NETHERLANDS: More than 1,000 children joined Arnhem veterans yesterday in the Netherlands to honour their comrades who died at the Battle of Arnhem during the second World War 60 years ago.
One old soldier collapsed and several more were treated for suspected heart-attacks during the commemoration in sunlit oak woods, which was a blazing inferno during the battle.
Immortalized in the film A Bridge too Far on Sunday September 19th, 1944 the Battle of Arnhem codenamed "Market Garden" began. The operation was a failure, leading to more casualties than D-day.
During the largest airborne military operation in history, more than 16,500 paratroopers and 3,500 troops were dropped in a bid to capture Dutch bridges over the Rhine. The American landings were a success, but the British, dropped too far from key bridges, unexpectedly encountered two SS Panzer units and suffered heavy losses. Nearly 6,000 men from the First Airborne Division were captured and 1,174 were killed, with 1,900 escaping.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Prince Charles, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment, were joined by more than 1,000 children who laid flowers to honour the Arnhem dead at a ceremony attended by over 15,000 people at Osterbeek War cemetery. Many of the 500 veterans wiped away a tear as the children raised their bouquets towards them and the Last Post sounded, flowed by a minute's silence and a flyover by Dakota planes.
During the service of remembrance, the Rev Jeff Cuttell, chaplain to the 4th Battalion Parachute regiment, said: "we are surrounded here by the graves of the fallen; they are not just names and numbers on stones, but friends, comrades, husbands, fathers and grandfathers; they died in the hope that the world would become a better place. In a perfect world there would be no need for soldiers or diplomats or politicians, but we do not live in a perfect world ".
"Sixty years ago a united nations of Europe was just a dream, but that bridge too far has become a bridge to the future. We are building from the ruins of the Twin Towers and from the ruins of Iraq, they are not places where we would have chosen to begin, but they are places where change can start. Its up to us to build that bridge to the future."
Wearing his father's medals Mr Alan Tolcher from Belfast and Great Yarmouth said: "we don't know how my father died; he was 24 and is buried in Oosterbeek; he was killed during the Battle of Arnhem shortly after they came under German attack; we return for all the big anniversaries; it is so moving to read the names and ages, so many were only boys of 17 or 18."
Jewish soldiers taken prisoner at the Battle of Arnhem would give Irish names such as O'Brien, Murphy or Sullivan to avoid deportation to the gas chambers, according to Mr Tom Carpenter (79) from Bermingham. "I was 19 and a fine big fellow of 12 stone. Because I was injured when the Germans picked me up I could not go to a forced labour camp, so it was really tough; basically they starved me and I weighed five and a half stone at the end of the war".
To mark this year's anniversary seven veterans with a combined age of 550 years leapt from American Dakota planes landing on the same spot as 60 years ago - some in tandem with the Red Devils and others in solo jumps. Among them was Mr Ray Sheriff (84) who was blinded during the Battle of Arnhem and says he is only now retiring from making his annual parachute jump marking the anniversary because his wife has told him "it makes her too nervous".