Netherlands - Arnhem continued

There have been some indications that summer is returning to the Netherlands. We were all beginning to talk of the 'lost' summer. The day (Sat 21 July) was spent exploring the immediate surroundings of the Hartenstein estate in Oosterbeek near the town of Arnhem, province of Gelderland in the Netherlands - hope you've got all that?! Hartenstein was a hotel before the war and subsequently served as HQ for both the Germans and the British during events of the summer of 1944.
Only shortly - the Allies thought that capturing the road bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem would mean the end of the war by Christmas 1944, in that the denial of the industrial capacity of the Ruhr, would force an early German surrender. The bridge could not be taken against tenacious German resistance and the ensuing battle showed a ferocity of fighting on all sides, seldom seen on the western front.

'Pegasus' - flag of the British Airborne in WW2 in front of the Hartenstein HQ

Every year for the past 66 years the British sacrifice in this battle is commemorated by a mass walk

The view of many a paratrooper during the assault

Rebuilt and showing a very different scene to that of 1944

I found the visit to Arnhem, and that 'Bridge Too Far', to be a humbling experience and a poignant reminder of the ferocity with which this battle was fought. Both the British paratroopers and the German Wehrmacht (including units of the Waffen SS) gave it their all. Of the 9,000 British paratroopers that walked in, only 2,500 walked out, the rest either killed, wounded or captured.

We left Arnhem by crossing that very bridge in Fifi and so backtracked on the route walked by those paratroopers carrying the flag of liberation. We left the Netherlands behind us and crossed into Germany just east of Nijmegen.

It was sunshine all the way to the pretty town of Emmerich on the banks of the Rhine. A very affordable campsite at 20 Euros for three days overlooking the yacht club was found, courtesy of our GPS Snoopy. Surrounded by mainly German motorhomes and some very friendly 'Guten Morgens' when Joan appeared, left me with a right smile on the face ....

Joan I think is working on her German .... not ....