大象传媒

i have found out that my grandfather (john leonard barnes)and his battalion origionally the 8th but renamed the 1st, had fought along side the canadians when arnhem was retaken in 1945. apparently my grandmothers boyfriend at the time fought there in 1944 and was killed. she told me that when the planes flew over it rained chocolate because they knew they weren't coming back. anyway, sometime before arnhem was retaken, i was told there was a lull in the fightingand my grandfather and other associates came togeter to decide what to do. they agreed on a feast and that it should be a sunday roast. they handed in their bully beef and hunted down the other ingredients, they took the vegetables from gardens, but they didn't have any flour so they used some baking powder instead and following the cooking process the yorkshire puddings turned out pink.
after ve day they were moved to a place called hilversum to disarm some 100 or so soldiers from mainly the ss hermann goering division. as they were doing this one of them threw a live mine or grenade into the pile and caused a massive explosion. an unkown number of germans were killed alongside some 13 or so british. one was standing two feet from my grandfathers face. they had both been thrown to the ground and my grandfater was winded and had a bad concusion but was otherwise okay. other soldiers came to help with the wounded and the clear up. a funeral was later held for the british dead and all the people from hilversum turned out to watch.

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