Archief voor categorie: Nieuwsbrieven

The appearance of this, the 100th Newsletter from the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum, clearly shows the important niche our quarterly magazine occupies for the members. One could almost say that our little ‘newssheet’ has actually become the heart of the society. Since the first number appeared in November 1980, then on a simple A4 page, it has grown into the his torical military magazine that we see today, com plete with the by now renowned Ministory. The ini tial Dutch-language-only Newsletter was soon fol lowed by an English-language edition for our mem bers in the UK, and the (nowadays) 15 other coun tries where society members are to be found. In the first Newsletter Robert Voskuil wrote that its aim was ‘to keep you, the members, up to date with the ups and downs of our Society and, of course, of the Airborne Museum’, and that aim has been abun dantly fulfilled over the last 25 years. The question now is whether or not we continue in this direction at a time when news gathering anddissemination occurs quicker than ever before. The board feels that the provision of news to the soci ety’s members could be different, more up-to-the- minute and, above all, quicker. At present we are looking into other forms, in which of course the internet will fill an important slot. But the Newsletter’s continued existence is assured, certainly where the historical side of the Battle of Arnhem and all that that entails are concerned. The initiative of Chris van Roekel in particular, who at that time wished to see more battle-factual depth in the Newsletter, has become an institution in its own right, by which I mean the Ministory. Newsletter number 10 of May 1983 was accompanied by the first Ministory, written by Chris himself, which con tained the background story of the British carrier pigeons during the Battle. The Ministory has now become an almost scientific article complete with footnotes. Chris can be justifiably satisfied, because his idea of generating more interaction with the members still thrives. It is still the members who take the time and trouble to write these brilliantly documented ministories.

Now that the hundredth edition of the Newsletter has arrived, it just remains for me to offer a word of thanks to all those who, with text and photos, or as volunteers, have helped in its production and distri-bution over the past quarter of a century, and have thereby contributed to the success and continuity of our paper. I would like to give special thanks to Robert Voskuil and Geert Maassen for their effort and creativity. Our thanks also go to Cathrien and Peter Clark who translate the Newsletter and Ministory into English.
And one thing is certain: Airborne news will go on, and the Newsletter will continue to report it!
(Ben Kolster, chairman)

From the editors
In this 100th edition of the Newsletter we of course reflect on the 61st commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem. The number is slightly different than that to which you are accustomed. It contains more pages and is in ‘full colour’, but there is no separate Ministory this time. We chose instead to include two extra-long articles in the Newsletter itself.

Wybo Boersma’s farewell
On 23 September Wybo Boersma retired from his position as director of the Airborne Museum. We marked the occasion in the afternoon of that day by organising a special study programme in the coach house of Huize ‘De Pietersberg’ in Oosterbeek. Four directors from military museums in the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Germany were on hand to give their views on the setting up of a modern exhibition relative to the (changed) demands of the public. This was followed by a reception in the Airborne Museum, where many friends and acquaintances came to thank the departing director personally for all he has done for the museum since 1972. Wybo will continue as a board member of the Airborne Museum Foundation.

Changes in the Foundation s board of management
As of 1 October, Mr J. van Slooten from Oosterbeek resigned from the board as acting chairman of the Airborne Museum Foundation. Mr. Van Slooten came to the conclusion that the museum could be best served by his making way on the board for ‘new blood’. As he himself put it: ‘For the leap into the future the museum needs younger legs than mine’. Mr W.J.M. Duyts, secretary of the Airborne Museum Foundation, has taken over the function of interim chairman. Meanwhile, one of the vacancies on the foundation board has been filled by Mr R.P. Kaarsemaker from Schaarsbergen (Arnhem). Mr Kaarsemaker is an accountant.

AGM 2006
The Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum’s AGM will be held on Saturday 8 April 2006. Location and programme details will be given in the next Newsletter.

News from Niall
We have received the following message from Niall Cherry which nicely rounds off the special weekend that was organised for UK members last June.
‘I would like to thank the organisers and members who took part in the special weekend, and express the hope that everyone enjoyed him-/herself. After returning to the UK I received an e-mail from one of the participants who gave the weekend a ‘satisfac¬tion mark’ of 11 on a scale of 1 to 10!! The weather was beautiful, and almost everything went accord¬ing to plan. The only minor problem was caused by the few closed roads we encountered on our trip to the Groesbeek area. I found it a fantastic weekend and, as on previous occasions, I learned a lot.
I hope we shall be able to organise a similar excur¬sion in 2007. I already have eight bookings for such a trip!
I would also like to thank everyone who sat down to dine on Sunday evening at the ‘Captain’s Table’ in the Schoonoord restaurant. It was a fitting finale to a memorable weekend. The UK representative even rendered a number of members speechless when, after allowing his wallet one of its rare visits to the outside world, he offered to buy a round of drinks! Members interested in the provisional 2007 week¬end excursion are welcome to contact me*.
(Niall Cherry)

Ted Shaw’s ashes interred
Arnhem veteran Edward Ernest (Ted) Shaw passed away at his home in Newton Abbot on 21 July 2005. He was 86 years of age.
In September 1944 Lieutenant Shaw commanded C Troop, 1st Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, Royal Artillery. He was later awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during the Battle of Arnhem. He was a regular visitor to Oosterbeek after the war where, on most occasions, he was the guest of the Fennema family in Benedendorpsweg. For many years Ted represented the SFAM in the UK, and liaised between the veterans in England and the commemoration organisations in the Netherlands. But he was better known for the fact that, for a number of years, he and two schoolchildren placed flowers at the foot of the ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ in the Airborne Cemetery at the completion of the official wreath¬laying ceremony.
His ashes were laid to rest in the Airborne Cemetery on 16 September 2005 in the presence of a large number of people. The Reverend R.A.W. Boyce led the service. The small casket containing his ashes was buried in one of the pathways, immediately behind the headstone of Sergeant T.B. Rae, 7th Battalion The King’s Own Scottish Borderers. A wreath was also laid on behalf of the Friends’ Society.

Facelift for ‘Social Evenings’
Over the years it has become a tradition for the SFAM to organise a Social Evening in the Airborne Museum during February and/or March. The gener¬al programme was that a few members would exhibit part of their collection, and a tour would be made of the museum’s archives and restoration area under expert guidance.
On the initiative of the museum’s new director Mr Frans Smolders, the number of Social Evenings is to be increased and given a slightly different look. In 2006 it is the intention to organise several evening meetings which will be held in the upper room of the Kleyn Hartensteyn Restaurant in Oosterbeek. A guest speaker, either from within the society or out¬side, will be invited for each Social Evening. The speaker will give a talk on a specific subject related to Operation Market Garden. The subject could be the results of research, discussion of a publication with which the speaker is involved or has read, an unusual battlefield find, etc, etc. It is not intended that the entire evening should be given over to an in-depth discourse: that is the purpose of the theme afternoons. The ‘socials’ must have a Tow threshold’ character which, in principle, will encourage every¬one to dare to contribute. Afterwards, things can be discussed and information exchanged and talked about over a drink. The future aim is that the sub¬jects to be dealt with during the Social Evenings will be announced on the Airborne Museum’s website. Our former chairman Chris van Roekel will open the batting. On 25 January 2006 he will give a talk enti¬tled ‘No one holds the copyright on the past’. It will include a critical dissertation on the literature about the Second World War, and the degree to which this can have a guiding role in the updating of the Airborne Museum.
Should you be interested in giving a talk on one of the future Social Evenings, please contact our secre-tary Mr Ivar Goedings, c/o Airborne Museum or via e-mail goedings@van-lotringen.nl.
A long-cherished wish granted
One of the items the Airborne Museum has been searching for for years is a Eureka beacon. In September 1944 Eureka radio-beacons were used by the 21st Independent Parachute Company to indi¬cate the dropping and landing zones. These beacons transmitted a signal to the approaching aircraft where it was captured by the machines’ Rebecca receiving equipment. The signal was converted into a visual display which was shown on the screen of an ‘Indicating Unit Type 6E’. This enabled the pilot to identify the correct positions of the dropping and landing zones. It was also possible to transmit and receive short messages.
During the Battle of Arnhem the ‘Pathfinders’ were probably equipped with some 48 Eureka beacons, two of which were apparently lost. The Airborne Forces Museum in Aidershot has one incomplete Eureka, and there is one in the Netherlands of the type used at Arnhem, which consists of a transmit-ter-receiver and a power unit. At my farewell, and to my great surprise, I was presented with a Eureka Mk II Transmitter-Receiver TR 3174 by a Mr Van Riet from Arnhem. As the possessor of a complete unit he was aware of our wish. I handed the Eureka over to the Airborne Museum, so as well as the American Eureka, the ‘AN/PPN 1’, we now have a British ver¬sion. We are still short of a few components, but without doubt we shall come across them some¬where over the coming years.
(Wybo Boersma)

‘General Service Medal’ for Don Jacobs
Don Jacobs is known by many as the man whose job it is to manage the Airborne Museum’s photo archives, a job he has done since 1990. It is less well- known that before then he was employed in many different jobs in several different countries across the world. Don served in the British army with the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), being stationed in the Suez Canal Zone in Egypt from 1954 until 1956. He recently received the General Service Medal with the ‘Canal Zone clasp, fifty years after that particular period of his service. Don left the REME in 1960, after which he took up employment with an American oil concern, working in such places as Libya and Borneo. He then became a driver-school instructor in London, as well as sell¬ing insurance and books. He later moved to Norway where he worked as a mountain guide employed by a Youth Hostel. He returned to the UK in 1965 where he managed a Youth Hostel in Dover before becom¬ing the assistant manager of a Ford garage. In 1966 he went to live in the Netherlands and worked in various jobs at ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) in Rozenburg near Rotterdam.
He retired in 1990, and, as mentioned above, since then he has worked part-time at the Airborne Museum as a volunteer.

‘Mary of Arnhem’
During the farewell reception on 23 September, retiring director Wybo Boersma presented the Airborne Museum with a farewell gift, an ‘Ausweis no. 2163’, dated October-December 1944 in the name of Helen Sensburg. This British lady was mar¬ried to a German. She worked as a typist at the ‘Reichs Rundfunk Gesellschaft’, where she was part of the ‘Landergruppe England’. In 1944 she became editor of the ‘Kampfsender Amheim’.
After the invasion (June 1944) the German minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, gave the order to acti-vate the radio transmissions aimed at allied forces. These transmissions came from Italy, France (Calais) and Belgium (Brussels). When these transmitters could no longer be used, Hilversum (the Netherlands) gained in importance. One of the transmitters there was the English language station Radio Arnhem. Helen Sensburg became its editor. Her colleague and deputy was Gerda Eschenberg, also a typist at the RRG. Besides these two ladies there was a third editor whose name is unknown. There were various other German and Dutch employees as well. The station went on air for the first time on 10 October 1944, but from Lopik, not Arnhem.
The station was a great success, mainly because it broadcast a lot of the popular music of the day and letters from POWs. Helen became known as ‘Mary of Arnhem’. The radio station is mentioned in several books which deal with the allied units that fought in the Netherlands in 1944-1945. The last broadcast was made on Wednesday 23 March 1945, and when the war ended a frantic search was made for ‘Mary of Arnhem’. For example, we know of a 1945 photo nf British servicemen in Arnhem who had dressed un a shop dress-model and added the caption ‘Mary of Arnhem’. She was eventually arrested by a Canadian and a Dutch officer (Wenkenbach), and nut behind bars. However, it seemed there were no official documents about her, and when this became apparent it seems she was released for no obvious reason. In 1948 her colleague Gerda Eschenberg published an article in the ‘Horzu’ paper, entitled ‘Ich war Mary von Amheim’ (I was Mary of Arnhem), which was untrue.
There is absolutely no trace of the actual ‘Mary of Arnhem’. Via contacts with collectors of militaria, Wybo succeeded in tracking down this Ausweis, and it is now part of the Airborne Museum’s collection.

Re-interment of British servicemen
In three recent Newsletters my highly appreciated namesake Geert Maassen wrote about, in his opin¬ion, the very slow, bureaucratic and unsympathetic manner in which the British Ministry of Defence deals with the issue of the finds of British service¬men’s remains in the surroundings of Arnhem. This criticism is understandable and undoubtedly stems from a deep ‘debt of honour’ feeling towards the allies who gave their lives during the fighting. This does him credit, which I greatly admire. Neverthe¬less, I am persuaded to think that Geert’s – well¬intended – views need a little tempering. I believe that a coloured picture has arisen which does not do justice to the efforts of the department responsible for this issue, namely the MoD-JCCC at Innsworth. From there this clarification.

