'Polar Bear' D-Day Vets Honoured

The_Historian · #1 (**permalink**) October 15th, 2005, 03:12 PM

bigiceman · #2 (**permalink**) October 15th, 2005, 04:59 PM

Cool. Liked the remark about marrying some of the prettiest girls in the town.

ham and jam · #3 (**permalink**) October 15th, 2005, 05:54 PM

They went through some hellish fighting in Normandy and Holland, the heavy fighting in Normandy gained them the nickname "butcher bears" by the Germans.

Theres a great book on the West riding by Delaforce.

Andy

Jack Russell · #4 (**permalink**) October 17th, 2005, 04:49 PM

Hello gentlemen,

The Polar Bears freed this part of the country, Roosendaal. There is even a memorial dedicated to them here !1

The_Historian · #5 (**permalink**) October 17th, 2005, 05:49 PM

Thanks Jack. [img]smile.gif[/img]

bigiceman · #6 (**permalink**) October 17th, 2005, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ham and jam:
They went through some hellish fighting in Normandy and Holland, the heavy fighting in Normandy gained them the nickname "butcher bears" by the Germans.

Theres a great book on the West riding by Delaforce.
Andy

Do you remember the name of the book Andy?

ham and jam · #7 (**permalink**) October 18th, 2005, 03:57 PM

My Dutch friend has been to the Polar bear memorial at Utrecht, he also went to a reunion for them at the old fortress (Fort De Bilt) at the edge of Utrecht this year where there were a dozen or so 49th div vets.

I have to say its a great monument, a big stone Polar bear.

One of the best ones ive seen was this year on the Overloon - Venraij road, its for the Norfolk regiment of the 3rd division

Does anyone remember Sapper (Brian Guy) this road was the one he got blown up on delivering orders ona motorbike. I tried to find his missing knee cap for him but didnt have any luck hehe.

Moderator Edit:

Sapper's thread http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/13272-sword-beach-bremen-veterans-tale-sapper.html

I certainly do remember the name mate

The Polar Bears, From Normandy to the Relief of Holland with the 49th Division by Patrick Delaforce ISBN: 0750910623

Delaforce has wrote books on just about every British Division that fought in North West Europe and taking into account the battle that some of them fought in Africa, Sicily and Italy.

Kai-Petri · #8 (**permalink**) September 30th, 2008, 04:42 PM

The 49th Division became known as the Polar Bears because of their service in Iceland between 1940 and 1942. The adoption of the new divisional sign accompanied publication of the division's newspaper 'The Midnight Sun'.

Polar Bears

The Polar Bears became notorious to German troops and merited a vicious attack by Lord Haw Haw on the radio during the Normandy campaign. He called them 'The Polar Bear Butchers' and the insult formed the basis of a somewhat bloodthirsty 49th Divisional Christmas Card for 1944. This extreme rhetoric reflects the ugliness of fighting in Normandy.

macrusk · #9 (**permalink**) October 15th, 2008, 01:43 AM

Unfortunately, Gordon't link is no longer live, but this thread is great. I didn't know about this divison or the story behind them until now. When I do eventually get to Holland (might not be 2009 now) I'll be wanting to keep an eye out for all these memorials.