Para veterans make emotional trip - The Redditch Standard

Para veterans make emotional trip

Redditch Editorial 25th Sep, 2014 Updated: 18th Oct, 2016   0

VETERANS have made an emotional trip to Arnhem to pay tribute to their comrades who lost their lives in one of the boldest combat missions of the Second World War.

Members of the Redditch branch of the Parachute Regimental Association made the trip to Holland to attend the memorial service at the Oosterbeek War Cemetery to mark the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden.

They were joined by members of Lloyds Bank who raised more than £17,000 to fund the trip after meeting Barry Tansley, from the association, at a funding fair organised by Redditch MP Karen Lumley.

Mrs Lumley was also present at the ceremony which saw Dutch schoolchildren lay flowers on each of the graves in the cemetery, which contains 1,600 British and Commonwealth servicemen, three polish and three Dutch soldiers.




Operation Market Garden took place between September 17 and 25, 1944 and was the largest airborne operation up to that time. The aim was to drive the Germans over the Lower Rhine and end the war by Christmas 1944, but the allies met stronger opposition than anticipated and the operation ended in failure.


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