The policy of the British government
The Ministry of Defence prefers to leave graves undisturbed, even an anonymous field grave. This means they have no active tracing policy (the same as in the Netherlands). However, should such a field grave be discovered by accident (building work, metal detection) they will do everything in their power to identify the remains, trace the next-of-kin and rebury the victim in a fitting manner. In the Netherlands this is done in close co-operation with the Burial Unit of the Dutch Army. This also applies to aircraft wrecks that still contain human remains. In principle these wrecks are left untouched out of respect for any remains contained within (an aircraft wreck has in fact the status of a field grave). But if a wreck represents a danger to safety or public order (such as possible unstable explosives on board), or is in the way of building work, the British government has no objection to recovery. Any crew remains ound will be buried in one coffin to symbolise their c ose bond. The Dutch government respects and conforms to the Ministry of Defence’s policy.
The Joint Casualty & Compassionate Centre’
ealing with human remains is a time-consuming Pr°cess that has to be carried out with care and in ic many emotions must be taken into account, or examp e, the impact on next-of-kin and veter¬ans, social/legal issues, involvement of the relevant
regiment etc. The tracing of 60 year old medical records for verification, or the tracing of next-of-kin, can take a lot of time. Until last year the British Army, Navy and Air Force each had its own Casualty & Compassionate Cell. On 11 April 2005 the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre was opened at Innsworth, Gloucestershire, where all the individual ‘Cells’ are now concentrated. This reorganisation took about two years, so it is not surprising that this has led to some delay in a number of investigations. The JCCC is managed by Wing Commander (retired) Hugh Gray-Wallis, and has the job of dealing with all military victims from the United Kingdom, whether they died in 1944 in Oosterbeek or in 2005 in Iraq. Up till now the co-operation between the JCCC and the Burial Unit has been very successful and prom¬ises a lot of perspective for the future. The JCCC Historic & Deceased Estates section is responsible for the WWII Commonwealth victims and goes about its work extremely thoroughly, and could be called exceptionally ‘open’ and approachable. The recent fruitful developments show that all requests for information or documentation are dealt with very energetically and by return. The suggestion that the Ministry of Defence places no copies of doc¬uments at the disposal of the Burial Unit is there¬fore based on a misunderstanding.
In fact, in 2006, and through the care of the JCCC, a British Airborne soldier will receive the military honour that is his due at the cemetery in Oosterbeek: L/Sgt Edward Hartley from the MMG Pin, S-Coy, 1 Border. The JCCC has already succeed¬ed in tracing his daughter. The remains of L/Sgt Hartley were unearthed in 1984 at the Kerkpad in Oosterbeek, but owing to the fact that a RE cap badge was found in the grave, he was buried in 1989 as an unknown Royal Engineer. In 2004 the Burial Unit was nevertheless able to identify him with the aid of his dental records.
Ergo:patience is a virtue. The absence of communication does not mean that nothing is actually being done. Identification investigations take a lot of time, as does the search for next-of-kin and the arrange¬ment of reburial. Complex interests sometimes play a role which at first glance are not apparent. It could be that the regiment responsible for the ceremony is serving in a war zone and its return is awaited. So it has absolutely nothing to do with laxity, lack of will, or a ‘low priority’ attitude. All organisations involved do their utmost; of this you can be certain. For information simply contact the Burial Unit or the British Embassy. They will be only too pleased to be of service as far as they can (and are allowed). Don’t be tempted into meddling in the process by, for instance, conducting independent research or contacting next-of-kin. You run the risk of uninten-tionally causing more harm than good. Leave this delicate work to the JCCC staff; that’s what they are trained for. Give them the chance to do it.
(Geert Jonker, SMI, Burial Unit, Royal Netherlands Army).

 

Plaque for Dreyeroord
As usual after the annual commemoration at the Airborne Cemetery in September this year, the vet-erans of the 7th (Galloway) Battalion the King’s Own Scottish Borderers (Airborne) again held their reunion. This reunion has been held for many years at the Hotel Dreyeroord in Graaf van Rechterenweg, Oosterbeek. The Van der Straaten family, long-time owners of the hotel, receive the veterans with open arms, the coffee is ready, and after the usual speech from Henk Duinhoven, soup and rolls are served. The ‘Borderers’ call the hotel the ‘White House’ for the simple reason that, for them in 1944, the name Dreyeroord was almost impossible to pronounce correctly… as is the case today.
This year, after a word of welcome, a fine plaque was unveiled next to the hotel door to commemo¬rate the fierce battle fought by the Borderers in and around the building between 19 and 22 September 1944. More than thirty of them died during the fight¬ing and were given temporary graves in the garden. The text was written by Major Michael Forman, commander of B Company during the battle. Sadly, Major Forman passed away earlier this year. The plaque, an initiative of Robert Sigmond, was made by Shuggie Hoskins from Scotland.

“The Royal Air Force at Arnhem Glider and re-supply missions in September 1944’
Much remains to be told about the Battle of Arnhem, among the latest offerings being ‘The Royal Air Force at Arnhem. Glider and re-supply missions in September 1944’, a book about the RAF’s part in the glider and re-supply flights to Arnhem. It is written in English by Luuk Buist, Philip Reinders and Geert Maassen, all three

‘Friends of the Airborne Museum’.
It was an enormous logistical problem to transport the 1st British Airborne Division and the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group in three days, some 12,000 men, with their transport, artillery, communication equipment, and enough ammuni¬tion, food and medical supplies for the first few days. A total of 1,260 transport aircraft and 663 glid¬ers were needed to take the troops to Nijmegen (the 1st Airborne Corps HQ) and to Arnhem. Where pos¬sible they avoided German AAA positions, flying over liberated areas where they could. On the way they were escorted by several squadrons of fighter aircraft. The first aircraft to depart on 17 September carried the ‘Pathfinders’, whose job it was to mark the dropping and landing zones. The tugs and glid¬ers left next.
The personal accounts of crew members virtually take us on board during the flight to Arnhem. In the eight days of missions we experience the weather conditions, the flak, the injuries from ground fire, the return flight(s) of crippled aircraft or the crash of an aeroplane. Clear tables indicate the airfield, the first pilot, the aircraft with number, and the depar¬ture and return times of each squadron involved. All unsuccessful glider and re-supply flights and crash¬es are given with the description of the aircraft con-cerned. No sorties were flown on 22 September and the last missions took place on 25 September. A brief day-by-day sketch is painted of the situation on the ground, the weather, if the northern or southern route was taken and the number of fight¬er squadrons employed, providing an excellent pic¬ture of the situation on the ground and in the air. After describing the glider and re-supply flights the book tells us something of the German AAA, the flak, at Arnhem. Here too personal stories by German flak gunners are included, which give a vivid account of their destructive work. In the next chapter Philip Reinders describes six crash sites as they appear 58 years after the battle. In the chapter ‘The aircraft and their Squadrons , all sixteen squadrons, with airfield, commander, crest, number and total sorties flown, are described. A table shows which ground unit used which type of navigation aid to guide the incoming aircraft. ‘Containers, pan¬niers and parachutes’ describes these and the roller track used for ejecting the panniers from the air¬craft. A list of supplies dropped completes this chapter. A further list of aircraft, their emergency landings and crashes per aircraft, the names of the crew members and their fate, and a ‘Roll of Honour’ introduce the last chapter, which mentions the dec¬orations awarded for Arnhem.
The authors have done admirably, and carried out a tremendous amount of research. The personal sto¬ries bring you close to events, making for a gripping book that allows you to experience the huge achievements of the RAF aircrews. The book reads easily, is 200 pages long, well illustrated, and pub¬lished by the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum. This book is more ‘accessible’ compared with the two books by Arie-Jan Hees, “nigs and Gliders to Arnhem’ and ‘Green On!’, which also touch on the same subject. However, the two books mentioned are more in the form of reference works which deal with the subject in much greater detail. ‘The Royal Air Force at Arnhem. Glider and re-sup- ply missions in September 1944’ costs € 37.50. (Okko Luursema)

‘All Men are Brothers’
That is the title of a recently published ‘Roll of Honour’ dedicated to the 93 parachutists of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group and the three Polish pilots who died at Arnhem. It was compiled by Andries Hoekstra from Arnhem, who with this book wishes to contribute to the rehabili-tation of the brigade and its commander, Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski.
For the capture of the bridge at Arnhem in September 1944, the British 1st Airborne Division was reinforced by the Polish Parachute Brigade. The 1,500-man strong brigade was scheduled to land south of the Rhine bridge on 19 September 1944, but because of bad weather conditions only part of the brigade was dropped two days later. Even then it was at Driel, not at the Rhine bridge. The material flown m earlier by glider was nearly all lost during the landing at ‘Johannahoeve’. The Poles had virtually no means of crossing the Rhine, but some 350 men did manage to reach the north bank of the

river. The rest of the brigade fought on at Driel, and kept the way open for the 2,000 British troops to reach their own lines following the withdrawal across the Rhine during the night of 25/26 September 1944. Later, the British army command¬ers largely blamed the Poles, quite unjustifiably, for the failure of the Battle of Arnhem.
The book is in Polish and English. It begins with a chapter on the history of the brigade and its com-mander General Sosabowski, followed by the ‘Roll of Honour’. The left hand pages give the personal details of each soldier who died and a portrait pho¬tograph. The right-hand pages carry a large colour photo of the relevant grave. The title of the book is taken from a dramatic moment from the Battle of Arnhem in which a Polish soldier died in the arms of a Medical Corps soldier. His last words were ‘Why all this misery? All men are brothers’.
The book was presented on Friday afternoon 16 September 2005 in an open area in the woods close to De Westerbouwing restaurant in Oosterbeek, a spot which gives a panoramic view of the former battlefield at Driel. The first copy was presented to the grandson of General Sosabowski, Michael Sosabowski, in the presence of several Polish veter¬ans and the Polish Ambassador to the Netherlands. ‘All Men are Brothers’ can be ordered via the www.marketgarden.com website and from various bookshops in the Arnhem area. It costs € 22,50.

Banner of the Polish parachutists presented to the Airborne Museum
At the end ofWW II most of the Polish parachutists who fought at Arnhem did not return to Poland, preferring to remain in Britain. On 25 February 1948 they set up the ‘Polish Airborne Forces Association’ in England with Walny Zjazd as its first president. Only when the Cold War ended, could parachutists who lived in Poland become members. On 14 September 1959 the association was presented with a banner in Driel. The money for this was col¬lected by the inhabitants of the places where the Poles had fought.
Over the years the number of members had fallen to such an extent that this year the association took the decision to disband and have their banner housed in the Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’. The banner was handed over on the steps of the muse¬um on 18 September. The ceremony was conduct¬ed by the then president Major (Retd) T.J. Herman and the General Secretary Madame Lieutenant (Retd) I. Hrynkiewicz, in the presence of the Polish veterans who had attended the 61st commemora¬tion that weekend. Wybo Boersma accepted the banner on behalf of the Airborne Museum Foundation. It will be on permanent display in the museum as a reminder of the efforts of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group in September 1944.

Captain Killick’s Luger pistol
One of the well-known series of photos of a British patrol in Weerdjesstraat at Arnhem taken by pho-tographer Sem Presser on 18 September 1944, shows Captain John Killick carrying what is obviously a German Luger pistol. Niall Cherry wrote to Sir John Killick in 2003, and one of the questions he asked was ‘How did you come by that German weapon?’ Sir John replied: ‘I certainly didn’t have a Luger before I went to Arnhem. While on my way to Arnhem after landing on 17 September I came across a deserted German HQ in De Tafelberg hotel in Oosterbeek. Only later did I learn that it was the headquarters of German Army Group B! It seems that Model and his men had left in some haste because their lunch was still on the table. After a quick look round I felt a bit isolated, so I went on my way on the German motorcycle I had found some¬where and rejoined the 1st Parachute Brigade HQ.
I then received permission to return to the German HQ with one of my men for a more detailed look. If we had had the time for a really thorough search the place would certainly have provided a gold¬mine of information. We ‘confiscated’ a few Lugers, and I replaced my .38 Smith and Wesson with one of them. I put the Smith and Wesson on the motor¬cycle, which eventually I had to abandon just before reaching the Rhine bridge in Arnhem. I never saw it again’.

Ministories on CD-Rom
Requests for old Ministories are still regularly received, but unfortunately some have been unavailable for a very long time. In an endeavour to meet these requests our former chairman Chris van Roekel has scanned all the Ministories up to and including number 88, and put them on a CD-Rom. Dutch and English editions will be available at a cost of € 20.

Ede in Wapenrok’ reprinted
The book ‘Ede in Wapenrok’ (Ede in Uniform) was published in May 2004. It was written by society member Evert van de Weerd in conjunction with Gerjan Crebolder. This study deals with two cen¬turies of military history in the municipality of Ede, and includes wide coverage of the Battle of Arnhem. The publication was mentioned in Newsletter No. 94, and was quickly sold out.
However, a modified and expanded version has recently been published. A DVD entitled ‘De Bevrijding van deVeluwe 1945′ (The liberation of the Veluwe 1945) which shows pictures of the airborne landings in 1944, the liberation of Arnhem, Ede-De Klomp, Lunteren, Barneveld, Nunspeet, Harderwijk and Apeldoorn, and the German capitulation in Wageningen is included as well. There are also ama-teur pictures of the liberation parade in 1985. This 40-minute long DVD can be bought separately for € 5,50. Order from bookshops or direct via www.bduboeken.nl.

