Today is Arnhem Day, time to take a second to remember the men of the 1st Airborne Division and n particular for me the 2nd Battalion South Staffords (my old regiments forefathers) who, as part of Operation Market Garden dropped on a one way trip in wooden assault gliders or parachute into Holland to capture Arnhem bridge... and fought for 14 days when they were told they would only be there for two.
Ich Dien & Utrinque Paratus
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Tomorrow me, Doyle and a lot of our friends will take part in a commemoration parade of the liberty of Eindhoven. With around 50 WW2 vehicles we will 'start' the parade at the Belgium border near Valkenswaard and then head for Eindhoven, following Hells Highway.
Our Dodge and Jeep will carry us to Eindhoven and around the Drop Zones near Best, Son, Sint-Oederode, we will portray 82nd and 101st Airborne soldiers. On Sunday we will carry on to the Waal Crossing monument in Lent just north of Nijmegen.
my very good belgian friends, anne and werner roofthooft will be going from there home in mol, to neerpelt/lommel, to joes bridge. they will put a poppy on the first bridge captured. they do this because i once told them of my fathers part with XXX corps in september 1944. they do it because they are greatfull. their parents lived under the jackboot. thanks to the brave men of operation market garden , they have never had to.
Video of this years jump at Arnhem 
http://www.defensie.nl/actueel/nieuws/2010/09/18/46173024/Defensie_ondersteunt_herdenking_Market_Garden_video
Saturday and Sunday we took the Dodge and the Willys of a friend of mine, together with 6 friends for a drive around all kinds of historic places of Market Garden. We were all portraying 101st or 82nd Airborne soldiers. On saturday afternoon we took part in a commemoration parade of the liberation of Eindhoven, following Hells Highway from the Belgium border.
Visited the monument of Lieutenant Colonel Robert George Cole, honored with the Medal of Honor, killed by a German sniper on September 18, 1944 at the place where the monument stands.
Driving alongside the LZ and DZ's. Just a bit north of Son.
Crossed the Nijmegen bridge.
On Sunday we followed Hells Highway till our 'end point': the crossing of the Nijmegen bridge.
Approprate, poignent and excellent pics, thanks for sharing Arthur.
We have talked about PBI doing a similar trip next year to commemorate.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
i know that i would be interestedin a trip over there again, have not been since 2004 and that was for the Nijmegen marches.
"Will you stop talking about the war!!"
"What, you started it!"
"We did NOT start it!"
"Yes you did, you invaded Poland..."
Great photos.
On a side note do we have many airsoft sites with bridges in the UK.
I was just looking at Cerberus videos and spotted they have one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4-O6vC4aBo
However I appreciate the dangers of using bridges in games, but it was one thing lacking when we did Arnhem a few years back.
Free speech is expensive these days!
Depends how literal you're going to be.
The *approach ramp* of arnhem bridge was about 200 metres long and Frosts battalion only secured the one end... unless you can find a bridge on a site 50 metres wide and about 600 metres long its going to be a bit farcical anyway.
A heck of a lot of the fighting (indeed probably about 50 per cent) was between the drop zones and bridge approach ramp. The remainder being on the approach ramp... not actually main span of the bridge itself
Remember that only one or two battalions got to the bridge the rest of the *division* fought in Arnhem town and Oosterbeek. Although i'm biased as I was involved in said event organising I think that happy one end of the site represent the bridge approach ramp is probably the more convincing way to do it.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Quite true Gadge I should not have mentioned Arnhem really, but a great many scenarios could be helped with some decent form of bridge on a site, disused rail bridge etc.
Free speech is expensive these days!
