Back to the drop zone for heroes who can say: ‘I fought at Arnhem’
AN ARMY veteran aged 97 will join a mass parachute jump over Arnhem today to recreate the scene of 75 years ago.
Paratrooper Sandy Cortmann made an emotional return to Arnhem in the Netherlands for the 75th anniversary commemoration of Operation Market Garden.
He will join the jump provided he passes a medical check, and will be watched from the ground by the Prince of Wales, the Colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment.
More than 1,500 parachutists from eight nations, including serving paratroopers from Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade, will today drop on to Ginkel Heath, the original landing zone for the battle for the bridge over the Rhine.
Mr Cortmann, from Aberdeen, was 22 when he went into battle in September 1944. He said he was “absolutely terrified” from the moment he landed.
“When the fighting started, we were just in among it,” he said. “You just heard bangs and machine guns.” He recalled being ordered to help a young soldier who was repeatedly calling out for his mother. “I crawled out, touched his hand, grabbed it and he died.”
Mr Cortmann said he felt “very emotional” when he visited a cemetery where a fallen friend, Gordon Matthews, is honoured. He said: “As far as I know a mortar bomb landed at Gordon’s feet and, boom, blew him to bits.
“Later on that day, I was coming up the street. There was a boot on the pavement and I sort of kicked it before I realised the foot was still in the boot.
“Telling it now, it’s shocking – at the time you just went ‘bye Gordon’. That was it. I often wonder if any of his family are still alive and if they are, I would like to meet them just to say I knew Gordon. I wanted to come back here. I wanted to see Gordon’s stone so I could look at him and speak to him and just say ‘Hi, pal’ and think about him for a wee while.”
After the war, Mr Cortmann worked as a plumber and had two children with his wife, all of whom have since died.
Alana Davidson, 27, who helps look after the veteran at Fairview nursing home in Aberdeen and travelled with him to the Netherlands, said he still led an independent life. “I’ve never seen him this happy,” she said of his trip.
As veterans, families and visitors descend on the Dutch city to mark 75 years since the operation, Mr Cortmann says he did not deserve the attention he was receiving but was looking forward to his parachute jump today.
The head of the Army, General Sir Mark Carleton-smith, also in Arnhem for the commemoration, said: “This year is one of the last few opportunities to celebrate the extraordinary heroism of the dwindling band of veterans who share the unique and spine-tingling distinction of being able to say: ‘I fought at Arnhem’.”
Veteran paratrooper Arnold “Arnie” Hutchinson, 95, said it was important for him to return to Arnhem annually to “pay homage to the boys of my regiment who did a lot of work and didn’t come home”.
Although his battalion did not engage at Arnhem, this veteran of the Battle of the Bulge has for years returned to Arnhem “to be thankful for those who sacrificed everything”.
He said: “It’s a special duty – to be thankful that we survived when so many others didn’t.”
‘I wanted to see Gordon’s stone so I could look at him and speak to him and just say ‘Hi, pal’’