I am happy to report the 60th anniversary of Market-Garden generated a huge public interest in the Netherlands. All sorts of activities were going on for the best part of the week, many of them being covered on TV, radio and in newspapers.
On Saturday hundreds of paras of the Netherlands Airmobile Brigade and the British 4th Para-regiment were dropped over the Ginkel Heath. Eleven veterans of the 1944 dropping jumped again, three of them solo! On the ground 50.000 to 60.000 people attended the dropping from two C47 Dakota's and numerous Hercules aircraft. After the dropping a Spitfire and three Harvards gave a spirited display.
That day I drove a Jeep from the Ginkel Heath to Oosterbeek. Amazed by how large the distance actually is, it was the most impressive historic drive I made to date.
In attendance of Queen Beatrix and Prince Charles, 15.000 veterans and other visitors gathered on the Airborne Cemetary in Oosterbeek on Sunday to commemorate the fallen.
Also on Sunday veterans commemorated the capturing of the Nijmegen bridge. I was crewing a Chevrolet Gun Tractor plus 25-pdr gun and we drove five veterans through the streets of Nijmegen and across the bridge. One of them, Bill, was driving a Morris-Commercial gun tractor in the Nijmegen area in 1944.
The route was lined by solid numbers of people from all walks of life, young and old, applauding for the veterans, shaking their hands, kissing them and shouting
thank you! I was deeply moved by the whole happening. One of the veterans told me: "Holland is a small country, but the people have big hearts".
Source:
http://www.marketgarden.com
For more pictures see
http://www.airbornemuseum.org/,
http://www.airborne-herdenkingen.nl/ and
http://www.stiwot.nl/?action=file&fi...p_mg180904.asp