorating the Polish paratroopers who took part in Operation Market Garden, and was then due to attend an event at the Hartenstein Airbourn Forces Museum.
Ank Bijleveld, Defence Minister for The Netherlands, said the Dutch people saw the parachutes descending on Ginkel Heath 75 years ago as a picture of hope, “like raindrops after a long dry spell”.....................
The crowd of around 50,000 watched 1,500 parachutists from eight nations jump from a variety of aircraft, from the modern C-130 Hercules to the Second World War vintage Dakotas, the planes that had seen action 75 years ago.............
Minister for Defence People and Veterans, Johnny Mercer, had earlier landed alongside Mr Cortmann, also by a tandem parachute jump with the Red Devils, before the memorial service started.
UNQUOTE
It was more exciting first time and dangerous of course.