Military Library Research Service Ltd
We would like to draw your attention to the excep-tional publishing house mentioned in the above title. The house has been in existence for 18 months. The Military Library Research Service (MLRS) specialises in the publication of original source material about various military subjects, including the Second World War. These cover reports originally issued in small numbers, and in most cases reside in official British, Canadian and American archives. MLRS has reached agreement with such bodies as the National Archives in London (the former Public Record Office) and the Canadian National Archives, to photocopy certain documents in their collections, to duplicate and publish them. One of MLRS’s directors is military historian David Westwood, who served with the Parachute Regiment from 1962 until 1966. Because of this he has a great interest in the history of air¬borne forces.
A major project with which they are involved at present is the publication of a series of ‘Cabinet Papers’. These are official reports, in this case about military operations, which were compiled shortly after the war by staff officers from the war diaries of the units involved. These reports were intended for use as the basis for the yet to be published ‘Official Histories’. The interesting point about these Cabinet Papers is that they concern documents which record events as factually as possible. They there¬fore give as complete a picture as possible, as yet ‘untainted’ by political opinions.
One of the recent issues in this series is ‘Operation MARKET GARDEN and the Battle of Arnhem’ (CAB 44/252 & CAB 44/254). This report is sub-divided into three chapters entitled ‘HQ 21 Army Group’, ‘21 Army Group Operations 29 Aug. to 30 Sep. 44, excluding operation “MARKET GARDEN” and Second Army operations 27 to 30 Sep. 44’ and ‘Operation “MARKET GARDEN” and Second Army operations 27 to 30 Sep. 44’. All possible aspects of the planning and execution of the different opera¬tions are described in detail.
Without going into too much detail about the con¬tents, one can rest assured that we have here an almost inexhaustible source of information. At the back of the book are reduced-size maps in colour and aerial photos on which all manner of information is marked. This 322-page report should have a place in the library of anyone seriously interested in operation ‘Market Garden’! The price is £ 49.
MLRS has a website, www.mlrsbooks.co.uk, which contains all the works so far published. New titles are added to the site each week. All publications can also be ordered from the website. It is a fine initia¬tive of a few enthusiastic people to make source material from archives accessible to everyone, and the (amateur) historian will undoubtedly find it of great use. Highly recommended!
(Robert Voskuil)

‘Airborne Battle Wheels’ booklet
This year the ‘Airborne Battle Wheels Oosterbeek’ (ABWO) foundation celebrated its tenth anniversary. To mark the occasion a jubilee booklet was pub¬lished in September which gives a more-or-less photographic overview of the ABWO’s re-enactment activities over recent years.
The ABWO members are mainly Dutch, British and Polish, who are equipped with original vehicles, uni-forms, various pieces of equipment and (disabled) weapons, all of the type used by the British airborne troops in 1944. Every year a large ‘army camp’ is erected for the period of the Battle of Arnhem com-memorations. This year it was built in the grounds of the J.P. Heije foundation in Oosterbeek. During the commemorations the ABWO organises various events, including the ‘Race to the Bridge’ and the reconstruction of a position of a troop of 75 mm Howitzers, and takes veterans for trips in old army vehicles.
Photographs of all these activities are contained in the booklet which, though intended principally for members, could also be of value to people interest¬ed in re-enactment. It gives an excellent impression of the atmosphere within the club and of the com-prehensive collection of vehicles and material they have at their disposal. The text in ‘Airborne Battle Wheels Oosterbeek, 10th anniversary’ is in Dutch and English, but the captions are in English only. It is a nicely produced book which was compiled by Ramon Berlauwt and published by R.N. Sigmond Publishing in Renkum. The booklet is available in the Airborne Museum and at the Oosterbeek book¬shops, price € 13,50.

Commemorative envelope 2005
On 17 September 2005 the Airborne Museum issued its annual commemorative envelope, the tenth in the series with ‘Monuments of the Battle of Arnhem’ as subject. The envelope shows the monu¬ment to the people of Gelderland to remember the support they gave the British and Polish soldiers of the 1st British Airborne Division in September 1944. The monument, which is near the Hartenstein, was unveiled in September 1994 by General Sir John Hackett as part of the 50th commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem. In 1944 General Hackett, then Brigadier, commanded the 4th Parachute Brigade.
The issue consists of 250 numbered copies, each of which being franked on 17 September 2005 at the Oosterbeek Post Office. Copy No. 1 was given to the Leader of the Pilgrimage 2005, Colonel John Waddy. The commemorative envelopes are for sale in the Airborne Museum, Oosterbeek, for € 3,50. The issue of this envelope ends the ‘Monuments of the Battle of Arnhem’ series.
A limited number of envelopes from previous years are still available in the museum to enable you to complete your set. See also website: www.airborne- museum.com.

Batenburg saved from disaster!’
A raw, wet, cold wind blows across the south English countryside. It is still early in the morning of Thursday 21 September 1944, the 5th day of the the crash in Dieden near Batenburg, where it was serving as an access gate to some pig pastureland.
Battle of Arnhem, as the personnel of Fairford airfield in Gloucestershire, the home base of 190 and 620 Squadrons, Transport Command, RAF, go about their work. The initial preparations have been made to ready the transport aircraft scheduled to fly re¬supply missions today. They will be taking supplies to the men of the 1st British Airborne Division near the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek, about eight kilometres from Arnhem.

A total of 117 British transport aircraft from various airfields in England will be taking part in this day’s sorties, including 21 Short Stirling aircraft from Fairford. This will be no pleasure trip, as the RAF air-crews are well aware. They know that their col¬leagues have had a rough time on previous mis¬sions, suffering heavy losses in aircraft and men. The British ground troops at Oosterbeek have been involved in heavy fighting for days now, and have been driven into a corner by the Germans. There is a shortage of heavy weapons, ammunition, food and other necessities, and the RAF crews are very conscious of the fact that the ground troops depend on them for the delivery of their supplies.
Once the aircraft have been topped up with fuel and ammunition, the supplies to be dropped are loaded with great care. While the machines undergo a final check, headquarters staff brief the crews with the final details needed for a successful flight. The weather forecasts are anything but favourable. Clearer weather is expected in the afternoon so the mission is scheduled to begin around midday. Because of the large number of aircraft involved m the sortie it has been decided to fly in in four waves. Fifteen of the 21 Fairford machines go as the third wave, taking off between 12.10 and 12.20 British time one hour behind Dutch time.
One ’of the re-supply aircraft flying today is Short Stirling LJ-833 (190 Sqn) flown by Flight Lieutenant A Anderson and his crew. Around noon they receive permission to take off, and away they go. Flight Lieutenant Anderson heads for the agreed assembly point, and searches for the rest of the formation. The aircraft then fly in formation to the dropping zones near Oosterbeek. The flight goes smoothly with no interference from flak or enemy aircraft. However, as they fly over the Netherlands, the American fighters promised for their protection fail to materialise, much to everyone’s astonishment. Shortly afterwards they are attacked by German fighter aircraft, and as they begin their approach to the dropping zone, the formation flies into a net¬work of anti-aircraft fire. The aircraft are given a hammering, which hinders the supply drop, but once the supplies are gone the single thought in every crew member’s mind is to get away from this deadly spot as quickly as possible. The return flight to the safe south begins immediately.
Suddenly Flight Lieutenant Anderson’s aircraft is attacked on all sides by flak and fast-approaching German fighters. One of the Stirling’s engines receives a direct hit and stops, and then a wing bursts into flames. There is some panic on board, and the crew of LJ-833 have their work cut out keep¬ing the crippled machine in the air. They are unable to shake off the vicious, hostile German fighters. The fire in the wing is out of control: a hopeless sit¬uation. The aircraft is losing height fast, so the order to bail out is given, the order for the men to get out immediately by parachute. The Stirling is at 500 feet, and the men have yet to jump, and as the battered aeroplane approaches the river Waal two men bail out in a hurry. In the meantime the German fighters persist in their attacks, hoping to administer the coup-de-grace.
Flight Lieutenant Anderson decides to try a belly- landing with the barely-flyable, burning Stirling, and starts looking for a suitable spot to set it down. To his horror a small town appears from nowhere, dead ahead. The population of that town, Batenburg, fears the worst as they see the groaning, blazing machine approaching. A crash among the closely-packed houses would be a catastrophic dis¬aster, because there are many, many farms with thatched roofs. As if by a miracle Flight Lieutenant Anderson manages to guide his Stirling past the town. Almost immediately it hits the waters of the river Maas, breaks up on impact and sinks.
Three members of the crew are saved by people from Batenburg who have rushed to the scene. Sadly, the rescuers arrive too late for the other crew¬men: the river Maas is too cold and the currents are too treacherous. A few days later three bodies are washed up between Batenburg and Appeltern. The two men who bailed out do not survive, and one other RAF airman is listed as missing. In mid-June 1946 the wreck of LJ-833 is recovered from the Maas, and during the recovery the body of navigator Flying Officer Adamson is found.
Of the 21 aircraft that left Fairford for the re-supply mission on 21 September 1944, nine failed to return. Sixty years on, part of an aircraft is discovered by chance in Dieden, a Brabant village near Batenburg. The aircraft part is built into an access gate to a pig pasture. Historical research by J. Arts, amateur his-torian with the Local History Group Megen, Haren and Macharen, quickly concludes that it is part of the landing gear of Short Stirling LJ-833 from Batenburg. Together with ‘Het Batenburgs Erfgoed’ and the owner of the access gate J. Arts finally suc¬ceeds in finding a fitting ‘last home’ for the aircraft component. A monument! Yes, a fitting monument had to be raised in honour of the servicemen who died saving Batenburg from disaster. On 21 Sep¬tember 2004, sixty years after the tragic event, a monument was unveiled on the Ringdijk at Batenburg, close to the point where the crash hap¬pened.
Because it coincided with the 60th commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem, the unveiling of the monu¬ment did not receive the attention it deserved. Therefore, Short Stirling LJ-833 was remembered on Wednesday 21 September 2005. This time it was an exceptional commemoration. Besides representa¬tives from the British and Dutch air forces, the cer¬emony was given an extra-special tint with a fly¬past by an historic British aircraft. After the wreath¬laying, a Dakota from the ‘Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’ did a number of low fly-bys, a true tribute to the young, dead servicemen.
The servicemen from 190 Squadron who died were: Flight Lieutenant A. Anderson (RAF), Flying Officer A. Adamson (RAF), Flight Sergeant W. Tolley (RAF), Flight Sergeant A. Bellamy (RAF), Flight Sergeant G.F. Conry Candler (RAF) and Driver A. Abbott (Air Despatches RASC).
Sixty-one years ago they gave their young lives on Dutch soil for our so precious freedom.
(Jac. Arts, Groote Woordstraat 5, 5368 AH Haren, tel.
0412 462592, e-mail: s.arts@planet.nl)

Monument to the Resistance of Arnhem
Sixty years after the end of the Second World War the town of Amhem now has a monument to the memory of the organised civilian resistance to the German occupier in the period 1940-1945. The memorial is affixed to the rear elevation of the Musis Sacrum building, and was unveiled on 17 September 2005 by the lady burgomaster of Arnhem, Mrs Pauline Krikke. The initiative for the raising of the monument came from Arnhem veter¬an Bob Peatling who, after the Battle of Arnhem, was kept out of German hands by the Resistance during the winter of 1944/1945. The monument consists of a huge photograph of a wild, cloudy sky, which is printed on 128 one square metre aluminium plates using the silk-screen printing technique. The inscription reads ‘De meeste mensen zwijgen, een enkeling stelt een daad’ (Most people remain silent. A single one takes action).
See also the article by Bob Peatling below.

The Resistance helped 186 men to cross back over the Rhine!
Little is known in the United Kingdom about the Resistance movement in the Netherlands during World War 2. The organisation of the escape opera-tion Pegasus 1 in October 1944 took a month, and resulted in the successful escape across the Rhine of 138 officers and men who were left behind after the Battle of Arnhem. The story of this escape is bril-liantly told by Major Digby Tatham Warter, com-mander of A Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion. It is entitled ‘Dutch Courage and Pegasus’, and is includ¬ed in its entirety in my book ‘Without Tradition 2 Para 1941-45’. In it all honour is given to the Resistance movement for the organisation of the plan and for the reconnoitring of the route during the nightly curfew.
Forty-eight other people were also fleeing the occu-pied area. They were brought together by Resistance people who guided them on their 50 km long jour-ney to Sliedrecht, where they were able to reach the liberated south via ‘De Biesbosch’, a marshy area criss-crossed by waterways. These two to four hour journeys by canoe were carried out in February and March 1945 on freezing cold nights. Some Resistance members made such journeys every night. They were the real heroes. I have never come across this story in English, but everyone who took part is mentioned, with the date and time at which they reached the southern bank, in a 1998 Dutch publication, ‘Gevangen op de Veluwe’ (Imprisoned on the Veluwe), by W. Noordman.
My own interest centres mainly on the Arnhem Resistance group because I spent from 31 October till 31 December 1944 with them in the heart of the town. After writing about them in my book ‘No Surrender at Arnhem’, published in 2004,1 contact¬ed the editor-in-chief of ‘De Gelderlander’ newspa¬per with the question: ‘Why, in a town with so many monuments, is there no memorial recognising the people who took so many risks for us under such dangerous circumstances?’ My ideas were taken seriously, and were made known to its readers by De Gelderlander, whereupon proposals were made and money collected. On 17 September this year the monument was unveiled on the south wall of the Musis Sacrum in Arnhem.
In most places the Resistance was well organised. For me they found good hideout addresses with farmers, who could not do enough to help me. At the last address I had the additional luck that there were eight children, who called me uncle Karel or uncle Kees!
I saw how these people worked and cared. They forged identity papers for those who needed them. For me they made an ‘Ausweis’ with photo that did its job when I wanted to leave Arnhem and was stopped at a checkpoint. They found hideout addresses and organised food where and when nec¬essary. When a Jewish family was discovered by the Germans, their small daughter was taken into a lov¬ing Dutch family. Every day broadcasts by the BBC were listened to. The news was typed up, duplicated and brought around to the people in the country¬side. Everything was done to frustrate the enemy. On Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday in 1943 a man climbed a tall factory chimney and painted ‘Long Live the Queen’ on it from top to bottom. The fol¬lowing year a banner with the same text was fixed to the Rhine bridge in Arnhem. Without doubt these sorts of actions greatly irritated the occupier, but the message was clear.
The Underground Resistance paid a high price. After I left Arnhem at the end of December 1944, five men from my surroundings were picked up by the ‘Sicherheitsdienst’. Only two of them returned alive from the camp in May 1945.
Next time you are in Arnhem make sure you visit the monument to the Resistance!
(Bob Peatling)

Gift of supply pannier
The Airborne Museum was recently been given a British supply pannier. It is the so-called outer pan-nier which was slid over an inner basket. This par-ticular pannier came down near Jacobaweg 9 in Oosterbeek on 21 September 1944. A letter T was marked on the outside. According to an eyewitness its parachute was blue, and it contained two crates of 6-pounder anti-tank ammunition.
After the war the pannier was used for years as a cradle. Alas, there are no surviving photographs of this period. If by chance you should have a photo of a similar supply pannier being used as a crib or trav¬el trunk, would you please contact the Airborne Museum. We would like to have a copy of such a photo for the museum collection.
(Roland Boekhorst, maintenance staff)
Rectification
On page 3 of Ministory 87 (Newsletter no. 99) the name Miep Mekkink-Verdoorn is given in a caption. Mrs E. Staf from Leidschendam let us know via the author of the Ministory that the name should be Miep Verdoorn-Van de Brink.

