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One old soldier's emotional return to Arnhem
SIXTY four years ago Norman Jones stood on a Dutch railway line and surveyed a scene of carnage as the victims of a vicious battle lay all around.
Yesterday, he came back to remember and salute the fallen. He was 28 then and about to be plunged into the mayhem of the battle for Arnhem. He's 92 now, and was among the guests of honour at the unveiling of a new series of memorials to the fight to free Holland from Nazi occupation, among them one at the railway line that ran from Groesbeek to Nijmegen.
There are not many veterans of that struggle left, and Mr Jones, from Swarcliffe, Leeds, was one of just four who were told by the Mayor of Arnhem, Paulien Krikke: "We must not, and we will not, forget what you have done for us."
Mr Jones, a sergeant major with the Army Physical Training Corps who parachuted into action with 10 Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, said: "It's very moving. We were on our way into action, and we came up this railway line and there were German bodies scattered all around.
"It must have been a hell of a fight. To be back here brings lots of memories back. The people are so kind and so friendly towards us. What happened here seems very close to me sometimes. I can be watching the television and something comes on and it brings things back very vividly, and it's almost as though I'm back there."
Mr Jones was in Holland for the unveiling of the Liberation Route, a series of 23 stone memorials at the sites of key events during the battle to free Holland between 1944 and 1945. It has cost the Dutch authorities 350,000 euros (277,000) to establish the memorial route, which will eventually run from the beaches of Normandy, through Belgium and into Germany.
He said: "I think the memorials are wonderful. They tell people what happened, and it's important that they know. The Dutch people teach their children what happened here and that's very good. Anybody you talk to knows about Arnhem."
Mr Jones fought for six days in the battle before being blown up by a grenade and taken prisoner.
Another of the veterans present was Gerald Levy, 82, from Lewes, in Sussex, who was just 17 when he parachuted into action. Mr Levy was shot in the head, back and arm before being evacuated to safety.
He said: "These memorials tell the story of what happened, and that's good because people need to know."
The Liberation Route was unveiled in advance of next Wednesday's 64th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, the biggest airborne assault in history, when 35,000 British, American and Polish troops were parachuted and flown into Holland in 1944 to seize five key bridges in the hope of opening up an invasion route into Germany and bringing the Second World War to an early end.
Annelies van der Kolk of the Gelderland regional government, which helped to fund the route, said: "It is of vital importance for young people that they experience the memory of a darker period in history and understand that some things are worth fighting for every day."
Details of the Liberation Route can be found at
www.liberationroute.com
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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