remembering "Market Garden"

[Dutch Mosin]

September 17th 1944.
A C-47 Skytrain just dropped its load over Groesbeek, Holland.
26 paratroopers of the 82nd airborne, 508 PIR.
Not the usual 27, because one of the paratroopers got injured and wasn't able to jump.
A few minutes later the C-47 was hit by FLAK over the small town of Mook on the east side of the river Maas.
It crashed on the west side of the river near the village Linden.
The crew of 4 and the paratrooper lost their lives.

September 13th 2009.
People of the village of Linden remember their liberators (like they do every year) who lost their lives now 65 years ago.
Special guest was the US military attache in the Netherlands, Air Force colonel M.E. Peterson.

They will not be forgotten.


.....heroes are honored with Dutch tradition and.......of course our vets are present


The plaque with the names of the 5 who lost their lives.


...plaque in close up....


A small monument is placed where the C-47 crashed 65 years ago.
The text says: Here 5 lives were given for our freedom


.....monument in close up.


Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

[Niner]

It's amazing to me how the Dutch in particular remember and honor the allied troops who fought to liberate their country from the Nazis 65 years ago. Thanks for the pictures. Too bad the Market Garden end run strategy was a fiasco. The only saving grace for the American paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions was that it was badly orchestrated by the British General Montgomery and the British and Polish paratroopers, sadly, paid the highest price when it didn't work.

[riptidenj]

Market Garden was like Fall Herbstnebel/Die Wacht and Rhein aka the Ardennes Offensive-the Battle of the Bulge.
The objective was too far away, the axis of advance too narrow and limited-one account I read recently about the Bulge pointed out that the weather and the terrain limited the Germans" advance to a few roads and it became a battle for the road junctions-that's why Bastogne was so important. It depended on too many things going right-what was it the Elder Von Moltke said-"No plan survives contact with the enemy." And there was a serious underestimating of the enemy's capabilities-"The Hun on the Run."