COLOPHON
The Newsletter is a publication of the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum Oosterbeek (SFAM) and appears four times per year. The objective is to promote the Airborne Museum, the SFAM and the history of the Battle of Arnhem.
Editor: drs. R.P.G.A. Voskuil
Editorship address: Utrechtseweg 232, 6862 AZ Oosterbeek; e-mail: wam@planet.nl Coordination sending, archiving and distribution of back numbers: Chris van Roekel, Oosterbeek.
English translation: Cathrien and Peter Clark.
Design: Hildebrand DTP, Wageningen.
Print: Drukkerij Verweij Wageningen BV.
SFAM representative in the U.K.: Niall Cherry, 3 Church Road, Warton, Lancs PR4 1BD, tel. 01772 632764; e-mail: niall.cherry@baesystems.com Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ address:
Utrechtseweg 232, 6862 AZ Oosterbeek, telephone 00 31 26 3337710;
e-mail: info@airbornemuseum.com

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From the board
As you will read elsewhere in this Newsletter, the Airborne Museum has great plans for the future. The museum will be expanded over the coming years and the exhibition itself will undergo thor¬ough modernisation.
The Friends Society is also busy considering the future. Much has been achieved and organised dur¬ing the past 25 years, but, as our chairman Ben Kolster made clear in his letter to the Dutch mem¬bers in March 2005: if we wish to continue in this vein we are going to need a lot of help. A society can only run smoothly if, besides the board of manage¬ment, there are sufficient volunteers who are will¬ing to help in the organising of events, giving lec¬tures, issuing of Newsletters and publications, and so on. In this way we, in conjunction with the Air¬borne Museum, can continue to ‘spread the word’ about operation Market Garden in the future.
The internet has developed at breakneck speed over the past few years. The amount of information available, including on subjects related to operation Market Garden, increases by the day. We, too, intend making far more use of this medium in the near future, and plans are now being made with a view to achieving this.
We would like to know how the membership sees our society, and for this reason the chairman has sent a copy of the above-mentioned letter and a questionnaire to all our Dutch members. So don’t forget to complete the form and return it to us. Thanking you in anticipation!

Opening of ‘Operation Amherst’ exhibition
Sixty years ago the centre and north of the Nether¬lands were liberated, chiefly by units from the Canadian and British armies. However, less well- known by far is the fact that French soldiers were also involved. During the night of 7/8 April 1945, two regiments of French parachutists, 702 men in all, were dropped in Drenthe and south-east Friesland. They were split up into 47 groups. Their orders were to secure all bridges along the allied lines of advance, and sow confusion among the German defenders. They were also required to capture the airfields at Steenwijk, Eelde and Leeuwarden, assist the local Resistance, and gather information. The operation was codenamed ‘Amherst’. Not all of the objectives were achieved and 33 French soldiers lost their lives in the fighting.

An exhibition was opened in the Airborne Museum on 8 April last featuring this final airborne operation in the Netherlands in World War II. A number of French veterans – who as young men had taken part in ‘Operation Amherst’ in April 1945 – were present at the opening. The exhibition runs until 30 October this year.
The book ‘Operation Amherst’ by Roger Flamand was published earlier in the Netherlands. It was translated from French into Dutch by J.H. Jansen and was published by Boom of Amsterdam (ISBN 90 5352 770 2). The book comprises 225 pages and is lavish¬ly illustrated with photographs. It is on sale in the Airborne Museum, price € 24.90.

Expansion plans for the Airborne Museum
On 1 July 2004 Frans Smolders was appointed new deputy director/curator of the Airborne Museum, his most important assignment being the producing of a plan for the modernisation and expansion of the museum. One of the basic reasons for this is the steady decline in the number of visitors who actual¬ly lived through the Second World War. This means that the museum must identify and aim at attract¬ing other target groups. Another problem is the museum’s size. It is too small to allow the develop¬ment of new initiatives relating to a more modern exhibition. With these and other points as the guid¬ing principles, Frans set about the task with great energy, and on April 11 was able to present the ini¬tial version of his plans. Accommodation is the fore¬most point in the plan. Huize Hartenstein was orig¬inally a private dwelling, later becoming a care home and later still an hotel. The house is now a listed building, therefore any possible extensions have to be handled with great care.
Some time ago former Society chairman Chris van Roekel proposed a plan for the building of an under¬ground extension on the south side of the Harten¬stein, and this plan has now been chosen. This will provide an increase in space of some 800 square metres, which, besides creating room for exhibits, will need to include an auditorium. The new entrance will be on the east side, and an external lift will be built on the west side. The extension design is the work of Oosterbeek architect Wim Visser. During the presentation it was emphasised that this is a provisional design which has still to be studied thoroughly by all concerned. Further details of the plan will be gone into in coming editions of the Newsletter.

Lecture about General Sosabowski
On Friday 18 March, Dr. Michael Hal Sosabowski, the great-grandson of Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski and lecturer at Brighton University, gave a lecture on his famous great- grandfather. The lecture was organised by the Airborne Museum in conjunction with the Royal Military Academy, Breda. Almost 150 interested people turned up at the Concert Hall in Oosterbeek to listen to Michael Sosabowski who, with the aid of many photos, gave an overview of the history of the First Polish Independent Parachute Brigade. He talked about the raising of the brigade in England, the military exer¬cises, the planning for Operation Market Garden, the deployment at Arnhem, and the subsequent fate of the Polish Brigade. He also gave his personal comments on the life of the General, both during the war and after. And of course, the controversy that arose between General Sosabowski and a number of Allied commanders was not ignored.
It was a lively evening, and after the lecture plenty of time was allowed for questions from the floor.
To give this Polish evening an extra dimension Airborne Museum personnel had set up an exhibi¬tion in the lecture hall. It displayed material that has been excavated over the years from the former Polish dropping zones at Driel.

Wybo Boersma made ‘Honorary Member’
During the recent AGM on 2 April, Wybo Boersma was made ‘Honorary Member’ of the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum.
For many, many years, Wybo has attended the board meetings of the Friends’ Society as the Airborne Museum Foundation’s representative, and as such he acts as contact person between both boards of management. On request he regularly advises the SFAM board on issues concerning both the museum and the society.
“Universities honour the lustrum of people who have betokened much for the world of science with an Honorary Doctorate. The Friends’ Society marks its 25th Anniversary by conferring this ‘Honorary Membership’”, said Chairman Ben Kolster. Besides a charter, Wybo Boersma was given a number of book tokens in appreciation of his exceptional efforts.

Burial of Private Arthur Foster
In Newsletters number 92 (December 2003) and number 94 (June 2004), I wrote two small articles about Private Arthur Foster of the Border Regiment, whose remains were found two years ago in the gar¬den of a house in Veerweg, Oosterbeek. The latter article was able to reveal that the identity of the sol¬dier in question had been released, but that the members of his family in the UK were apparently untraceable. Partly owing to this, Private Foster’s remains had still not been buried in the Airborne Cemetery more than a year after they had been recovered.
Very shortly afterwards, British member Mike Gallagher from Heaton reported that he, with the aid of a local newspaper, had tracked down a mem¬ber of Arthur Foster’s family. Arthur had been bom in Bolton, and the 31 August 2004 issue of the Bolton Evening News carried an article containing the relevant details.
Information on the family concerned was immedi¬ately sent to the British Ministry of Defence. I don’t know what happened then; probably nothing. There was still a faint hope that Arthur could be laid to rest alongside his comrades during the September 2004 Airborne Commemorations. But this did not happen, understandable in view of the short time available.
And six months further on things were still omi¬nously quiet. The amazing sluggishness shown by the British government in this matter was really unbelievable! But in another sense you have to admire them… In the first place, they failed to do in a year what Mike Gallagher managed to achieve in a day. And when they had all the details, it seems they simply fell asleep again at their desks. It is heart¬warming to see how the British authorities treat their war dead! On that point, therefore, it was enlightening, and sobering, to read what the British Ambassador in the Netherlands had to say in an article in De Gelder- lander of 9 September 2004. Mr Colin Budd stated from his residence in Den Haag that the British gov¬ernment is not greatly interested in the finding of the remains of servicemen. ‘We prefer to leave the people in peace’, said he. Meaning, therefore: ‘Simply leave them where they are and just accept that the next-of-kin will never know where their father or brother lies buried’. I call this a scandalous attitude with respect to the dead and their families.

Well anyway, the notification finally came through that Arthur Foster could be buried amongst his comrades in the Arnhem (Oosterbeek) War Cemet¬ery. And that came to pass on 23 March 2005. With military honours and an appropriate British cere¬mony, and in the presence of old comrades and family members, this soldier of the Border Regiment was given his final resting place.
Above all else, it was gratifying to see that his grave¬stone was already available, ready to be placed over his grave. This has not always been the case: we usually have to wait for months.
It would appear that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has brought about a positive policy change. At least there is now one British organisation that goes about its work efficiently!
Meanwhile, ten months ago the identity of a soldier, till then buried in Oosterbeek war cemetery as ‘unknown’, became known. Diligent research by the Dutch Army’s Recovery and Identification Service, led by Sergeant Major Geert Jonker, brought to light the identity of the soldier in question – Lance Sergences during and after the Battle of Arnhem and was based on a diary he kept at the time. Last September, the complete, detailed story was published in book form under the title ‘No Surrender at Arnhem’.
Private Peatling belonged to HQ Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion, and he arrives at the Arnhem road bridge with this unit during the evening of Sunday September 17 1944. He is ordered to accom¬pany Major Wallis (second-in-command of the bat¬talion) in a search for boats in which the British could cross to the south bank of the Rhine. On the way they become separated in the dark. On his way back to the bridge, Peatling meets a section of Military Police who are taking German prisoners to the police station in Boven-Beekstraat. They ask Peatling to join them, and on arriving at the police station he is ordered to remain with the section. A German attack follows, and after a fierce gun battle the British surrender. However, Peatling decides against surrender, and dashes up to the police sta¬tion attic, there to await the arrival of the British Second Army in Arnhem.
He manages to hide out for six weeks in the attic. After the Battle of Arnhem the civilian population is forced to leave the city, and every day Peatling searches the empty houses and buildings in the sur¬roundings of Boven-Beekstraat for water and food to help him survive.
On 31 October he is discovered by Dutch people who inform the Arnhem Resistance movement. He is picked up by a well-known Arnhem resistance fighter, Johannes Penseel, who hides Peatling in his own (Penseel’s) house in Velperplein. Penseel’s resistance group operates out of this house, and its members move about the empty city wearing stolen police uniforms.
At the end of December 1944 things become too hot for Peatling in Arnhem. Via a number of evaders’ addresses in the Veluwe, he arrives in Achterveld, where he again experiences numerous adventures. An end is finally brought to this nomadic way of life in April 1945, when he is liberated by Canadian troops.
Peatling describes this bizarre period of his life in an enthralling manner, and speaks of his enormous admiration for the Dutch Resistance.
‘No Surrender at Arnhem’ (ISBN 0-9522992-1-6) was published by the author. The book consists of 144 pages, is illustrated with photos and maps, and costs € 22.50. It is on sale in the Airborne Museum and Oosterbeek bookshops.
The book can be ordered direct from the author in the UK at 36 Park Lane, Wimborne, BH21 1LD, tele¬phone 01202 889645. The price is £ 16.95, including post and packing.

Appeal from Down Ampney
Down Ampney is a small village in Gloucestershire, England. It numbers 230 houses, and a beautiful old church dating from 1263. In 1943 an airfield for No. 46 Group RAF Transport Command was constructed close to the village. From 17 up to and including 23 September 1944, Dakota squadrons flew numerous flights to Arnhem. On 17 and 18 September they towed Horsa gliders, and over the days that followed they carried out re-supply missions.
Flight Lieutenant David Lord left Down Ampney for Arnhem on 19 September on a re-supply flight that was to end in tragedy.
The airfield was abandoned in April 1946, and the runways were largely demolished in the years that followed. The church still recalls the war years with various images and objects, but the most impressive memorial by far is the wonderful stained-glass win¬dow depicting the coat-of-arms of 271 Squadron and David Lord’s Dakota. Sadly, it now seems that the church roof – whose last thorough restoration was carried out 140 years ago – is in a dreadful state and leaks badly.
An architectural survey has revealed that the pres¬ent roof is beyond repair. Complete renewal is nec¬essary. Down Ampney’s small village community will never be able to raise the cost on its own (£ 120,000) for the restoration; therefore an action has been started aimed at saving this beautiful little church. If you would like to contribute to the restora¬tion fund, please contact Mrs. Sheila Burgess, 44 Riverway, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 6HZ, United Kingdom, telephone 01285 860796, e-mail sheila@smburgess.fsnet.co.uk.

Facelift for the Sherman tank and 17-pounder cannons
You notice it immediately as you walk by: the Sherman tank and the 17-pounder anti-tank guns at the Airborne Museum are again bright and shiny. This is thanks to three of our society’s volunteers: Cees Wichhart, Oost Rodermond and Henk van de Brand, who were busy for days last August giving these muse¬um pieces a new top coat. The tank’s emblems and reg¬istration numbers have also been refreshed. The anti¬tank guns were provided with a Pegasus emblem.
This Sherman belonged to the Lord Strathcona’s Horse, which took part in the liberation of the Veluwe in April 1945. Ministory XIX (appended to Newsletter number 30) described its history.

