Trip to Normandy and Arnhem 2004

This lucky young Dutch lad went home with one of the Paras berets.


This veteran is Derick Baker of the 1st Special Air Service, now im usually fairly shy and believe it or not dont push myself forwards
But I just blanked with this veteran, I was thinking to myself he must have seen and done so much stuff. Apparently he and his men were at Nijmegen on the NORTH side and trying to cross a field under machine gun fire to get to the bridge to disable explosives.


Polish airborne vet sitting on the 17 pounder aT gun outside the Hartenstien



This really was an honour, this is Mr Moore signing my book, he was with 2nd battalion South Staffordshire regiment, im sure anyone who has read about the battle of Arnhem will know about the Staffs.

Stevin posted about this place in another topic, the Hotel Tafelberg, apparently from stevin's post theres not alot left now

 

Thanks again for posting, Andy - nice to see the photos of Harry & Douglas, I met them last year - same time, same place !

So sad to see the Tafelberg like that - we managed to get inside with Niall Cherry's group a few years ago ( while it was empty ) for some photos. I believe that the still bloodstained mosaic from the floor has been removed for preservation.

 

Cheers Martin

As they say its a small world

The other Paras they were travelling with were some characters, I was trying to keep a straight face chatting to Harry and Douglas, I think one of the blokes sat behind them runs a website for scottish paras.

Andy

 

Well had a great time in Holland last week, my Dutch friend drove me everywhere, visiting all the places that I missed out last year, and to top it all the weather was fantastic.


Memorial to the 1st Battalion Border Regiment at the Westerbouwing Restaurant, Oosterbeek.



This is a memorial to the 4th Dorset battalion who crossed the river from the South, just below the restaurant on the 24th-27th September to support and aid the 1st airborne.


View from the heights over Driel-Heveadorp ferry, you can see why the Germans wanted this area with the view it gives

and back in 1944





To the right

To the left towards Arnhem

 

The old Oosterbeek church or Lonsdale church

Memorial in church grounds






The Wessex division vet on the right gave me his addy, he was wounded near Hill 112 in Normandy. Im very interested to hear more about his war. Also the fields behind is where the divison had its artillery.

Dont know if there are any band of brother fans out there? well I was always impressed with the charge at the "crossroads" and this was not far away on Southern bank of the Rhine.

Crossroads

 

This one is for the 7th battlaion Hampshire regiment



Polish memorial Driel









Lonsdale Church and Kate ter Horst's house from the South bank of the river

 

Off to Arnhem Airborne memorial












Finally get to meet up with Bill Fulton, first british para onto Arnhem bridge, and quite a celebrity in the city. Everyone wants to shake Bill's hand.
Bill Fulton Arnhem

 

One of the vets we met at the Para drop was there, his name is Ken Fleet, 6 platoon B company 156 para brigade, not only that but also 21 SAS.






I went and spoke to this chap who was stood all on his own. He was quite difficult to understand with his broad
Lancashire accent. He told me he was with 10th para and had landed on this very heath (Ginkel heath) where we were standing. He told me that he could take me to the exact place where he landed and that he could still smell the burning heather.

Another veteran who I had met last year at the Oosterbeek war cem service was back again. He is Arthur Winstanley and amazingly he had tandom jumped last year for the 60th. He is mentioned on page 236 of Martin Middlebrooks excellent book on Arnhem.


Arthur watching the jump





Amazingly another 10th Para vet who had jumped on the heath, and again accompanied by his Dutch carer, who was very proud of him and wanted to tell me what he had done.

 

Thanks for sharing the superb pics!

 

Hi there H & J. I was with Derick on that occasion. We were in the same PRA branch and used to go to Arnhem in my car every year. He died about 5 years ago. Question; How do I open the photo you refer to in your post ? Cheers. Derek

 

Periodically do seem to degrade images and these seem to be 15 years old. On occasion we must shift servers or platforms and I think this may be the cause we lose some linked content.