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75th Anniversary of Market Garden

Cloud Cover

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https://twitter.com/BritishArmy/status/1174744966687383552?s=20
 
I make a point of watching "A Bridge Too Far" every September.

AIRBORNE!  :salute:
 
Early on in my time with the Parachute Regiment I was part of all the fuss that is made every year to do a commemorative jump onto Ginkel Heath, one of the original Arnhem drop zones. I never got a chance to do the jump myself as I was always employed otherwise at that time (usually in NI, of course).

I got a chance to talk to a few of the Arnhem originals in Aldershot during the preparation for one of these events. Almost to a man, they were never very happy about the whole thing as it was an event that represented the worst, in their eyes, of the errors made by senior leaders during the war. Montgomery had no fan club amongst the 1st Airborne Division, and they were never happy with the decision to (with appalling irony, in their eyes) appoint him as the Regiment's Colonel-in-Chief because, as one of the veterans described it, Arnhem was 'the British Airborne's Crete'.

 
Journeyman said:
I make a point of watching "A Bridge Too Far" every September.

AIRBORNE!  :salute:
Another good related (back-to-back?) watch this time of year is "Theirs Is The Glory" - here's the summary (highlights mine):
In 1944, British General Montgomery and his command were way north of the Allied line, and the Germans were holding them in that swampy position. The plan, put into operation on Sunday, September 14, 1944, was to drop two American Airborne divisions and the British First Airborne Division behind the German lines to capture the bridges which would open the way to the German plain. The British objective was Arnhem, the northernmost point of the Montgomery plan, and this film depicts in graphic detail the ordeal the "Men of Arnhem", the British First Airborne, endured. The first cast listing reads the "Survivors of the British First Airborne Divison", including a Colonel Lonsdale and a Major Gough.
More from Wikipedia:
Using the original locations of the battle, the film featured veterans who were actual participants in the battle. The film was jointly produced by the J. Arthur Rank Organisation and the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU).[3]

Weaving original footage from the battle with re-enactments shot on location at Oosterbeek and Arnhem, the film was shot a year after the battle had ravaged the Dutch streets. As well as veterans, the film also features local people like Father Dyker (a Dutch civilian priest who conducts the service in the film) and Kate ter Horst (who reads a psalm to the wounded men in the cellar) re-enacting their roles and what they did for the airborne troops during the battle.

Though no credits appear before or after the film, over 200 veterans appeared as actors including Majors CFH "Freddie" Gough and Richard "Dickie" Lonsdale, Lieutenant Hugh Ashmore, Sergeants Jack Bateman and John Daley, Corporal Pearce and Privates Tommy Scullion, Peter Holt, David Parker, George ‘Titch’ Preston, Frank ‘Butch’ Dixon, Reginald Spray, Looker and Van Rijssel and war correspondents Stanley Maxted and Alan Wood. Each veteran was paid £3 per day by the Rank Organisation ...
 
I posted a link to Theirs Is The Glory above on YouTube. When I tap the link on Firefox on my iPhone I get a raft of recommended videos. When i go to Safari I get the actual film. That link also works on Windows. Anybody gets the same?
 
kkwd said:
I posted a link to Theirs Is The Glory above on YouTube. When I tap the link on Firefox on my iPhone I get a raft of recommended videos. When i go to Safari I get the actual film. That link also works on Windows. Anybody gets the same?

If you read about General Sosabowski's trials and tribulations during the battle, it seems that questionable senior leadership may have contributed to increased levels of 'glory' in this case :)

'Browning told him that there were almost no boats this far forward along the column. Sosabowski snapped and demanded to know what kind of army conducts a major operation over large rivers without a forward supply of boats. Captain Jan Lorys, one of Sosabowski's staff officers, said that daring to criticise the British generals in this way was probably the final nail in his coffin.'

http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/stanislaw_sosabowski.htm
 
Retired AF Guy said:
Another book worth reading is It Never Snows in September by Robert Kershaw. This one is especially informative because its written from the German perspective.

Bob Kershaw was my OC for awhile when I was a Pl Comd in 1 PARA.

He was odd in that he was a real Germanophile... and some other stuff  :whistle:
 
Journeyman said:
I make a point of watching "A Bridge Too Far" every September.

AIRBORNE!  :salute:

I’m watching it now. No wonder Browning developed a drinking problem after the war- was he really that cavalier??
 
Cloud Cover said:
I’m watching it now. No wonder Browning developed a drinking problem after the war- was he really that cavalier??

Well, he was married to Daphne du Maurier

Biographers have noted that du Maurier's marriage was at times somewhat chilly and that she could be aloof and distant to her children, especially the girls, when immersed in her writing. Her husband died in 1965 and soon after Daphne moved to Kilmarth, near Par, Cornwall, which became the setting for The House on the Strand.  Du Maurier has often been painted as a frostily private recluse who rarely mixed in society or gave interviews. An exception to this came after the release of the film A Bridge Too Far, in which her late husband was portrayed in a less-than-flattering light. Incensed, she wrote to the national newspapers, decrying what she considered unforgivable treatment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_du_Maurier

Fun fact... she was rumoured to have chosen the colour maroon for the Airborne Forces beret.
 
daftandbarmy said:
Well, he was married to Daphne du Maurier

Biographers have noted that du Maurier's marriage was at times somewhat chilly and that she could be aloof and distant to her children, especially the girls, when immersed in her writing. Her husband died in 1965 and soon after Daphne moved to Kilmarth, near Par, Cornwall, which became the setting for The House on the Strand.  Du Maurier has often been painted as a frostily private recluse who rarely mixed in society or gave interviews. An exception to this came after the release of the film A Bridge Too Far, in which her late husband was portrayed in a less-than-flattering light. Incensed, she wrote to the national newspapers, decrying what she considered unforgivable treatment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_du_Maurier

Fun fact... she was rumoured to have chosen the colour maroon for the Airborne Forces beret.

Beevor also mentions it in his book.  Apparently maroon was the colour of their favourite racing team.
 
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