On the trail of Operation Market Garden

[Lodrorigdzin]

As my brother, a cousin and me are taking part in the Vierdaagse marches this year, we decided to meet ahead of time, because we see each other rarely, and do some sight seeing and a couple of maintenance walks before traveling to Nijmegen to take part. One side of the family is Scottish, and even my brother and I haven't got much opportunity to meet, so we thought to make the most of this occasion. The plan is to do the marches in kilts, if practicable, and we'll see. The marches start tomorrow on tuesday, but we decided to meet on saturday evening, spend the night at the Dreijeroord hotel in Oosterbeek, go to the national folk culture museum in Arnhem on Sunday, and get there by means of a meandering walk, partly following the trail of Operation Market Garden, still one of the most large scale airborne operations in military history. Hotel Dreijeroord itself played an important part in the withdrawal of troops from Arnhem and Oosterbeek to the bank of the Rhine and was held for 3 days by the King's Own Scottish Borderers.


Here's the plaque at the Entrance to the hotel. Which is somewhat of a shrine to airborne troops and the KOSB troops who were stranded there, and held their position. Earlier that day I had passed monuments to Canadian troops who liberated the area in april 1945, as part of a thrust northwards.



Dreijeroord is pretty authentic, a hotel such as you might have found in the 1950s or 1960s, but with wifi and with good Belgian Trappist, of which my cousin and brother partook. The next morning we set off, planning to walk along the Rhine to Arnhem, then cross to the area where the Openluchtmuseum is. The reason for visiting is because one of the buildings there is important in our family's history, but more of that later. We walked towards Hartenstein, the allied forces' headquarters in Oosterbeek, and the last fall back position before the evacuation across the Rhine, later. The museum was not yet open, but the park had a couple of poignant memorials. And an official and well-designed bicycle pump. How Dutch.


We found the monument to the people of Gelderland especially moving. Warfare in Market Garden took place in the suburb of Oosterbeek, very much urban warfare and troops were helped by many ordinary civilians who put their lives on the line to help them, feed them, nurse them, hide them and evacuate them, sometimes months after Market Garden ended.

Then we walked through the open fields and hill sides with beautiful villas towards the Rhine and Oosterbeek's Great Church. This is quite a modest building. It was the last stronghold and a position that had to be kept in order to enable troops to cross the Rhine.
It was sunday morning and psalm singing sounded faintly.



The memorial bench is being restored, hence the shields have been removed.

[Lodrorigdzin]

We walked on into the Uiterwaarden, that are flooded in spring, but would have been dry pasture in september. Looking back it's easy to see how difficult it must have been to defend the church.



It's a beautiful area, close to Arnhem. I think the river landscape here is one of the most beautiful landscapes there is.

We walked on, through Arnhem and beautiful Sonsbeek to the Openluchtmuseum. This was founded in the early 1900s to preserve traditional farming practices for posterity. In order to do this, they moved farms, mills, fisherman's cottages stone by stone to Arnhem and rebuilt the structures there. Recently more modern, canonical Dutch buildings have been added: two slum dwellings from the Jordaan area in Amsterdam, a typical Chinese restaurant, barracks where Moluccan families were housed who were demobbed from the Dutch East Indies.

In the basement we saw an interesting exhibition on Dutch regional dress. I spotted a beautiful cantle and we had an interesting conversation with a guide who was explaining Surinamese dress (kotomisi)



But the main reason for visiting was that the museum also has a Frisian farm from Middelstum, also transported stone by stone. My mother and my uncle hid in that farm during the war, and so did many others. All of these "onderduikers" survived the war, helped by the farm's isolated location and by the support of the Hibma family who lived there and their neighbours. Inside, there was an exhibit on the Frisian emigration to Canada in the 1950s



Especially poignant is finding graffiti on the stable walls:



Both my brother and I remember the look of utter shock and surprise on my mother's face when we visited this farm on a family outing, decades ago. She had no idea that farm was there!

Anyway, we had a drink and decided to head for the bus and to Nijmegen to our B&B there



It was nice summer weather, not particularly hot and very pleasant. A great day for the three of us and a wonderful introduction to the walking we're going to do. Occasions like these are very precious so we try to make the most of them.

[Jock Scot]

Thank you for remembering "our" fallen in those grim times. It is not forgotten by us that those of your country had a very grim time, at that time of the war too.

"Lest we forget."

[sailortats]

Wonderful pics and a great story. Thank you so very much for bringing this to our attention.

[Lodrorigdzin]

Thank you for remembering "our" fallen in those grim times. It is not forgotten by us that those of your country had a very grim time, at that time of the war too.

"Lest we forget."

Indeed. That memory is very much kept alive around Arnhem, but also in Wageningen, where the capitulation took place and in Nijmegen. 2014 marks the 70th year of Market Garden and there are commemorative events throughout september.

Particularly moving was this small scale monument inside Dreijeroord to one of the glider pilots, Bill Hewitt, by his own admission "an unwilling and uninvited guest to the Dreijeroord hotel for three days in September 1944"