Arnhem

Van Hees, Arie-Jan, Green On! A Detailed Survey of the British Parachute Re-supply Sorties during Operation Market Garden 18–25 September 1944, Private publication, 2007

Notes

Chapter 1: ‘Where are the Tommies!’

1 Private memoir and JN interview, 2010.

2 Anje van Maanen – private diary, and JN interview, 2010. This day-by-day account was written in September 1945, exactly a year after the events she described, as a way of trying to come to terms with the horrors she had experienced and which still haunted her dreams.

3 Private memoir by Heleen Kernkamp-Biegel. Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford, and JN interview with her daughter Marga, 2010.

4 The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, only two of which are known as Holland (north and south), the name by which the whole country is often erroneously called. Arnhem was in Gelderland. Ironically, the city of Geldern, from which the province took its name, was (and is) in Germany.

5 Sir Alistair Horne in Monty, the Lonely Leader. Macmillan, 1994.

6 The Tommies are Coming. Diary of an Oosterbeek Girl. Surname unknown. Airborne Museum, Oosterbeek. Copy lodged at Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

7 Arnhem Spearhead, by James Sims. Imperial War Museum, 1978, and Sphere Books, 1989.

8 The use (or misuse) of the words ‘paras’ and ‘paratroopers’ can still cause fighting to break out in the ranks. In the text, we have opted for the generic definition where necessary, for ease of reading.

9 The Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery. Collins, 1958, and Pen and Sword Military, 2010.

10 Alan Kettley, Official intelligence debrief, October 1944 (Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford), and JN interview, 2010.

11 In his memoirs, Montgomery gave a succinct summary of Market Garden. ‘My plan was to drive hard for the Rhine across all river and canal obstacles and to seize a bridgehead beyond the Rhine before the enemy reorganized sufficiently to stop us. The essential feature was the laying of a “carpet” of airborne forces across the five major water obstacles which existed on the general axis of the main road through Eindhoven to Uden, Grave, Nijmegen, and thence to Arnhem. XXX Corps was then to operate along the axis of the “carpet”, link up with the 1st British Airborne Division in the Arnhem area and establish a bridgehead over the Neder Rijn north of that place. Second Army was then to establish itself in the general area between Arnhem and the Zuider Zee, facing east, so as to be able to develop operations against the northern flank of the Ruhr.’

12 Major Toler. Diary. Provided by Major Mike Peters, Army Air Corps.

13 Private memoir. Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

14 Quoted in Monty: The Field-Marshal, by Nigel Hamilton. Sceptre, 1986.

15 Lease of Life, by Andrew Milbourne. Transworld, 1955.

16 Private Les Davison, Royal Army Medical Corps. Private memoir. Box 45, RAMC Archive, Keogh Barracks, Hampshire.

17 Letter by Ivor Rowbery, Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

Chapter 2: ‘A Piece of Cake’

1 Quoted in Men of the Red Beret: There Shall be Wings. The RAF 1918 to the Present, by Max Arthur. Hutchinson, 1990.

2 Alan Kettley: see Chapter 1, note 10.

3 Reg Curtis, Tafelberg. BN1 Publishing, and JN interviews, 2010.

4 Apart from the shame and ridicule, this was a court-martial offence.

5 There were different symbols for specific units.

6 ‘Market’ was the codename for the airlift part of the operation and ‘Garden’ the codename for the land operation. Hence the operation as a whole was ‘Market Garden’.

7 Quoted in Arnhem, by Lloyd Clark. Headline, 2009.

8 Ted Mordecai. Private memoir. Airborne Ordnance at Arnhem, Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

9 It Never Snows in September, by Robert Kershaw. Ian Allan, 2009.

10 Ron Brooker’s account in Tribute edited by Philip Sidnell. The Military & Aviation Book Society, London, 2002, and JN interview, June 2010.

11 Peter Clarke. Private memoir, and JN interview, 2010.

Chapter 3: ‘Home by the Weekend’

1 Cloud over Arnhem, by Kate ter Horst. Allan Wingate, London, 1959.

2 P. H. Huisman. Private memoir. Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

3 Private memoir. Target Mike One, and JN interview, 2010.

4 Down to Earth. Private memoir by Fred Moore. Airborne Assault, Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

5 Nine Days, by Ronald Gibson. Arthur Stockwell, 1956. The authors are grateful to his daughter, Candy, for permission to quote from it.

6 Eric Webbley. Private memoir. Courtesy of his widow and Niall Cherry of Warton, Lancs.