German field graves in Oosterbeek
The Dutch edition of Ministory No. 84, ‘German field graves in Oosterbeek’ (with Newsletter No. 96), con¬tained two irritating errors in the piece about Artur Wossowsky. In the left-hand column of page 6 (17th line from the bottom) one reads ‘Wossowky’, while in the right-hand column (4th line from the bottom) ‘Wossoswky’ is written.
Of course, this should be Wossowsky in both cases. The editors also failed to eradicate the imperfec¬tions in the English version. ‘Wossoswky’ appears on page 6, two lines from the bottom in the right¬hand column. And on page 7, two lines from the top in the left-hand column, we find the same name. Here, too, it should have been Wossowsky.
Our apologies for the confusion!
(Hans Timmerman, Geert Maassen)

COLOPHON
The Newsletter is a publication of the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum Oosterbeek (SFAM) and appears four times per year. The objective is to promote the Airborne Museum, the SFAM and the history of the Battle of Arnhem.
Editors: drs. R.P.G.A. Voskuil and G.H. Maassen jr. Editorship address: Jan van Riebeeckweg 39, 6861 BD Oosterbeek; e-mail: wam@planet.nl Coordination sending, archiving and distribution of back numbers: Chris van Roekel, Oosterbeek.
English translation: Cathrien and Peter Clark.
Design: Hildebrand DTP, Wageningen.
Print: Drukkerij Verweij Wageningen BV.
SFAM representative in the U.K.: Niall Cherry,
3 Church Road, Warton, Lancs PR4 1BD,
tel. 01772 632764; e-mail: niall.cherry@baesystems.com Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ address:
Utrechtseweg 232,6862 AZ Oosterbeek, telephone 00 31 26 3337710;
e-mail: info@airbornemuseum.com

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From the editors
The 60th commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem is now receding into history. They were memorable days which we shall look back on in this Newsletter via photos – all in colour for this issue – and articles. A great many new books about the fighting in the Netherlands in September 1944 have appeared recently, both here and abroad. These publications will be reviewed in this and subsequent Newsletters.
In Memoriam: HRH Prince Bernhard

On 1 December 2004, HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands passed away. In his capacity as commander of the Forces of the Interior, the prince was closely involved in, among other things, the military operations between September 1944 and May 1945 that led to the liberation of the Netherlands. After the war he attended the commemorations of the Battle of Arnhem on a number of occasions, such as in 1947 and 1969. He visited the Airborne Museum on 21 June 1980 and again on 11 May 1988 for the 10th anniversary of the museum’s opening in Huize Hartenstein.
objects from the Battle of Arnhem, probably saved by my father-in-law, the late Evert Jan Breman, after the bodies of the dead who lay buried in his garden had been exhumed and removed to the Airborne Cemetery. Among them was an item that attracted my attention because it was unlike any of the other pieces of equipment. It consisted of two pieces of weathered roof-tile batten tied together with a length of brown telephone cord. At first I considered throwing this trifling thing onto the fire, but the fact that someone had so carefully tied two pieces of wood together intrigued me. Suddenly, I realized that if you turned the two small battens through a quarter of a turn they formed a cross. Outside, in the daylight, I could just make out a name written in pencil on the cross: Gnr. Baisden.
These, at first sight, worthless pieces of wood immediately took on the significance of a crucifix for me, and I decided to pass it on to the Airborne Museum.
But my curiosity was aroused and over the next few years I learned a fair bit about this gunner from the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment Royal Artillery. Alas, I knew nothing of his family.
During the 60th commemoration someone rang our doorbell. It turned out to be a group of four English people, who introduced themselves as a nephew of Gunner Baisden, his wife, and a granddaughter with her son. At last we had made contact with the family!
A few weeks later I received the following, moving letter:
Dear Mr Roekel,
I am Michelle-Marie, the granddaughter of gunner Alexander Baisden.
Thank you very much for inviting myself and my family into your home and showing us around.
On behalf of my family I wish to express our deepest gratitude towards Mr. Evert Jan Breman and his family for their courage all those years ago.
This was my first visit to Holland, and I hope not my lastl Sadly I wish I could have taken my trip years ago and maybe got to meet some of my grandfather’s fellow soldiersl
What an honour that would have been?
Thank you once again from
Michelle-Marie.
While such letters continue to arrive in Oosterbeek, two generations on nota bene, there can be absolute¬ly no question of abandoning the commemorations of the Battle of Arnhem.
(Chris van Roekel)

Wybo Boersma continuing as provisional director
The previous Newsletter contained an article about the new deputy director of the Airborne Museum, Mr Frans Smolders. The article also announced that Mr Wybo Boersma would be relinquishing the post of director as of 1 October 2004. In view of a number of changed ideas, the situation itself has altered slightly. We have received the following notification from Mr Andre de Vries, chairman of the Airborne Museum Foundation, concerning the make-up and responsibilities of the Airborne Museum director¬ship. The content is as follows:
‘During the last board meeting on 14 October 2004, the Board of the Airborne Museum Foundation dis¬cussed and confirmed the job descriptions of the directors of the museum. For the in-house employ¬ees and volunteers and for the many outside con¬tacts, it has to be clear who in the museum is responsible and contactable, and for what.
The division of tasks within the directorship is pro¬visional for two years and will be revised when the future plans for the museum have been completed and a long term policy has been developed. The out¬lines of the task division are as follows:
Director: Wybo Boersma.
The director reports to the Board of the Airborne Museum Foundation and has the general manage¬ment of the museum. The director is responsible for the PR policy and outside contacts. The director rep¬resents the museum at the meetings of the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum, the municipal council and joint projects with other museums. The director maintains contact with tour operators and arranges contracts.
The director is responsible for the volunteers’ poli¬cy, the appointment of volunteers, and the appoint¬ment and training of guides.
Deputy director/curator: Frans Smolders.
The deputy director sees to the daily running of the museum, the staff and volunteers, and is responsi¬ble for these to the director. The deputy director is tasked with producing a future plan for the muse¬um. The deputy director is responsible for the daily management of the exhibits as well as for the good working practices of the staff and volunteers, giving directions to that effect. The deputy director main¬tains contacts with the media in conjunction/con- sultation with the director’.

Social Evenings
As in 2004, two ‘Social Evenings’ are to be held early next year in the Airborne Museum. As usual on these occasions, the ‘socialites’ will have the opportunity of taking a look behind the scenes. The first is planned for the evening of 11 February 2005, with part of the evening being given over to the most recent museum acquisitions.
The second Social Evening is scheduled for Monday 14 March 2005, when Professor H. Sosabowski, great-grandson of Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski and lecturer in Brighton, will give a talk on the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group and on the role of his great-grand-father during and after the Second world War. The lecture will be in English. Because of the limited room available prior booking is necessary, prefer¬ably per e-mail, info@airbornemuseum.com, or by telephone, 026 3337710. The date 14 march is not yet entirely certain. Any eventual changes will be given on our website www.airbornemuseum.com.
The museum doors will open at 19.30 hours on both evenings, and interested parties will be most welcome in ‘Hartenstein’ from that hour onwards. (W. Boersma)
Arnhem Weekend’ 2005
The Arnhem Weekend’ for our UK members has been fixed for 17, 18 and 19 June 2005. The pro¬gramme will be included in the next Newsletter.
Because of logistical and organisational limitations, the maximum number of participants has been set at 25. 22 Bookings have already been received, so if you still want to come along you will need to con¬tact me as soon as you can.
(Niall Cherry)

Film subtitling sponsored
One of the last events of the 60th commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem took place on Sunday evening 19 September 2004 with the open-air show¬ing of the film ‘Theirs is the Glory’. The lawn of the Airborne Monument in Oosterbeek became a film theatre for the evening.
During the preparations for the showing it appeared that no good recording with Dutch sub-titles was available, meaning that much of the spoken word could be missed by the Dutch members of the audi¬ence. Society member Cees van den Bosch found this a great shame and began an action to collect money to enable the production of a Dutch sub¬titled version. Video Studio Bal from Oosterbeek offered to do the technical work at cost price, and the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum made a considerable contribution. The rest was donated by society members Cees van den Bosch, Robert Voskuil, Geert Maassen, Eugene Wijnhoud and Erik van der Meiden. Robert Voskuil and Joop Bal took care of the translation.
Immediately after the showing requests were received as to the possibility of producing this ver¬sion of ‘Theirs is the Glory’ on DVD.
The possibilities of this are being looked into at the moment. We shall keep you informed!

‘Nine Days at Arnhem’
There is still a lot to be told about the Battle of Arnhem, as shown by the appearance of another new book, ‘Nine Days at Arnhem’, the second book about the 7th Battalion The King’s Own Scottish Borderers by Robert Sigmond. In it the author high¬lights the experiences of the ten CANLOAN officers who served with the battalion. The book is in English, as was Sigmond’s first publication.
The CANLOAN scheme was the name given to the loan – on a voluntary basis – of hundreds of Canadian junior officers to the British army during World War II. They remained in service with the Canadian army but were commanded by British officers, with their deployment being restricted to Europe and the Middle East. In total Canada provid¬ed 673 officers on loan, 102 of whom were killed, 21 died of wounds, 310 were wounded, five have no known grave and Tl POWs were liberated from cap¬tivity. Many of them received decorations. In gener¬al, they were praised by their superiors for their efforts.
Ten of the 90 CANLOAN officers attached to the British airborne troops were allotted to the KOSB battalion. Shortly after the Battle of Arnhem one of the Canadians, Lieutenant Erskine Carter, wrote a diary called ‘Nine Days at Arnhem’, part of which forms the basis of this, Sigmond’s, book
The book gives brief pen-pictures of some of the CANLOAN officers including Lt. Carter, the author of ‘Nine Day’s at Arnhem’. The history of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers is also described. The 7th (Galloway) Battalion was raised in 1939 as a sister battalion to the 5th Territorial Battalion KOSB. Late in 1943 the 7th was attached to the British airborne as glider infantry, and at the beginning of 1944 it received the red beret and Pegasus emblem. The reader follows the training of the CANLOAN officers in Canada, their sea voyage to Britain, their recep¬tion and training in their allotted units, mainly as platoon commanders. It was remarkable that these officers were much closer to their men than the British.
After a number of cancelled operations, Market Garden begins with ten CANLOAN officers in the KOSB battalion, one of whom as a deputy company commander. The 42 officers and 720 men take to the air in 65 gliders. In the chapter about Arnhem, Carter describes his daily experiences, and his story is interspersed with those of others, the whole giv¬ing a lively account of events. The book describes the task of the battalion, the securing of the drop¬ping and landing zones on 18 and 19 September, the overnight movements, the battles against the Germans, the landing of the Poles on Johannahoeve, the lack of sleep and the hunger. We see the battal¬ion withdraw to Oosterbeek, the fighting around the Dreyeroord hotel and in the ‘South Africa’ district of Oosterbeek. Because of the increasing number of dead and wounded the battalion becomes smaller and smaller. Despite this it still manages to pull off some astounding feats, such as daring two German tanks to come into the open so that an anti-tankgun can get a better shot, and bayonet charges. By Monday 25 September the situation has become hopeless, and the remnants of the battalion are withdrawn across the Rhine. The KOSB leaves behind 105 dead and some 580 men are taken pris¬oner, including eight CANLOAN officers. The rest of the men of the battalion are wounded. Five of them die of their wounds within a week. Nine men die in German camps and one officer is killed during Operation Pegasus. We meet the officers again in various POW camps such as
Braunschweig, Spangenburg and Fallingbostel, and read about the death marches of the retreating German army.
After its return to England the battalion is re¬formed with the addition of many new recruits and junior officers. On 9 May 1945 the unit and its new commander leave for Norway, where it is to help with the repatriation of the German army of occu¬pation and the imprisonment of war criminals. Over the coming months 400,000 German servicemen are disarmed, screened and sent home. By August 1945 the task is complete and the battalion returns home. At the end of November the 7th Battalion KOSB is disbanded. The book closes with numerous information appendices.
The book has been thoroughly researched, which makes it a pleasant read for the knowledgeable. The personal accounts paint a lively picture of events, to the extent that readers almost feel they were there themselves. As we have come to expect from R.N. Sigmond Publishing, the book is beautifully pro¬duced, contains many illustrations and good maps, and, as already mentioned, reads easily. The 180 page book costs € 32,50 (ISBN 90-804718-7-9).
(Okko Luursema)

Border Regiment plaque unveiled
On 17 September 2004 a large plaque was unveiled on the east wall of the Westerbouwing restaurant in Oosterbeek. The plaque is dedicated to the 800 offi¬cers and men of the 1st Battalion The Border Regiment who fought at Arnhem between 17 and 26 September 1944. During the battle this battalion defended the western edge of the ‘Perimeter’, from Sonnenberg up to the Westerbouwing. The Wester¬bouwing heights upon which the restaurant stands were defended by B Company. On 21 September 1944 this area became the scene of heavy fighting when strong German units, supported by tanks, opened the attack. This historic place is therefore the perfect location for the plaque which remem¬bers a battalion that suffered heavy casualties. 125 Men were killed and 400 were taken prisoner, many of them wounded.
The unveiling was attended by many people, includ¬ing a group of Border Regiment veterans.
25th Anniversary and other important dates
A jubilee committee of Friends’ Society board members are busily engaged with the organisation of the 25 year jubilee. Programme details will be included in the first Newsletter of the New Year. But make sure you keep 21 May 2005 open!
Other activities and dates that you can make a note of are: the AGM on 2 April 2005, the Book Fair on 23 April, and the Normandy Excursion from 25-31

Historic unveiling at commemoration in Brummen
On Saturday afternoon 18 September last a dramatic commemoration took place in front of the Old Post Office in Brummen, recalling a drama that occurred there sixty years ago.
On 23 September 1944 a German SS soldier opened fire with a Schmeisser machine gun on a passing lorry containing 25 British parachutists, who had landed six days earlier near Arnhem.
A true bloodbath ensued, leaving six dead and many wounded. A war crime plain and simple, because it was a group of helpless prisoners of war that was fired on.
The details of this drama were only made public ten years ago – with the opening of archives in London – and a monument was raised at the site. Being the sixtieth anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem, this year’s commemoration had a special tint. There were extensive daily reports on television about Arnhem and Oosterbeek, but Brummen did things its own way, partly in the street – the roads were closed for two hours – and partly in the old building, nowadays the Old Post Office hotel. Of course there was an emotional placing of wreaths, besides which

