Operation Market Garden 2 I’ve written about Operation Market Garden in Arnhem at previous article. And in September 1997 and August 2007, I also visited other places about Operation Market Garden too. Just I wrote before, I wanted to see the places of famous battle to know German Army in WW2 better, from Axis’s point of view. Of course I visited Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek. This museum was originally Hartenstein Hotel, but it was used as HQ of British First Air Borne Division during Operation Market Garden and before, German Army used as HQ of Heers Gruppe B. I have DVD of movie [A Bridge Too Far] and I know the detail of [Operation Market Garden] very well, because I even played board and simulation game of [Operation Market Garden]. So before I went to Holland, I had much knowledge on [Operation Market Garden]. So what I saw in museum was not so surprising, however I could see the real historical places, this experience was very important, of course. The picture below from the left, the view of Hartenstein Hotel from outside, 6 Pond Gun and M4 Sherman used in British Army. And inside the museum, there were room used for meeting of high ranked officers and many wax figures. One strange point was in general, in Europe, to display the figures of German SS soldiers is forbidden. But in this museum, the main troop of German Army around Arnhem was SS Panzerkorps, so figures of SS Grenadiers were shown. And one more important thing was that Polish soldiers also took part in this battle. Polish government in exile-in-England, organized 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, and under the command of General of a Brigade Sosabowski, this troop fought as a part of Western Allied troops. But as you know, Sosabowski and other Polish soldiers couldn’t see Poland again because of Stalin’s Red Army. The last picture on right was gate for this museum area. I feel very sorry for German, but there was no flag of Germany, only the Allied participated in this battle. But very pleasant experience was that waiters and waitresses of restaurant near museum were kind to everybody, even to ex-enemy Japanese. I heard when Japanese tourists visit sunken US Battleship Arizona at Hawaii, some American stare at Japanese with hatred. I think this is big difference between European and American.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:03:52 +0000
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