Our thanks go, once again, to that most praiseworthy of organisations, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. At their Head Office in Maidenhead, David Parker, Peter Francis, Derek Butler, Shirley Hitchcock and Maureen Annetts in our researches for this book. Thanks, too, go to the staff at the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum at Browning Barracks, Aldershot - the energetic Director, Mrs Belinda Brinton, and her staff, especially Alan Brown and Tina Pittock; to the Curator, Captain (Retd) P.H. Starling and his staff at the superb R.A.M.C. Historical Museum at Keogh Barracks, Aldershot, and to Colonel John Richardson, Defence Medical Services Professor of General Practice for his introduction. To Lord Carrington for permission to quote from his letter to us; to Colonel Robert Kershaw (author of It Never Snows in September); to Alan Hartley of the RAF Down Ampney Association for providing us with much information about the abortive ‘Lonsdale Force’stained glass window; Captain Vivian Taylor MC, Adjutant of the Irish Guards at Joe’s Bridge, for information about his Regiment; Cecil Newton, Secretary of the ‘Creully Club’ (qv) for information about the 4th/7th RDG memorials; Johnny Peters for information about the Amhem 1944 Veterans’ Club; Joe Roberts (author of With Spanners Descending, the story of REME with the Airborne 1942-45) for details of the Lest We Forget Foundation; Graham Day of the Air Historical Branch, RAF for details of 83 Group Air Support; Niall Cherry, author Red Berets and Red Crosses; Sam Holt, our hysterical researcher, for dedicated and rewarding work at the PRO.
In the Netherlands our old friends Jetse Bos, Promotions Manager of the Gelderland and Overijssel Tourist Board, and Wilm van Vliet, ex-proprietor of the excellent Erica Hotel in Berg en Dal, have been as helpful as ever. At the principal museums and historical centres at Oosterbeek and Groesbeek, the support has been outstanding. At the former, the fount of so much knowledge, the delightful Anglophile, Drs Adrian Groeneweg, OBE, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hartenstein Airborne Museum, has been extraordinarily generous with his time, advice and practical assistance and the Director, W. Boersma, has been whole-hearted in his support. Our friend for many years, the dedicated and knowledgeable Curator Berry de Reus, with his boyhood friend, Drs Robert Voskuil - owner of a unique collection of Amhem documentation and information gained at first hand from his parents - have been as helpful as they were when we wrote our first small book on MARKET-GARDEN nearly 20 years ago. At the newly-enlarged National Liberation Museum at Groesbeek, the Director, Drs W. P.H. Lenders, was equally supportive and gave us into the enthusiastic hands of their historian, the ‘Para manqué’ Frank van den Bergh, who has shared his encyclopaedic knowledge and time with us, and the inimitable Father Thuring, whose publications we acknowledge throughout the book. Henk Duinhoven, MBE, of Bernmel has been more than generous with his time and information.
Frans Ammerlaan, amateur historian from Elden and colleague of researcher Andries Hoekstra, who has created a unique, extraordinarily detailed and constantly up-dated website on MARKET-GARDEN www.marketgarden.com has provided us with many offers of help, useful maps, information and contacts, accompanied us on many exciting expeditions and put in long hours of persistent investigation on our behalf. During the last twelve months he and his family have become good friends indeed.
In Eindhoven, we thank Corine de Hart, Marketing Director of the of the VVV, Rosemary van Mierlo, Front Office Manager, Ilse de Groot and Mr. Michel Besnard, Chairman of the 18 September Festival Foundation, and H. Reijnen, Secretary of the Light Tour and Dr J. M. W. Paulussen, Philips’ company Archivist, We are grateful to Dr Stephen Temming, Managing Director of the Dutch National War Resistance Museum at Overloon; Dr Jeroen van den Eijnde of the National Monument, Kamp Vught. In Best our thanks go to the extraordinarily energetic and enthusiastic Chairman of the Bevrijdende Museum, Jan Driessen; in Hoogeloon to Mr G. H. Fonteyn for information about the Hei-eind Memorial; in Son to R. J. van den Hoef for literature about the town in 1944 and to the faithful Van Overveld family at the Paulushoeve - Liza who remembers with clarity September 1944, her brother. Wan, who built the parachute memorial in his garden, and her niece, Clara, who keeps remembrance alive. In Uden our gratitude goes to M. M. Verstegen who has voluntarily, for more than half a century, given unstinted assistance to pilgrims to the CWGC Cemetery and made a unique record of the men who lie in it. In Zetten we pay tribute to the dedicated couple, Geurt and Coby de Hartog, who both lived through the battles as children and who have made it their lives’ work to research the campaign and do their utmost to help veterans and relatives trace graves and sites of actions
In Leopoldsburg, Belgium, following help from the Belgian Defence Attaché in London, Captain A. Kockx, we had tremendous support from Colonel Cuylets, Commandant of Camp Beverlo, and his knowledgeable and helpful PR Officer, Bob Vranken, who has provided us with some unique information and diligent research.
In the USA Alan Denman Jr has been an indefatigable and determined self-appointed researcher, travelling miles and writing reams of letters to provide us with many rare personal accounts and fascinating information, as well as direct contact with many official sources, such as the US Army Military History Institute. T. Mofatt Burriss, author of Strike and Hold, a Memoir of the 82nd Airborne in WW2, a veteran of the Waal Crossing, has given us permission to quote from his extraordinary book.
Uniquely in the writing of this series of Major & Mrs Holt’s Battlefield Guides we have received an enormous amount of help from previous publications that describe some of the local memorials. Their authors have been most generous in allowing us to use their works as a reference and in providing us with additional information and photographs. They are:
1. Ter Nagedachtenis en Ter Bezinning [Remember and Reflect]: War and Resistance Monuments in Nijmegen and Environs by Margreet Janssen Reinen. This was first published in 1989 and was presented to veterans and pilgrims on the 45th Anniversary of Nijmegen’s Liberation and up-dated in 1994.
2. In Het Spoor van MARKET GARDEN: Monuments and Memorials in Noord Brabant by Jacq van Eekelen and Jos Korsten of The MARKET-GARDEN Committee of Den Dungen (qv). Published 1998. Jacq and Jos have spared no effort in giving us information and providing us with illustrations and hospitality.
3. Sta Eens Even Stil Ter Nagedachtenis En Ter Bezinning [Stay Awhile and Ponder on Those Deeds Which Here Befell]: War and Freedom Monuments in the Over-Betuwe [The Island] by Dr Jan Brouwer. Published in 1990, this was produced for local schoolchildren. Dr Brouwer, a distinguished author and Alderman of the new Municipality of Overberuwe, has put in some formidable research on our behalf, particularly with regard to the ‘Sand Road’, and provided us with the illustrations from his book.
Our thanks go to all others who contributed to our first Holts’Battlefield Guide: MARKET-GARDEN CORRIDOR and whose memories we have quoted from, e.g: Peter Robinson, Bill Croft, General Tony Jones, General John Frost.
And finally, as always, our thanks to our editor, Tom Hartman, for his wisdom and his entertainment, to Leo Cooper for starting it all, and to our resourceful book designer, Paul Wilkinson.
Frans Ammerlaan, with a bottle of fund-raising ‘Airborne beer’