The four people made short speeches, one speaker revealing unique details of a resistance plan from September 1944.
The now 87 year-old ex-resistance fighter Gerard Schut recalled how the then head of the Resistance, Baron Loet van der Feltz, brought him into contact with Major Tony Hibbert, who had escaped near the post office (Major Hibbert, also 87, was present at the commemoration). A few days after the air land¬ings the two men met up at the baron’s home in Eerbeek, together with Grote Gijs (Piet Kruijff), head of the Arnhem Resistance, and a few of his com¬rades. Tony Hibbert talked about the hopeless bat¬tles that were still raging in Arnhem/Oosterbeek. He came up with a plan to give Arnhem ‘breathing space’ by carrying out a new airborne landing between Eerbeek and the Gelderland capital! This has never been mentioned in any of the dozens of history books about Arnhem’. At least, it can now be added, even as just a footnote, to the equally glori¬ous, as sad, history.
How did it end up? Gerard Schut talking in the Old Post Office: ‘Up till then we had had a peaceful exis¬tence, apart from regularly finding a hiding place at Coldenhove or wherever for downed airmen. Then, on 17 September 1944 we received a joyous phone call from Oosterbeek telling us of the British air¬borne landings. We are free! Alas, it didn’t last long although we couldn’t have known that at the time. But we did know that the airborne were beginning to have a tough time in Arnhem and Oosterbeek. An attack at the German rear could bring some relief to the men battling in Arnhem. I don’t remember how many parachutists we had in mind; nothing was ever written down. Maybe a battalion of 500 men or so. We Resistance men knew of suitable places for a landing, such as Imbos and Rozendaal Heath. Ordnance survey maps were fetched. A lovely plan, the Brummen and Arnhem Resistance would pro¬vide support. Personally I didn’t see much in it. After thorough staff meetings at my house not much more came of it. Logical. Tony Hibbert might have been a great strategist, but meanwhile the fighting in Arnhem and Oosterbeek had come to an end. There was now no point in a new airborne operation’.
The main person at the Brummen commemoration was of course Tony Hibbert, who fought together with Colonel Frost for four days at the bridge in Amhem in September 1944. He was one of the POWs who jumped from the lorry in Brummen. It is still a source of great sorrow to him that his (totally justified) escape attempt cost the lives of six of his comrades. He expressed the hope that this com¬memoration would last forever, and that in 100 years time, our great-grandchildren would still know of it. He thanked the courageous and brave people of Brummen who provided British escapees with secret hiding places, medical help and food in September 1944. He then placed the first wreath at the plaque on the wall of the Old Post Office, fol¬lowed by the burgomaster and a number of citizens. There was also a moving speech by Henk Peters who, as a 17 year-old, remembered an exhausted, wounded British soldier knocking on the door of his parent’s farmhouse in Knoevenoorstraat, saying: I am a British soldier, I am Tony Hibbert”. He was warm¬ly welcomed inside and fed, and then spent three days in a chicken coop. Meanwhile, Henk tipped off the Brummen Resistance, after which the officer laid low for three weeks in a secret hideout at the home of the Tjeenk Willink family in Burgemeester De Wijslaan. In that time the ever-active Hibbert outlined plans in conjunction with the resistance in Eerbeek that would lead to the great escape opera¬tion across the Rhine, Operation Pegasus I, in October 1944.
(Piet Willemsens)

Photo: location of British patrol
In Newsletter No. 94 of June 2004, we asked readers if anyone could identify where the widely-known photo of a 4-man British patrol ‘somewhere in a building in Oosterbeek’ was taken. We said then that the photo was taken by Sergeant Lewis of the Army Film and Photographic Unit, and refers to frame 7 (not 8 as mentioned in error) from film 4. All the pictures on this film were shot near the Hartenstein.
Various members have responded to our appeal and here is a short survey: Mr J. Visser in Zelhem writes that the man in the beret is Staff Sergeant Mark Leaver, G Squadron Glider Pilot Regiment. Mark Leaver, who died on 31 October 2000, said at the time that the photo was taken in ‘Beekweg’. This probably meant the Van Hofwegen laundry in present day Zuiderbeekweg. Mrs Betty de Roder from Renkum suggests it could be the premises of Aits forge in Paul Krugerstraat. Ir. F. Oudendal from Huizen says that the concrete reinforcing bars were probably intend¬ed for some sort of German building work because, by 1944, such material had been unavailable for pri¬vate use for many years. Mr J.C. Bierdrager in Eelde points out that in Stuart Eastwood’s book ‘When Dragons Flew, An Illustrated History of the 1st Battalion the Border Regiment 1939-1945’, the pic¬ture caption says: ‘The location is unknown, but may be the stableblock of the Hartenstein Hotel’.
In our opinion this last possibility is closest to the truth, a conclusion based partly on our own research. Our detective work led to the following result.
It is known that the Germans were building a com¬munications bunker to the east of the present Kleyn Hartensteyn Restaurant, the (former) coach house of Huize Hartenstein. Unfortunately, because of the thick foliage there is not much of this work to be seen in the aerial photos taken on 6 and 12 Septem¬ber 1944 as preparation for the forthcoming air¬borne landings.
Sixty years ago the estate orangery stood to the east of the coach house, where large potted plants were stored in winter. We concentrated our research on this building. On 15 March 1945, No. 4 Reconnais¬sance Squadron RAF flew a reconnaissance mission over the South Veluwe, It must have been an excep¬tionally clear, sunny day because most of the aerial photos taken that day are razor sharp. The series of

photos on which the Hartenstein estate appears were viewed under a mirror stereoscope using an extremely high magnification. The analysis of the orangery building revealed various interesting details, which led us to the conclusion that this was where the photo of the patrol was taken. A greatly enlarged detail from the aerial photographs is used to illustrate this article.
The aerial photo shows that the building no longer had a roof at the time, so you seem to be looking at a floor plan of the building. It can be assumed that the roof was of light construction using a lot of glass, common in buildings used for over-wintering plants. This construction could have been damaged, or collapsed, during or after the battle. Sergeant Lewis’s photo shows that the wall in the background turns a corner so that the right hand part of the wall is further back than the left. This feature is clearly shown in the aerial photo of the orangery. Behind the wall top left was a separate room, walled off from the large L-shaped main room. From the stereo image and analysis of the shadows it can be seen that there was probably a wide door in the south wall of the main room with large windows or doors on each side. Lewis stood outside, camera pointed at the door opening in the centre, and the patrol moved from inside the room towards him. Un-doubtedly this was a posed scene.
The concrete reinforcing and pipes stored in the orangery were almost certainly intended for use in the building of the German bunker mentioned above.
After the war the badly damaged orangery was demolished. Today, the spot next to the Kleyn Hartensteyn restaurant has been given over to greenery and a car park.
Alas, up to now we have been unable to find any pic¬tures of the orangery. If any of you could help us here we would be most grateful. Information about the building would also be very welcome!
(Robert Voskuil)

The floor of De Tofelberg
As many of you are aware, very little remains of that once-stately building, Huize De Tafelberg in Oosterbeek, just the front elevation and a small sec¬tion of the west elevation. During the Battle of Arnhem De Tafelberg was used as a hospital, which changed hands between the British and Germans on several occasions. Many heart-rending scenes were played out here, where British medical person¬nel, Dutch doctors and volunteers struggled hard to save human lives. The Society of Friends, and oth¬ers, offered to conserve and maintain the building, but – partly due to the poor structural state of the building — this was considered unfeasible. Discussions and negotiations between Renkum council and the property developers, in which the society was involved, led to the retention of the front elevation and sections of the floor, as well as the striking and recognisable staircase and wain¬scoting.
As the story has it, here and there the hall floor of De Tafelberg bears the stains of blood shed by British soldiers, visible as hazy, light-brown spots. On September 1 2004, representing the friends, I indicated two places on the floor which were then cut out by one of the property developers’ employ¬ees, using a concrete cutting disk. One of the floor segments was given to the Airborne Museum, while the other section will eventually be displayed in the hall of the apartment block when the building is complete.
We presume that the staircase and part of the wain¬scoting will also be put back in place in the ‘reno¬vated’Tafelberg. These items appear prominently in the film ‘Theirs is the Glory’, made in 1945.
(Ivar Goedings)

Obituary: Commando Knottenbelt
On 19 August 2004, Maarten Jan Knottenbelt passed away in Den Haag. He was 83. In September 1944, Lieutenant Knottenbelt was one of the ten Dutch commandos who took part in the Battle of Arnhem. One of his tasks was to coordinate the deployment of the resistance groups present in and around Arnhem. In the afternoon of 17 September he was with the unit which ambushed the Feldkommandant of Arnhem, Generalmajor Kussin, at the corner of Wolfhezerweg/Utrechtseweg. During the battle, and on his own initiative, he took command of a unit of British soldiers which was defending a key position in a group of houses in Oosterbeek. When the Poles landed at Driel on 21 September 1944, he crossed the Rhine to the south bank in order to establish contact with them. Later on he brought Polish sol-diers back across the Rhine and took them to British positions in Oosterbeek. He did this repeatedly. He was wounded on 22 September but refused to be taken to any of the emergency hospitals. When the withdrawal took place on the night of 25/26 September 1944 he managed to swim across the Rhine to safety. On arrival in Nijmegen he was at last able to have his wounds treated.

Monument to the RAF
On Monday 13 September 2004 a new monument was erected in Doorwerth to commemorate the role played by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Arnhem. In that period 229 airmen and air despatchers lost their lives.
The monument is in the form of a pillar wit plaque, and stands at the Rehoboth School in Bentincklaan. A British Stirling of 196 Squadron RAF crashed at this site on 21 September 1944 dunng a re-supply flight to the British isolated in Ooster¬beek. All crew members and air despatchers died in the crash.
The memorial was the brainchild of Philip Reinders and, thanks to private donations and the co-operation of the school governors, the dream is now reality.

The press and the Battle
Early in September this year I felt compelled to compose the following letter and send it to De Gelderlander (regional newspaper). On the 13th of the month it was published in the paper under the heading ‘Fabeltjeshrant’ (a children’s TV programme of fairy stories).
‘The Airborne commemoration time approaches and once again the fantasists and fibbers crawl out of the woodwork to spout their nonsense about the Battle of Arnhem. And sadly, the newspaper falls for it, printing a profuse account of the experiences of so-called veterans and historical researchers. Therefore, last Monday (6 September 2004) we were treated to an article in De Gelderlander about an eld¬erly Belgian who distinctly remembers landing by parachute at Wolfheze on 17 September 1944. Not only that: he was accompanied by, n.b., 60 of his countrymen. They were all members of the SAS (Special Air Service), a British army special-forces unit. 59 Belgians died in the battle. Said the Fleming (according to the paper).
For goodness sake, what rubbish! Tripe of the first order, and the journalist set it all down in good faith. Over the 60 intervening years Mr Daenens’ mental powers must have deteriorated drastically, and/or he is just a liar. The man did not take part in the Battle of Arnhem and neither did his so-called comrades.
It is not the first time De Gelderlander has been taken for a ride. The paper of Wednesday 21 July 2004 con¬tained a piece about the Poles in Driel, probably lift¬ed from that awful little ‘masterpiece’ ‘Arnhem 1944, Battle of the SETBACK’ by Bert Kerkhoffs. Among the things I read was ’the blood-drenched landing of the Polish paras near Driel’. A bloodbath? Not really! Of the 1,000 Poles who landed on 21 September, five were killed and 36 were wounded, mostly injured when landing. Kerkhoffs writes about the men of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group who were fired on by the British: ‘because we Poles wore different uniforms and berets.’ Well, what waffle! The Polish uniforms were exactly the same as the British, and, of course, in battle they wore parachutist helmets, not their grey berets. And again, the helmets were just the same as those worn by the soldiers of the 1st British Airborne Division!
At the moment I am looking forward to the coming editions with fear and trepidation. Not so long ago Red Indians popped up, who had allegedly played an important part in the fighting in our region. We have already had Norwegians, and now I expect Eskimos and gnomes to appear at any minute!” With regard to the newspaper articles in question, I have received support from other Friends who also take seriously the writing of the history of the Battle of Arnhem. The Belgian had to admit publicly that he was not in Oosterbeek at that particular time and that the story of his 60 colleagues is nothing but hearsay.
But that’s not all. De Gelderlander 13 September 2004: ‘‘Volunteer Pauline Otten from the Arnhem War Museum (not to be confused with the Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek) in Schaarsbergen, claims that American Indians were attached to the 1st British Airborne Division during the battle.”lndians were used as code-talkers. The Germans could not decode their language”, opines Otten. She even states that there are five Mohawk Indians buried at Moscowa, the Arnhem cemetery. Where? She is unable to say. It is the joke of the day at Moscowa. “We have never come across them, yet!” There are allied soldiers buried at Moscowa, but the majority of these were killed before or after the ‘battle of the setback’.
A number of the newspaper’s subscribers have writ¬ten to me saying that I am really mistaken with regard to both the Indians and the Poles. Of course 1 would be the first to admit that I, too, make mis¬takes, so I intend asking them which sources they have consulted that would prove my claims incor-rect. If there are any Friends who could put me right on this and have something to tell, for example about the deployment of Belgian SAS men or Norwegian soldiers during the Battle of Arnhem, I would be most grateful!
(Geert Maassen)

COLOPHON
The Newsletter is a publication of the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum Oosterbeek (SFAM) and appears four times per year. The objective is to promote the Airborne Museum, the SFAM and the history of the Battle of Arnhem.
Editors: drs. R.P.G.A. Voskuil and G.H. Maassen jr. Editorship address: Jan van Riebeeckweg 39, 6861 BD Oosterbeek; e-mail: wam@planet.nl Coordination sending, archiving and distribution of back numbers: Chris van Roekel, Oosterbeek.
English translation: Cathrien and Peter Clark.
Design: Hildebrand DTP, Wageningen.
Print: Drukkerij Verweij Wageningen BV.
SFAM representative in the U.K.: Niall Cherry, 3 Church Road, Warton, Lancs PR4 1BD, tel. 01772 632764; e-mail: niall.cherry@baesystems.com Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ address:
Utrechtseweg 232, 6862 AZ Oosterbeek, telephone 00 31 26 3337710;
e-mail: info@airbornemuseum.com

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New deputy-director and chairman
On 15 June 2004 Mr Frans Smolders assumed the position of deputy-director / curator of the Airborne Museum Foundation. Part of his job will be to pro¬duce a policy plan for the future of the museum which, when complete, will be presented to the council. His other activities will include fundraising, the presentation of the collection and the organisa¬tion within the museum. A redistribution of the per¬manent staffs tasks will also be implemented. Until recently Frans Smolders was art historian and cura¬tor at the Apeldoorn Museum and is widely experi¬enced due to his work in other museums.
Mr A.P de Vries from Ellecom has been appointed chairman of the board of the Airborne Museum Foundation. Mr De Vries has occupied many differ¬ent posts in the police force, the most recent being Deputy Chief Constable for the Gelderland-Midden region. He succeeds Mr J.W. van Slooten in this func¬tion. Mr Van Slooten became temporary chairman following the departure of Mr J.W. Verlinden, and will continue as a member of the board.

