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THe story of operation market garden centres on one road which Allied armoured troops had to pass along to link up with airborne counterparts who had attempted to seize key bridges throughout german-occupied Holland.
The ambitious plan ended in failure, for a host of reasons including overwhelming enemy forces around Arnhem Bridge and the British ground element being unable to drive at any pace under fire along that exposed artery.
My trip to the battlefields more than 70 years later focused on the vital road, used as a device to pull together wider individual threads which helped tell the story of how ordinary, brave individuals gave their all to win a war and set people free.
This was thanks to Liberation Route Europe, a brilliant project put together by people passionate about ensuring that a generation’s sacrifices are not forgotten.
They paint a picture of life in World War II via modern technology, using historical records, people’s testimonies and significant locations which formed part of the Allied offensive from 1944-45.
Previous storytelling devices such as stone markers which play audio accounts are still there, and are being upgraded, but Liberation Route Europe’s excellent mobile phone app is the key weapon in their armoury.
It unlocks a vast arsenal of information and endless links to other sites of information.
Access the app and you’ll be steered towards a host of points of interest and their attached stories, with the direction and distance from where you happen to be standing.
The drive to modernise, upgrade and improve is at the heart of ■ Flying from Glasgow on November 13 or 27, four nights B&B at the 4* Hotel Roma Prague, from £215pp. ■ Flying from Glasgow between November 23 and December 14, three nights room only at the 4* H10 Art Gallery, Barcelona, from £215pp. ■ Flying from Glasgow on December 1, 8 or 15, seven nights all inclusive at the 5* Limak Atlantis Deluxe, Turkey, from £275pp. ■ Flying from Manchester on December 10 or 17, seven nights all inclusive at the 4* Catalonia Yucatan Beach Resort, Mexico, from £799pp. ■ For these and more, see stewarttravel.co.uk, visit your nearest Stewart Travel store or call 0800 091 2757. Liberation Route Europe staff ’s approach in passing the torch of remembrance through time.
It works superbly. One moment I was standing by a stone marker in a field, then was given directions to a tree with views across the landscape which was used to plan operations by a British general.
The fact my route took me through a working farmyard was of no annoyance to the landholders, who like most Dutch you’ll meet, have huge gratitude for what was done to liberate their country.
The app also steered me to the spot where a colonel and a soldier in the same unit of US paratroops were both awarded their country’s highest honour for bravery, as each fought and died in separate actions just a few hundred yards apart.
At the Wings of Liberation Museum near Best, there’s dioramas, vehicles and ordnance shown off in a former military base, while the “rations” available in the attached Boshuys restaurant are far removed from average soldier’s fare.
During the Market Garden commemoration period in September, rides are available on military vehicles and I got a lift in a World War II jeep to a farmhouse where I met an old man who was just five when members of US 101st