On the afternoon of Wednesday 21st of March 2018 I drove off to the war memorial monument for market garden in my village.
The local history group had invited me as a group of members of the 2nd Lincolnshire regiment would come to pay tribute at the memorial as this was one of the regiments that participated during the operation market garden which was launched from this very place. It's also the regiment which suffered the most casualties during the crossing of the canal. The schedule was that the people would first visit the British war cemetery in Leopoldsburg where after they would come to Sint-Huibrechts-Lille to pay tribute at the war memorial monument, from there the tour would be followed by a visit to the Grevenbroekmuseum in Achel which is located in a building was used by general Dempsey as his HQ during the operation Market Garden. After that the tour would go to Venray in Holland. The tour was under the guidance of Gary Weight, author of the books Mettle and Pasture which is about the Lincolnshire regiment during the second world war.
I arrived about 10 minutes before the start at 14.00 and was surprised to see a group of people and was almost worried they had already started. I parked the car at some distance and walked over. Fortunately they were also just waiting.
There were quite a few people present, mostly members of local history groups from the neighboring villages all interested in the event. The weather was clouded and the wind was getting chilly. One of the guys said that the people were still at Leopoldsburg. It's a long drive so I knew I was there for longer that the 10 minutes. Then I noticed the local history members from my own village. François came to tell us that he just had dropped the group off for a meal at a local restaurant. I was relieved as it's a lot closer than Leopoldsburg. I had some chats with people and enjoyed the view over the canal. Meanwhile the mayors from the communities of Neerpelt and Hamont-Achel had arrived as well as two police-officers to control traffic as there are many cyclists that make use of the paths next to the canal.
Soon a jeep arrived and people in battledress jumped out. I tried to figure out which one was Gary Weight as I brought his book and wanted to let it get signed by him. A guy with a flag took post near the memorial and people gathered around as the tribute started. One veteran John Blood 94 years old was also present, as he was wounded in Normandy he didn’t participate during this start of operation Market Garden but he felt it as his duty to pay a final tribute to his comrades in arms of back in those days. While we were forming a half circle around the monument I noticed some women behind me who couldn't see past me so I offered them to stand in front of me. I only realized the woman I spoke to was British when she answered. Then I noticed more new people had joined in.
One of the guys introduced himself as a grandson of one of the people that participated the crossing of the canal and started his speech. He started with setting the scene of that very night on 19 September 1944, a cloudy night with fog on the canal. The very first use of Monty's moonlight which is a technique of bouncing light of the clouds in the sky. He spoke about the positions of the troops, the opposition, German fallshirmjagers, the German equivalent of the paras, the SS, the gunfire, the strafing of German Luftwaffe planes. River crossing at night is a difficult and dangerous task already, these guys did it under enemy fire!
After setting the scene and the action he listed the names of the casualties before an audiotape of one of the survivors was played.
François of the local history group took the word and explained a bit in Dutch before switching back to English to explain the meaning of the monument. It's the shape of a V, symbolizing the English word Victory, but also the Dutch word Vrede which means peace. The Mayor of Neerpelt together with one of the organizers put flowers near the memorial and everyone was silent during the sound of trumpet music playing the last post as well as when a British lady gave a speech. After the ceremony I had a chat with some of the British people who had been there as spectators. The people I was talking to were from Peterborough. The guy told me they had visited the beaches of Normandy were his uncle had fallen. He had been wounded by enemy fire and had hid where he died from his wounds. They had been talking to the grandson of the farmer who knew where the soldier had been found and had shown the guy the exact spot.
From there most of the visitors went home but I drove to the museum in Achel. While the guys had a tour through the museum François and I had our books signed by Garry. There we had chat about what it takes to find that kind of information. Soon people had finished their tour and came to the reception where I had a chat with some of them. They had traveled all the way by bus from the UK to Normandy where they had visited the place were several of their family members had fought. From there they came all the way up to Belgium and the tour would continue into Germany. For today the tour would go to Venray which is close to the German border.
After saying goodbye and wishing them a good continuation of their trip we all left. I drove home a bit emotional but happy that I had joined and grateful for the invitation as well as the opportunity to learn more about the unit that liberated our village and gave their lives for our freedom.
Subject: memorial Market Garden 
Sat 24 Mar 2018, 13:13