Human remains, Veerweg
In the December 2003 issue of the Newsletter we reported the finding of the remains of an allied sol¬dier in the garden of a house in Veerweg, Oosterbeek.
In April last year a team from the ‘Bergings en Identificatie Dienst van de Koninklijke Landmacht’ (BID – Recovery and Identification Service of the Royal Dutch Army) arrived in south-west Veluwe- zoom, and Warrant Officer Fred Bolle and Sergeant- Major Geert Jonker recovered the almost complete skeleton of a British serviceman. The investigation then carried out by the BID quickly led to a positive identification. The report was sent to the relevant authorities in the United Kingdom, since when everything has gone quiet.
In the meantime the BID has released the identity of the soldier concerned. The remains are those of Private Arthur Foster of 11 Platoon, B Company, 1st (Airborne) Battalion The Border Regi-ment. Private Foster was killed on 21 September 1944 at the age of 27. We may assume that he died close to where his field grave was found. A four centimetre hole in his skull leads one to suppose that his death was caused by shrapnel.
About this time last year there was good reason to believe that this soldier would be laid to rest among his comrades in the Arnhem (Oosterbeek) War Cemetery in September 2003. Sadly, this was not the case. As usual, the wheels of the British govern¬ment turn exasperatingly slowly.
Now it is not even certain that Arthur Foster’s re¬interment will take place during the forthcoming period of commemoration! It would appear that attempts to trace relatives have so far been unsuc¬cessful, not surprising when you realise that a western country such as the United Kingdom, in 2004, does not have a population register!

So, it is an extremely sad and very regrettable state of affairs that Private Foster’s remains are still in the keeping of the BID in Bussum instead of in their rightful last resting place, the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek.
(Geert Maassen)

News from Niall
1 bought my first book about the Battle of Arnhem in 1975, when I was still at school. It was ‘Remember Arnhem’ by John Fairley. Since then I have collected a large number of publications about Operation Market Garden and the British airborne forces. Some of these books maintain that all Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) personnel belonged to the group known as ‘conscientious objectors’ and never bore arms. This claim has always irritated me because it is incorrect, as one of the well-known ‘Arnhem photos’ proves. The one I refer to is Imperial War Museum photograph number BU 1105, showing Corporal Midge Mills, RAMC, kneeling beside the field grave of Trooper Edmond of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron, behind Duitse- kampweg 9 in Wolfheze. This photo clearly shows that Cpl. Mills is carrying a revolver or pistol in a holster attached to his belt. Over the years I have spoken to many RAMC veterans and, with a few exceptions, no-one can recall any of their comrades having been a conscientious objector.
I know of just one, a certain Private E. Hewitt, RAMC, who was killed in the fighting in North Africa. He was a conscientious objector and was attached to the 1st Parachute Battalion as a med¬ical orderly.
I was therefore surprised when, earlier this year, I received a letter from the son of an ex-member of 181 Airlanding Field Ambulance. He had recently been given a copy of my book ‘Red Berets and Red Crosses’. His father, Private Cecil Charles Hull, RAMC, had, at the age of 28, taken part in the airborne operation at Arnhem. Enclosed with the letter was an article from the ‘Wood Green Observer’ dated 14 October 1944, about five men from Wood Green who had been at Arnhem. In it Private Hull was explicitly referred to as a con-scientious objector.
According to my information this is the only clear evidence that a conscientious objector was involved in the Battle of Arnhem. I would like to hear from anyone who has more information about conscientious objectors at Arnhem.
A friend of mine has told me that the army number of all conscientious objectors began with ’95’. This indicated that they belonged to the NCC, the Non Combatant Corps. However, Private Hull’s army number was 7687687, a ‘normal’ RAMC number.This could mean that my friend’s theory is not right.
Once again, if anyone has more information on this subject I would be very pleased to hear from them. My address is: 3 Church Road, Warton, Lancs, PR4 1BD, United Kingdom,
e-mail: niall.cherry@baesystems.com
(Niall Cherry)

Ede in Wapenrok (Ede in Uniform)
The above-titled book was published on 27 May 2004. It is about two centuries of military history in the municipality of Ede, and was written by Society member Evert van de Weerd from Ede in conjunc¬tion with the Barneveld archivist Gerjan Crebolder. Both gentlemen already have a string of military history books to their name.
The subject of this new study is the Ede garrison, but covers the wide surroundings as well. This area is an important military centre of old, with much happening here during the Second World War. In the section on ‘Bezetting en Bevrijding’ (Occupation and Liberation), those interested in the 1940-1945 period will find a treasure trove of information, stretching from the building of the German airbase at Deelen and the De Harskamp airfield, to a de¬tailed description of the liberation operations in this part of the Veluwe in April 1945.
Chapter 6 focuses on the Battle of Arnhem, as far as that which occurred within the boundaries of Ede municipality is concerned. The authors provide a systematic and detailed description of the events which took place on the ground and in the air. This brings to light different aspects that have never previously received attention, or hardly ever. Here are a few examples from the numerous subjects. For instance, the fact that Ede was bombed three times, not two, on Sunday morning 17 September 1944 is examined, and the organisations and actions of the German ‘Westgruppe’ at Ginkel are analysed. The stories of all six Dakotas, carrying men of the 4th Parachute Brigade, which crashed on 18 September 1944 are detailed, as is the fate of the approximatelyl30 men who were dropped far from Ginkel on the same day.
The role of the Ede Resistance and Operations Pegasus I and II are also dealt with.
The book is beautifully produced and contains no less than 492 pages plus some 450 photos, maps and diagrams. Sponsorship has allowed the price to be kept to just € 19,50. ‘Ede in Wapenrok’, ISBN
90-701506-3-8, was published by the Koninklijke BDU Uitgeverij in Barneveld, and is available at the Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’.

Trenches restored
On Saturday 1 May last a group of volunteers cleared out a number of trenches on the Papendal Sports Centre complex, just north of the Utrecht- Arnhem railway line. It was here that Brigadier Hackett established the HQ of the 4th Parachute Brigade at about 11 am on 19 September 1944. After the British advance across Johannahoeve had been halted at Dreyenseweg, and the Polish Parachute Brigade’s artillery had arrived by glider, it was de¬cided to withdraw all troops westward, and then to head south via the level crossing at Wolfheze and the tunnel under the railway embankment to a point east of Bilderberg. A number of men crossed the railway line by climbing the embankment.
4 Brigade HQ left the above-mentioned trenches in the late afternoon of 19 September 1944.
The digging out of the trenches to their original depth was arranged by Philip Reinders in consult¬ation with Willem Wichhart and Frieda van Geest from the Papendal Sports Centre. The holes have been fenced off to prevent people or animals falling in by accident.

Where was this photograph taken?
It is probably one of the most-published photos to come out of the Battle of Arnhem. It shows a four- man British patrol moving through the ruins of a building somewhere in Oosterbeek. Sergeant Mike Lewis, one of the three cameramen from the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU), took the picture between 23 and 25 September 1944. From the ‘Dope Sheet’ used by Sgt. Lewis to record his filming, it appears that this is photograph 8 of film 4. He took the other seven exposures on this roll at the Hartenstein Hotel, so it is reasonable to assume that photo 8 was shot in the same area. The ques¬tion is, where exactly?
The scene is almost certainly not an action photo, but posed, because the patrol is approaching the photographer. On the ground is a large amount of concrete reinforcement and a heap of steel pipes. The area through which the men are passing prob¬ably has no roof (anymore) because it seems to be in full daylight.
As far as we are aware, nobody during the inter¬vening 59 years has been able to come up with an answer to the question: ‘Where was this photo taken?’ Therefore, we are appealing to our mem¬bers to help solve the riddle.
‘Oosterbeekers’ in particular who were living in the village in 1944 might recall where in the vicinity of the Hartenstein such building materials might have been stored. The editors await your response(s) with bated breath!

‘De Plek, Oosterbeek. September 1944’ (The Spot, Oosterbeek, September 1944)
The recently-published booklet ‘De Plek, Ooster¬beek, September 1944’ is the first in a series in which writers take a close look at prominent loca¬tions. In this first part journalist Frans van Deijl tells about a spot which played a role in the Battle of Arnhem. On reading it we wonder what the author had in mind when writing this booklet. Did he intend describing a fictitious place? If so, in view of the historical aberrations, he appears to have allowed his fantasy to run riot. Actually, he is writ¬ing about an existing location, but does not allow any reference to history to hamper him. In September 1944, a lad from Oosterbeek, Frans, experiences the airborne landings and the subse¬quent fighting. At first it is one big adventure, until a wounded British soldier is given shelter in the cel¬lar of his parents’ house. Suddenly the war is wor¬ryingly close, even more so when, later, a wounded German is brought in. Eventually the Englishman is rescued, and years later Frans sees the man at a commemoration.
The story lacks a little depth perhaps but it is simp¬ly written and is certainly suitable for children of group 8 level. One of the few modem children’s books about the Battle of Arnhem, it will undoubt¬edly appeal to the younger reader.

‘Oorlog in Oosterbeek’, by Jan van Reenen, released in 2003 by publishers Den Hertog BV, Houten. ISBN 90 331 1736 3, 94 pages, illustrated.
(W. Boersma)

Appeal
Member Hans Molier from Roosendaal has asked us to include the following appeal in the Newsletter: ‘On 16 May 2004, the STIWOT (Stichting Informatie WereldOorlog Tivee – Foundation for Information about World War II), a voluntary organisation which sets up and maintains internet websites (mainly in Dutch) providing information about the Second World War, launched a new website – www.ww2awards.com. This Dutch and English lan¬guage site is packed with information about decora¬tions awarded during WW II, and their recipients.
A team has already spent more than a year devel¬oping the site and an enormous amount of material on the subject has been compiled. Nevertheless, we are still looking for additional details, hence this appeal to you. Should you have any photographs or information to do with decoration awards which you would be prepared to place at our disposal, we would be delighted to hear from you. It could be that even a family member of yours received a dec¬oration during the Second World War. If so we would love to hear your story and, of course, photos and additional facts would be most welcome. You can e-mail the details to us via the website. If you do not have an internet connection you can contact Hans Molier, Susannadonk 123, 4707 WT Roosen-daal, telephone 00 31 65 554531.’

COLOPHON
The Newsletter is a publication of the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum Oosterbeek (SFAM) and appears four times per year. The objective is to promote the Airborne Museum, the SFAM and the history of the Battle of Arnhem.
Editors: drs. R.P.G.A. Voskuil and G.H. Maassen jr. Editorship address: Jan van Riebeeckweg 39, 6861 BD Oosterbeek; e-mail: wam@planet.nl Coordination sending, archiving and distribution of back numbers: Chris van Roekel, Oosterbeek.
English translation: Cathrien and Peter Clark. Design: Hildebrand DTP, Wageningen.
Print: Drukkerij Verweij Wageningen BV.
SFAM representative in the U.K.: Niall Cherry, 3 Church Road, Warton, Lancs PR4 1BD, tel. 01772 632764; e-mail: niall.cherry@baesystems.com Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ address: Utrechtseweg 232, 6862 AZ Oosterbeek, telephone 00 31 26 3337710;
e-mail: info@airbornemuseum.com

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FRIENDS OF THE AIRBORNE MUSEUM
Editors:
Drs. R.P.G.A. Voskuil
C. van Roekel
G.H. Maassen jr.
Newsletter No. 92, December 2003
Translated by Cathrien and Peter Clark
Representative in Great Britain: Niall Cherry, 3 Church Road, Warton, Lancs, PR4 1BD Tel. home 0177-2632764

20 September 2003. After their parachute jump on Ginkel Heath, British veterans chat with Dutch schoolchildren.
(photo: Berry de Reus)

Social Evening
The Airborne Museum will be holding a Social Evening for members of the society on 13 February 2004, commencing at 19.30 hours.
A number of members will be bringing along items from their personal collections for exhibition, the store and restoration rooms will be open, as will the library and archives.
And of course, there will be plenty of opportunity to exchange views on the multitude of subjects connected with Operation ‘Market Garden’.

