A BRIDGE TOO FAR - LOTTERY HONOURS WWII
HEROES 67 YEARS ON FROM MARKET GARDEN
The largest airborne operation in history and one of the most audacious of the Allied offensives in World War Two, Operation Market Garden, took place 67 years ago and the Big Lottery Fund is today making sure WW2 veterans are able to make the journey back to remember the fallen.
In the run-up to next week’s commemorations, the Fund is awarding Heroes Return 2 grants to veterans who fought on this decisive battlefront.
A force of over 86,000 men comprising paratroopers, air and ground units, were involved in the daring operation to seize control of bridges and river crossings in Germany and the Netherlands . The Allied assault (September 17-25 1944) was initially successful, but Arnhem was the turning point for a defeat that cost thousands of Allied lives. Had the operation succeeded it is possible that the war would have ended in 1944.
To reflect the nation’s debt to the British Armed Forces veterans of WW2, the Big Lottery Fund has been awarding grants through its Heroes Return 2 programme. To date the scheme has awarded over £8.4 million to 12,341 Second World War veterans, widows, spouses and carers across the UK .
Peter Wanless, Big Lottery Fund Chief Executive, said: “The 67th anniversary of Operation Market Garden is a poignant reminder for us all of the sacrifice made by a generation of British servicemen and women during the Second World War. They built the peace and protected the freedoms we enjoy today.
“It is important that veterans from across the country who have not yet applied for a grant are aware that the Lottery’s Heroes Return programme is still open for applications. I’m delighted that we can continue to offer this support and I urge them to apply now for a commemorative trip in 2011/12 to revisit the places they served.”
A WW2 veteran from Mill Hill, London , is returning for the first time to the places in which he served - thanks to funding from the Heroes Return 2 programme. Stan Smith, 85, will journey to Holland, Belgium and France next month to pay respect to those who fought so valiantly yet did not return. Travelling with his wife of 65 years, he will lay wreathes on graves of fallen comrades and attend ceremonies held in their honour. Included in his trip is a visit to cemeteries in Arnhem , the site of Operation Market Garden.
TRAINING FOR WAR
Born and raised in Camden Town , Stan was only 18 years of age when he joined the East Surrey Regiment in August 1944. With the infantry stretched in numbers due to fierce fighting in Burma , Italy and North Africa , he began an intensive training programme in drilling, handling rifles and trench-digging. Areas of Dover badly damaged by German bombing raids provided the perfect site for practicing street-fighting tactics needed by those engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Time in Scotland and Canterbury also gave him the skills necessary to join the allied forces.
He recalls: “We were involved in a long period of training before leaving our shores for mainland Europe – lessons in handling Bren guns, rifles, grenades and such like. We were made to fire at moving targets, try our hand at night-fighting and complete long marches that separated the strong ones from the weak.
“In February 1945 we boarded tank landing craft in Harwich, passed through the Thames Estuary and crossed the North Sea . It wasn’t plain-sailing by any means – I remember being sent below deck with sirens wailing as German submarines were roaming all around us. Thankfully, apart from terrible sea-sickness, we managed to reach the Belgian port of Antwerp unscathed where the Royal Engineers had cleared other ships sunk to block us. We disembarked, had a cup of tea and a sandwich and set off on the next stage of our assignment.”
CLEARING THE REICHSWALD FOREST
Stan and his comrades travelled from the liberated port of Antwerp and on to Bruges , Brussels and into Holland – spending time in the city of Nijmegen as support to battalions of leading troops. After reaching Germany , he was based near the Reichswald Forest , scene of a bloody battle that cost the lives of over 23,000 allied soldiers. Here he was tasked with operating the ‘Lifebuoy’ flame-throwers needed to clear wooded areas previously held by German forces.
“These contraptions were called ‘Lifebuoys’ because of the doughnut-shaped fuel container that went around your waist. With one squeeze of the trigger on a gun attached by a hose, flames twenty feet long would spray out before you. They were used to clear trenches, pillboxes and fallen trees and were particularly hated by the Germans for the damage that they could do. The life expectancy of those who operated them was just a single day so I was pleased to have survived with one in my hands.”
At one stage during this period of his service, Stan and his comrades were due to help with the massive clearance of the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp that had been liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division in April 1945. When this didn’t come to be, he continued with the task of ferrying away POWs taken prisoner by allied forces.
“There were thousands of prisoners that passed through the areas in which we were based,” he continues. “There were both soldiers from the trenches and civilians who’d been misplaced by the fighting. We loaded women and children into lorries that were travelling many miles behind us to relative safety. The sheer scale of the operation made it quite a moving thing to witness.”
Having avoided involvement in any serious skirmishes with the enemy, Stan returned to Kent in June 1945 aboard a mighty four-engined Sterling bomber. From there he joined the Royal West Kent regiment and began training for involvement in the Far East theatre of war. Further fighting there was avoided when atom bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 – Stan instead joined the Royal Army Service Corps based in Italy and operated in the fire service until being demobbed and travelling home in 1948.
“I’d urge any other World War Two veterans who are considering making a journey back to where they served to apply to the Heroes Return 2 programme before the deadline for applications passes,” Stan says.
“Without the help of the Big Lottery Fund, I don’t think it’d be possible for me to return to the places in which I was based so I’m ever-so grateful for the opportunity. It will have been over sixty years since I last set foot there and I’m sure it will be a very worthwhile experience – even more so seeing as I’m travelling there with my wife.”
More information and details of how to apply for a Heroes Return 2 grant are available by calling 0845 00 00 121 or visiting www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/heroesreturn
BIG is continuing its support for UK veterans through its new £35 million Forces in Mind initiative to establish an independent trust to provide long term support and advocacy for former service personnel. The funding will help veterans who served in conflicts including Iraq , Afghanistan and the Gulf War struggling with the transition to civilian life, especially those whose psychological well-being subsequently impacts on the quality of their life and others around them.
Launched to mark the historic 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004, BIG’s first Heroes Return scheme awarded £16.6 million to over 39,000 veterans, spouses, widows and carers to fund commemorative visits to Second World War battlefields, cemeteries and other significant places across the world.
Heroes Return was the centre-piece of the Veterans Reunited programme including Home Front Recall which awarded £19.2 million to support UK-based group events and activities to commemorate those who contributed to the war-effort on the home front, and Their Past Your Future with an ongoing £9.6 million scheme funding a UK-wide schools and education programme to give young people the opportunity to learn first-hand from veterans about their experience of war.
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