Arnhem

He went to meet her at the station and, as she came to greet him, neither of them knew what to do. ‘I couldn’t very well get hold of her as I wanted to, so rather awkwardly I offered to kiss her. We gave each other a little peck, and then just stood for a while studying one another.’ Then, guided by his father, it was back to the Milbourne house, where his mother instantly whisked Peggy away. ‘I think she wanted to warn her that I was not myself and not to take any notice of me, to let me get on with whatever I was doing and, most of all, not try to help. I don’t know for sure that this was the gist of their conversation but I suspected it was, because mother had been coming in for a lot of abuse from me. Every time she made to help me, I would start raving at her. My temper was foul.’ When he and Peggy were on their own, conversation was stilted. ‘So I decided to force the question – were we still going to get married? I said to her, “Peggy, have you ever thought of the drawbacks which are bound to confront a man like myself?”’ She was silent for a minute or two, which the anger inside Milbourne instantly interpreted as the rejection he had expected. Then she came back at him. ‘You think you’re licked, don’t you? You think that you’re a social outcast because you’ve lost your hands. Because of your wounds, you’re not going to be married. I suppose it would hurt your pride to have a mere woman helping you.’

Milbourne was stung. Before Peggy went back to her unit, they rowed all the time but, as he later acknowledged, she made him get a grip of himself and the self-pity that was gnawing away at him. ‘Her tongue, plus my mother’s cooking, had me making a fighting comeback.’ It took a while – and a whole lot of binge-drinking with his mates – before this happened. He was fitted with prosthetic arms. He married Peggy. He made a life for himself. Defying his disability, he found work after the war, including an extraordinary period when he worked down a coal mine. When this came to the attention of a Labour MP and newspaper stories were written about him, he became something of a celebrity and an inspiration. He wrote his memoirs, which were published in the fifties to great acclaim. One holder of the Victoria Cross hailed his ‘courage in its highest form, moral as well as physical’ and another saw him as ‘a symbol of man’s triumph over the worst possible afflictions’. In many ways, Milbourne’s endurance, suffering and courage epitomized the Battle of Arnhem and the incredibly brave men who fought it. Militarily, it was a defeat, but not for the human spirit. Fittingly, Milbourne dedicated his writings to his fellow soldiers. ‘To those who fell and to all who survived, whether whole in mind or body,’ he wrote, ‘Thank you, gentlemen, for the honour of your company.’ Amen to that.

This Arnhem narrative began in the Netherlands with the seventeen-year-old Anje van Maanen and her dog on the peaceful banks of the Lower Rhine. ‘We had no idea what was to happen over the coming days’ – that those green meadows were soon to be a blood-soaked battlefield and a graveyard. With what Anje saw and experienced, she was forced to grow up from girl to woman in a week. To her go the final words that sum up that battle for survival in Arnhem and Oosterbeek in September 1944: ‘I shall never forget the terror, fear, and death but also the wonderful friendships. The bravery of the British was incredible. The way the Dutch people helped them also made me so proud. The sacrifice will never be forgotten and nor will the way people conducted themselves amidst the horror. That was truly the triumph of Arnhem.’

Illustrations

1. Paratroopers of the 1st Airborne Division in their aircraft during the flight to Arnhem, Sunday 17 September (IWM K 7586)

2. Glider pilot Staff Sergeant Peter Clarke, who set up an improvised dressing station during the battle around Oosterbeek (Peter Clarke/Luuk Buist)

3. Glider pilot Sergeant Alan Kettley in 1945. Kettley was captured at Oosterbeek but managed to escape and return to the UK. In late October 1944 he flew back to occupied Holland to assist in the rescue of other evaders (Alan Kettley)

4. Paratroopers of the 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron gathering their parachutes, Arnhem, 17 September (IWM BU 1163)