AGM
The 24th AGM will be held in the Concert Hall in Oosterbeek on Saturday morning 3 April 2004, in conjunction with the General Members’ Meeting of the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum. Lunch will be available after the meeting, and there will be an excursion in the afternoon.
Further details will appear in the next issue of the Newsletter.

Battlefield tours 2004
A large number of battlefield tours are scheduled for 2004.
First off is an excursion to Normandy, from Wednesday 19 until Sunday 23 May 2004 inclusive, organised by the Airborne Museum. The cost is € 495, based on shared double rooms. Contact the museum for a programme overview and further information.
Then in June we begin a repeat of the entire series of Market Garden tours, tour dates being:
12 June, Market Garden ‘T: South Netherlands;
3 July, Market Garden ‘2’: Central Netherlands;
21 August, Market Garden ‘3’: Betuwe; and
11 September, Market Garden ‘4’: Arnhem and Oosterbeek. The cost for SFAM members is € 30 per tour, € 32 for non-members. Anyone booking for three tours at the same time will receive a free Holt’s battlefield map of the Operation Market Garden area. A battlefield tour to the Ardennes is being organised for 7 to 10 October 2004 inclusive. The programme is not yet finalised but will cover such events as: the fighting in and around Bastogne, the advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper, and the battles of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st American Airborne Division (‘Band of Brothers’). Visits to three local museums are included in the excursion. It may also be possible to arrange a visit to fort Eben Emael. Cost per person is € 395 all in.
A programme overview and further information on/for this excursion can also be obtained from the Airborne Museum, or visit our website, www.airbornemuseum.com.
(W. Boersma)

Action for RAF Monument
In Newsletter number 90 we mentioned the initiative of member Philip Reinders for the raising of a monument to the aircrews of the Royal Air Force. Although they were not part of the 1st British Airborne Division, the men of the RAF played a vital role in September 1944. From the 17th up to and including the 25th they flew numerous missions, towing gliders to the landing zones and then transporting supplies to the beleaguered troops in Oosterbeek. 153 airmen lost their lives, and many were wounded during these re-supply flights, which were often unescorted and always flown at low altitude. Despite the heavy losses, enemy fighters and Flak, several runs were sometimes made across the dropping zones to make sure that all the panniers and containers had been dropped, the crews being unaware that most of the supply dropping zones were in German hands.
Various (former) airfields in England have monuments to these courageous crews, but in Arnhem and Oosterbeek there are no memorials where veterans or relatives of RAF aircrews can pause for a few moments and reflect in silence on what happened here nearly 60 years ago. Hopefully this oversight will be rectified in 2004, sixty years after the Battle of Arnhem. As already mentioned, a location has been found where the new monument will be placed. It is in the grounds of the Rehoboth School in Johanniterweg, Doorwerth. Stirling LJ-928 from 196 Squadron crashed there on 21 September 1944 with the loss of all on board. Following discussions with the head teacher and the school governors it was decided to raise a memorial on the site, not just to the crew of LJ-928 but to all RAF airmen who took part in the hazardous missions to Oosterbeek between 17 and 26 September 1944. The cost for producing a simple stone pillar with explanatory text is about € 2000, and although collections have already been made we are still somewhat short of the full amount. Therefore an action has been started whereby people who would like to see the setting up of this RAF monument are kindly asked if they would care to make a financial donation. A special bank account has been opened for this purpose.

New monument at the Rhine
A monument to the allied soldiers who managed to withdraw across the river Rhine during the night of 25/26 September 1944 in operation ‘Berlin’, was unveiled on Sunday afternoon 21 September last. The new memorial is close to the north bank of the Rhine, on the flood plains behind the Old Church in Oosterbeek. Rob van der Zon, from Oosterbeek, instigated the project together with some friends, including Friends’ Society member Axe Jon Versluijs. The group also financed the monument which was designed and made by Rob van der Zon. The unveiling ceremony was carried out by ex-Sgt. M.J. Potter, one of the men who managed to escape across the Rhine 59 years ago. Sgt. Potter, Royal Engineers, was the man who took a small bulldozer to Arnhem by Horsa glider in September 1944. The bulldozer eventually ended up at Sonnenberg in Oosterbeek.
After the unveiling, which was attended by sixty veterans and about a hundred others, a group of thirty swimmers swam the Rhine, a tradition dating from 1998.

21 September 2003. Following its unveiling, Rob van der Zon – who fashioned the monument – and veteran Mr. M. J. Potter inspect the new Operation Berlin monument on the flood plains of the Rhine at Oosterbeek. (photo: Axe Jon Versluijs)

Gift of medal sets
Over the past months the Airborne Museum has received medal sets that belonged to the following people: Captain, the Reverend, R.F. Bowers, in 1944 padre/army chaplain, 10th Parachute Battalion; Trooper R. McSkimmings, Reconnaissance Squadron, who died on 19 September 1944; Lance Corporal Harold E. Back of the 2nd Parachute Battalion; and Private E.V.B. Mordecai, Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
(Roland Boekhorst)

News from Niall
Niall Cherry, our UK rep., has sent us some additional information about one of the photos taken on 20 September 1944 in Utrechtseweg, Oosterbeek, by a German war photographer (Jacobsen, ed.).
The photo, printed here, shows Gunner Eric Milner, C Troop, 1st Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, Royal Artillery, (right), being searched by a German soldier in the garden of the Berghege family home, opposite Annastraat. (This house was badly damaged during lhe battle but repaired after the war. It was demolished later, and the ABN/AMRO bank was built on the site).
Not long ago Eric Milner told Niall that the photograph was taken just as the German soldier had taken a packet of chewing gum from Eric’s pocket. Horrified, Eric thought for a second that the German was going to pop the chewing gum into his mouth, but luckily he didn’t. He returned the packet, not knowing that it concealed an escape saw!

C Troop 1st AT Bty, commanded by Lieutenant Ted Shaw (later, for many years our SFAM representative 20 September 2944. German soldiers search British wounded in front of the house of the Berghege family in Utrechtseweg, opposite Annastraat, in Oosterbeek. Right, with an arm in a sling, Eric Milner.
(photo: Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

in Britain!), had provided 3rd Parachute Battalion with artillery support over the previous days in Arnhem. Eric was wounded on 19 September during the withdrawal from Arnhem to Oosterbeek. He arrived at the emergency hospital in the Schoonoord Hotel but things were so hectic there that he was passed on to a 133rd Parachute Field Ambulance first-aid post in houses east of the Vreewijk Hotel, at that time in German hands.
Eric was going into the Berghege house via the back door when he was stopped by a Royal Army Medical Corps corporal. Angrily, the medic asked Eric if he wanted to see everyone in the house shot by the Germans, because he was about to enter a first-aid post while still armed with a rifle! There were two Germans and a number of British wounded at the front of the house. Eric’s arm was dressed, and shortly afterwards the photo in question was taken.
Next day he managed to escape and rejoined his gun crew. However, he was recaptured on 24 September 1944.

Fred Bolle, the BID and Veerweg
On 1 October 2003, Warrant Officer Instructor Fred Bolle took early retirement from the army. During his army career he served for many years with the ‘Bergings en Identificatie Dienst’of the ‘Koninklijke Landmacht’ (BID – Recovery and Identification Unit, Royal Netherlands Army), lastly as commander of the unit in succession to Captain H.J.R. Jongen.
He was involved many times in the exhumation and identification of the remains of servicemen killed in the Second World War.
In April of this year his job brought him to Oosterbeek again. The remains of a British serviceman were discovered during excavation work in a garden in Veerweg (very close to the Westerbouwing). Thirty mortar bombs and two hand grenades of British make were unearthed at the same time. These were destroyed near Doorwerth Castle by the EOD KL (‘Explosieven Opruimings Dienst, Koninklijke Landmacht’ – Dutch Army Bomb Disposal Unit).
Warrant Officer Bolle and his colleague Sergeant Major Geert Jonker were able to recover almost the entire skeleton. There was a four-centimetre hole in the skull, probably caused by shrapnel. Other remarkable finds included two Airborne helmets (1942, first pattern), one pair of ‘ankle boots’, a triangular neckerchief (cut from parachute material), remains of a leather wallet (including a devotional picture among its contents), a sprig of dried heather, a small crucifix and scraps of paper bearing illegible writing.
Investigation by the BID, in which the recovered dental items played a major part, led to a rapid positive identification. The findings were sent to the relevant authorities (such as the British Embassy and the Ministry of Defence in the UK) who, after certain verifications, would confirm the identity of the serviceman.
There was well-founded hope that the Airborne soldier concerned would find his last resting place among his comrades in the Arnhem (Oosterbeek) War Cemetery during last September’s commemorations of the Battle of Arnhem. But as usual in such cases, the British machinery grinds slow. Alas, that means that at the time of writing (5 December 2003), the identity of this soldier has still not been made known. On top of that his remains have not yet been buried in the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek. Sadly enough, they are still being kept at the BID in Bussum, as they have been for the last eight months.

By Land, Sea and Air
Much remains to be told about the Battle of Arnhem, a fact once more emphasised by the appearance of ‘By Land, Sea and Air’, a book about the 2nd Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment. It is written in English by Alexander Junier and Bart Smulders, assisted by Jaap Korsloot. All three are Friends of the Airborne Museum.
The South Staffordshire battalion was one of the nine British combat battalions in the battle, and earned its own place in history, not least through winning two Victoria Crosses. This aptly named book tells all.
The 80th Regiment of Foot, ‘Staffordshire volunteers’, was formed in 1783. In 1881 it was renamed the ‘2nd Battalion The South Staffordshire Regiment (80th Foot)’, and in 1941 the infantry battalion, already with a colourful past behind it, was attached to the newly formed 1st British Airborne Division as an airlanding unit. It trained hard for its airborne role, the landing by glider behind enemy lines. We follow the battalion to North Africa in 1943, where it prepares for the invasion of Sicily. In this operation the gliders of a large part of the battalion are released well short of the coast and land in the sea. Many Staffords are drowned.
We witness the fighting for the Ponte Grande bridge and Syracuse. Five days later 288 of the 816 men return to Tunisia. So the battalion had been to war by land, sea and air. We follow the battalion to Italy, where it is deployed in places such as Foggia and Brindisi in order to occupy towns and villages in the fighting there.
On 17 September 1944 the bulk of the battalion lands at Wolfheze. The most important tasks are the holding of landing zone S for the second lift on the 18th, and the crossroads north of Wolfheze. Instead it is rushed to Arnhem to reinforce the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions already fighting there. Due to a shortage of aircraft the rest of the battalion lands the following day. This group is also hurried off to Arnhem.
On 19 September the battalion leads the attempt to push along Utrechtseweg to the centre of Arnhem, where the 1st Parachute Battalion has been held up. After fierce fighting it withdraws to Lower Oosterbeek where it is deployed to defend the eastern side of the perimeter foot. We experience the fighting in which the Germans struggle to cut the British division off from the Rhine, right up to its withdrawal on the night of the 25th. They almost succeed. It is there that Major R.H. Cain and Sergeant J.D. Baskeyfield win their Victoria Crosses.
Being closest to the Rhine the Staffords are among the last to leave, so many are left behind on the north bank when the last evacuation boat has gone, and are taken prisoner. Only 25% of the battalion makes it back across the river.
In various appendices we follow the experiences of 12 Platoon, which lands near Tilburg, and of the Staffords who are taken to POW camps in Poland and Germany after Arnhem. In the spring of 1945 the battalion forms part of the Army of Liberation in Oslo, Norway.
The authors have researched their subject very thoroughly, with excellent results. Admirable. The personal stories of the men bring history to life, and therefore enthralling. One feels close to events, and the reader can almost experience the battle.
The book was presented on 22 November 2003, and, as we have come to expect, is beautifully produced by Robert N. Sigmond Publishing. It contains many illustrations, good maps, and reads easily. ‘By Land, Sea and Air, An Illustrated History of the 2nd Battalion The South Staffordshire Regiment 1940-1945. From Official Records and Personal Accounts of Members of the Battalion’ is in English, comprises 224 pages, and costs € 27,50. It is available from the Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ in Oosterbeek and the Gelders Archief in Arnhem, and from (local) bookshops (ISBN 90-804718-6-0).
(Okko Luursema)

CD-Rom of communications lecture
On Saturday 22 November 2003, Wybo Boersma gave a fascinating lecture in the Concert Hall in Oosterbeek on the communications systems as used by the 1st British Airborne Division during the Battle of Arnhem. The talk covered all the resources used, such as the various radio transmitters/receivers, radar equipment, field telephones, and even carrier pigeons. Wybo gave the lecture using a PowerPoint computer presentation containing layouts, drawings, maps and photographs.
The complete presentation is available on CD-Rom, now on sale at the Airborne Museum for € 5. Copies can also be ordered from W. Boersma. If sent by post the CD-Rom costs € 7.50.
Postage stamps sought

‘Every cloud has a silver lining’, says ex-footballer Johan Cruijff. Thus, when 1 stepped down as chairman of the Friends’ Society, I suddenly had more time to return to one of my hobbies that had been pushed into the background.
For many years I have been putting together a postage stamp collection which reflects the rise and fall of National Socialism. Therefore, they are principally German stamps from the 1932-1945 period, but come as well from other regions involved in World War II.
Because no albums on tills theme exist, I have spent several months compiling a book in which, based on postage stamps, this period is described. Modem scanner and printing techniques, and of course the acquired leisure time, enable me to do this.
My request to you is, could you possibly check to see if you have anything that could add to my collection, and which you are prepared to make available to me? And who knows, in due course I could even surprise you with a small exhibition on the subject.
I can be contacted at my address: Benedendorpsweg 119, 6882 WE Oosterbeek, telephone 026 3333261, or by e-mail: chris.van.roekel@l2move.nl.
Thanking you in anticipation, Chris van Roekel.

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