大象传媒

Introduction

The article has been written by Joseph Ritson, a volunteer for the 大象传媒 Radio Cumbria CSV Action Desk at the Maritime Festival held at Whitehaven on 25 鈥� 26 June 2005. The Festival incorporated the official county of Cumbria 60th Anniversary 鈥榁ictory Parade鈥� commemorating the end of World War Two.

It has been submitted with the permission of Ken Patterson from Maryport, Cumbria who kindly shared a few of his wartime memories immediately following the 'Victory Parade'. The author understands the terms of the 大象传媒 鈥淧eople鈥檚 War鈥� website.

Ken's story

Ken and his wife Joyce are from Maryport, Cumbria. On Sunday 26 June 2005 they commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War Two at Whitehaven, Cumbria.

Like most of his school friends, Ken left school at the age of 14. He signed up to the Forces in 1942 and became an Anti-Tank Gunner with the 1st Air Landing Tank Battery. This unit went into battle by glider, a means of attack that was used a number of times during World War Two, but doesn't happen in more modern warfare.

Ken went to Italy in 1943 and later took part in the Battle of Arnhem (Netherlands) in September 1944. Their gliders had only about 5 people on board as they had a gun or a jeep on board, so there was a major constraint on space. In the glider-borne assault on Arnhem, Ken鈥檚 unit reached one end of the bridge at Arnhem and held their position for far longer than they were told to expect.

The ground-based troops who were detailed to relieve them were unable to arrive in time to take this, the last bridge across the Rhine river, that would have allowed land troops to invade the Ruhr area of Germany. Eventually, after a ferocious and indeed legendary battle, what was left of Ken's unit had to withdraw from the Arnhem Bridge. The wounded and some of the others were captured by the Germans and became POWs.

The bridge at Arnhem was later said to have been 鈥楢 bridge too far鈥�. Several books have been written about the Battle of Arnhem and a Hollywood film was made. Ken remembers that during the battle, several of his comrades were killed and they were buried near where they fell. Some of these fallen comrades were laid to rest in the gardens of nearby houses. Because many of the houses were subsequently destroyed in the fighting, and then subsequently rebuilt after the war, some of the graves of the men that Ken knew had been buried were not found after the war. Hence, that means that some of these comrades still have no known grave. Most of the casualties whose bodies were able to be recovered afterwards, during what became known as the 'Battle of Arnhem', are now buried at the nearby Oosterbeck War Graves Cemetery.

Ken also went to India for a while and then returned back to civilian life in Maryport, Cumbria. Ken and his wife Joyce have been back to the Arnhem area several times over the years, with official parties organised by the Parachute Regiment Association. They also take part in reunions and weekends of the Parachute Regiment Association at different places in the UK.

Conclusion

On Sunday 26 June Ken marched with his fellow comrades in the Parachute Regiment Association, led by my good friend Raymond Devlin,. Raymond served in the Parachute Regiment after World War Two and is a local historian and author in his own right. Ken and Joyce spoke very highly of Raymond and other members of the Parachute Regiment Association who organise various activities in Cumbria, official tours to the Netherlands for the Arnhem anniversary and get-together weekends at places like Blackpool.

I would like to thank Ken for sharing some of his experiences on the day of the Cumbria 60th Anniversary 'Victory Parade'. Hopefully, this brief article helps, if only in a small way, to the understanding of some of the things that took place at the Battle of Arnhem.

Thank you, Ken!

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