Forgotten hero Henry Moon finally laid to rest after being found buried under battlefield

For almost 80 years, the body of Yorkshireman Henry Moon lay forgotten, buried under a WWII battlefield in a remote corner of the Netherlands.

But thanks to a Dutch and British recovery and identification operation, this 21-year-old from Speeton, near Filey, now has a final resting place in the Commonwealth War Graves Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.

At a military ceremony yesterday, Private Moon was buried by the chaplain and soldiers of the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, in the presence of his great-nephew and niece whose DNA helped identify his remains.

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David Snowdon, 41, and a police officer in Edinburgh, never knew very much about his great-uncle growing up. “In all honesty, all I knew is he had died in the war and I never had much background until we got more and more information, once he was found,” he said, after the ceremony in Oosterbeek.

Pictured: soliders from The Royal Yorkshire Regiment carry Private Henry Moon's coffin to the burial site.Pictured: soliders from The Royal Yorkshire Regiment carry Private Henry Moon's coffin to the burial site.
Pictured: soliders from The Royal Yorkshire Regiment carry Private Henry Moon's coffin to the burial site.

“My grandfather and my other great uncle would always get really upset every time they thought about him, talked about him, but they never really went into any detail about how he had died in the war. All we knew is, he did.”

Moon, born on December 24, 1922, was one of four sons born to Herbert and Ann Moon. He worked as an apprentice joiner before enlisting in the The Green Howards, on March 19, 1942. In the next two years, he was posted to Egypt, Sicily and then to the Netherlands for the ill-fated Operation Market Garden near Arnhem.

His 7th Battalion had taken up positions around the village of Bemmel, when on October 1, 1944, the enemy attacked. By the end of a day of close combat, Pte Moon had been reported killed in action. Nothing was known about his end until recent works on the A15 highway revealed his comrades had made him a hasty war grave – with his Green Howards’ cap badge and soldier’s helmet with the red flash of the 50th Northumbrian Division painted onto it.

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The Commonwealth War Graves Commission reached out to Mr Snowdon to ask if he would give a DNA sample to confirm whether this indeed was the body of his great-uncle. Four years later, as part of commemorations to mark 80 years of freedom in the Netherlands, Pte Moon was finally laid to rest.

Private Henry MoonPrivate Henry Moon
Private Henry Moon

Christina Snowdon, 73, his niece, who found out about the discovery last year, was visibly moved at the funeral. “The details they went to, to try to find out who he was…was amazing,” she said. “They said that he was found in a shallow, emergency grave, his rifle and ammunition were there and they recognised him from his cap. Because they discovered he was from The Green Howards, they looked into boys who were lost, and what sort of size they were – that all came into it.”

She said that in the post-war generation, people did not always talk so much about their losses – and there was much that they simply didn’t know. “My uncle John, my godfather, would talk about it a little bit,” she said. “They were just sorry he hadn’t come back, because he was so young when he died.”

A second English soldier, Dermod Anderson, was buried yesterday afternoon and The Princess Royal will attend an Airborne Memorial Service at the same cemetery on Sunday.

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“We were informed that sometimes [war funerals] get a little bit of press attention – but we were expecting about 20 people or so,” said Mr Snowdon. “Hundreds turned up and the international media. It’s genuinely astonishing and quite humbling.”

Formal commemorations are taking place throughout this week to mark 80 years since the Battle of Arnhem in the Second World War

The services for Private Moon and Lieutenant Anderson were organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), also known as the MOD war detectives.

Minister for Veterans and Personnel Al Carns said: “The burial of two Second World War soldiers in Arnhem this week reminds us of the price paid to restore peace to western Europe.

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“I’m grateful that members of today’s Armed Forces were present at the ceremony as they continue the traditions of service and sacrifice.

“Efforts to remember all those who served and died during the Second World War must never stop.”

Both soldiers fought during Operation Market Garden, a major airborne offensive aimed at securing strategically-important crossings over the Rhine. The Battle of Arnhem, part of an allied plan to liberate the Netherlands and force a route into Germany, raged between September 17-25 1944.

By the end of the week, Arnhem remained in Nazi hands and nearly 2,000 Commonwealth and Allied soldiers had been killed.

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Although its objectives were not achieved, Operation Market Garden remains a remarkable feat of arms due to the determination and courage shown by the soldiers. It also led to the liberation of a large part of the Netherlands at a time when many civilians were close to starvation.

Modern-day British Army personnel from The Royal Yorkshire Regiment and the Army Air Corps – the modern-day equivalent units of the men being buried – carried the two coffins to their resting place and fired a military rifle salute.

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