- Contributed by听
- communitycafe
- People in story:听
- General (Boy) Browning, And Colonel Peter Spencer Thomas
- Location of story:听
- Arnhem
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A2701423
- Contributed on:听
- 04 June 2004
REMEMBER SEPTEMBER '44 On 17 September 1944 thousands of paratroopers descended from the sky by parachute or glider up to 150 km behind enemy lines. Their goal: to secure to bridges across the rivers in Holland so that the Allied army could advance rapidly northwards and turn left into the lowlands of Germany, hereby skirting around the Siegfried line, the German defence line. If all carried out as planned it should have ended the war by Christmas 1944. Unfortunately this daring plan, named Operation Market Garden, didn't have the expected outcome. The bridge at Arnhem proved to be 'a bridge too far'. After 10 days of bitter fighting the operation ended with the evacuation of the remainder of the 1st British Airborne Division from the Arnhem area.
Paratroopers lead a dangerous and daring life. Promotion was often a case of "dead man's shoes".Peter was a colonel at the age of 30. At Arnhem, he was the glider pilot who flew Boy Browning to the battle. He told me that all the way over, the general spoke continually of his wife. As his wife's name was Daphne du Maurier, Peter was relaxed and fascinated,as she was the author of "Jamaica Inn" and "Rebecca" and he had recently read her books. Often as I rested on the beach near her home at Menabilly, I used to remember Peter's story.
Ian Robertson.
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