Cumbria branch of the Parachute Regimental Association

Discussion in 'Airborne' started by jeffbubble, Oct 2, 2009.

  1. jeffbubble

    jeffbubble Senior Member

    Veterans make poignant return to bridge too far

    By Margaret Crosby
    Published at 15:49, Wednesday, 30 September 2009

    FIFTY-FIVE members and friends of the Cumbria branch of the Parachute Regimental Association joined thousands of people at Arnhem for the 65th anniversary commemoration of September 17, 1944 when hundreds of British, American and Dutch parachutists died during World War II’s ill-fated Operation Market Garden.
    The poignant trip, organised by Ray Devlin, left Whitehaven travelling to Holland via ferry from North Shields.
    The moving service was the highlight of the commemoration when 800 Dutch schoolchildren laid flowers on the 1,760 graves at the Oosterbeek Airborne War Cemetery, along with the Saturday event when an estimated 60,000 people watched the para drop of soldiers from 1, 2 and 3 Para. Elms from HQ 16 AA Bde also jumped as did paratroopers from the Netherlands , Belgium, Germany and USA
    Around 700 paratroopers dropped into Ginkelse Heath, the wartime drop zone, from C130 Hercules transport aircraft and two C47 Dakotas of the type used in 1944. It was at Gilkelse Heath, during the war, that men of the 1st Airborn Battalion of the Border Regiment, who were part of the British 1st Airbone Division landed by glider to protect the drop zones for the paratroopers. Thousands of men died.
    The behind-enemy-lines operation was aimed at securing key roads and bridges so Allied forces massed in Belgium could pour into Germany’s industrial heartland and finally defeat Nazi forces. But it stalled at a bridge over the Rhine in Arnhem in a bloody battle immortalised in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far.
    On the Friday the Cumbrian party attended a wreath-laying service at Airborne Plein, the Arnhem monument where ambassadors from England, Poland and Holland and other civic dignitaries all paid tribute. A party of Polish children laid a wreath and Dutch children laid flowers.
    During the Sunday events the Cumbrians placed crosses and laid flowers on the graves of 26 men killed from the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland which included Sgt John Allen of Whitehaven, Pte Robert Barnes of Cleator Moor, Pte Harry Bragg of Egremont (no known grave), Pte Telford Fiddler of Whitehaven (no known grave), L. Cpl George W Howe of Parton and Pte William Telford of Whitehaven. Pte Telford was with the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, the rest were serving with the Border Regiment.
    The trip from Whitehaven benefited from a £6,350 grant from the Heroes Return To fundwhich gave support to five Cumbrian veterans and their families.
    Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk
     
  2. airborne medic

    airborne medic Very Senior Member

    For info the Chairman of this branch is Major Bob Wickings he is also Chairman of the 23PFA OCA....those bl**dy airborne medics get everywhere!
     

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