WHO GRACE THIS CEMETERY EVERY
YEAR PAYING HOMAGE TO THE
MEN WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR
LIBERATION
ARNHEM VETERANS CLUB
1944
Bild von der Informationstafel, die bei der Gedenktafel vor dem Friedhof auf der linken Seite steht. Der Text ist auf Niederländisch gedruckt.
Bild von der Informationstafel, die vor dem Friedhof auf der rechten Seite steht. Auf der Karte sind die Landezonen gekennzeichnet. Der Text ist auf Englisch, Polnisch und Niederländisch gedruckt.
Auf der Informationstafel steht auf Niederländisch folgendes:
BATTLE OF ARNHEM SEPTEMBER 1944
Op deze begraafplaats hebben 1754 geallieerde militairen van de
landmacht, luchtmacht en zeemacht hun laatste rustplaats gevonden.
Zij zijn gesneuveld tussen september 1944 en april 1945 in de
strijd tegen de Duitse bezetter. De meesten van hen waren betrok-
ken bij de slag om Arnhem in september 1944, een onderdeel van de
Operation Market Garden.
Zij gaven hun leven voor de bevrijding van Nederland.
ROTARY OOSTERBEEK SEPTEMBER 1994
Bild von der Informationstafel, die vor dem Friedhof auf der rechten Seite steht. Dabei handel es sich um die gleiche Informationstafel wie die Informationstafel, die vor dem Friedhof auf der linken Seite steht. Nur das auf dieser der Text auf Englisch gedruckt ist.
Auf der Informationtafel steht in Englisch folgendes:
OPERATION MARKET GARDEN
17th-25th September 1944
By September 1944 the Second World War in Europe looked all
but over. The German army seemed to be disorganised and
demoralised, under increasing pressure from the Soviet forces in
the east and combined French, Commonwealth, Polish and US
forces in the west. The Allied armies needed to cross the Rhine
quickly, but unexpected mechanical and transport problems meant
their vital supply lines could not keep pace.
British Field Marshal Montgomery saw Operation Market Garden,
a focused attack on a narrow northern front, as the 'rapier-like
thrust' which would win the war by Christmas. Not all Allied leaders
(including General Eisenhower) shared his view, preferring a broader
front to the east, but Montgomery's plan was chosen.
OPERATION MARKET
In the largest airborne operation in history, Montgomery
proposed parachuting in some 35,000 men of the First Allied
Airborne Army to seize the Rhine bridges and other key terrain.
The British 1st Airborne Division and the 1st Polish Independent
Parachute Brigade Group would be dropped north of the Rhine
to capture and hold the vital crossing at Arnhem. The United
States 82nd and 101st Airborne Division would seize bridges
at Eindhoven and Nijmegen. The plan was to relieve these
troops rapidly from the south within three days. This would
have allowed Allied forces to sweep onwards into the industrial
heartland of Germany - and so perhaps end the war.
OPERATION GARDEN
The ground forces of the British 2nd Army moved north,
spearheaded by 30 Corps. They had three days to reach Arnhem
on the narrow and well-defended road from Eindhoven.
By the third day, however, they had only reached Nijmegen,
where the Americans were still engaged in bitter street fighting.
Meanwhile, Allied forces parachuted into the area also
faced unforeseen problems. There were too few aircraft
to fly in the entire force in one. Bad weather and the
decision to make only three daily 'lifts' meant that the
German troops were watching the skies. And with some
'drop zones' at considerable distances from the bridges
they needed to capture, the element of surprise was
lost and their progress fatally slow.
To compound matters, the paratroopers at Arnhem
found their radios would not work and communication
with the forces outside the town was almost impossible.
And perhaps most significantly, intelligence reports
indicating the presence of 2nd SS Panzer Corps near
Arnhem were ignored. Allied command had made a fatal
error in believing the German army to be a spent force.
The relatively lightly-armed Allied paratroopers faced tanks and forces trained
to combat airborne invasion with little or no effective means of stopping them.
Two areas of conflict came to dominate: one group of men trying to hold the
bridge at Arnhem, and the remainder of their division trying in vain to fight their
way through from Oosterbeek to support them.
By the end of the first day, the German commanders - far less disorganised than
Allied command believed - had their plans ready. The German 15th Army and
1st Parachute Army were in place, supported by two Panzer divisions. On the
evening of 22nd September, the 30 Corps tanks began to arrive at Arnhem, but
despite repeated attempts, could not reinforce the positions. By 25th September
it had become clear that surviving troops would have to be withdrawn. Ordered
to hold the area for three days, they had managed to hold it for nine against
massive opposition, but they had failed to secure the vital bridge at Arnhem itself.
AFTERMATH
Approximately 10,600 men fought at Arnhem, but
only some 2,400 returned. Over 1,500 were killed;
the remainder were captured or wounded.
Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery contains the
graves of most of those killed during the September
landings, and many of those killed in later fighting in
the area. There are now over 1,750 Commonwealth
servicemen of the Second World War buried or
commemorated in the cemetery.
THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION
IN THE NETHERLANDS
Graves and memorials such as those here at Arnhem are to be
found all over the world. Men and women, often from both sides
of the conflict, of many faiths or of none, lie in military cemereries
like this in some 150 countries. Those commemorated here are
all treated equally, irrespective of rank, race or personal belief.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for marking
and maintaining the graves of those members of the Commonwealth forces
who died during the two World Wars. The Commission also builds and
maintains memorials to those whose graves are unknown and provides
records and registers of these 1,7 million burials and commemorations.
The cost of the Commission's work is shared by the larger Commonwealth
partner governments - those of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand,
South Africa and United Kingdom - in proportions based on the numbers
of their graves.
Nearly 19,300 Commonwealth war dead from both World Wars lie buried
or commemorated in the Netherlands. There are sixteen war cemeteries
and more than 450 other sites.Over 1,000 war dead with no known grave
from the Second World War alone are commemorated on a memorial in
Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, Nijmegen.
The majority of graves dating from 1914-18 are those of escaping prisoners-
of-war or of sailors whose bodies were washed ashore. Graves which date
from 1939-45 reflect the great human cost of liberating of the Netherlands
towards the end of the war, plus the many airmen who lost their lives on
their way to or from bombing raids over Germany. The remains of
servicemen, especially airmen, are still frequently found in the Netherlands,
partly due to level of land reclamation here.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission also works
closely with the Netherlands government and the
Oorlogsgravenstichting (Netherland War Graves Foundation),
which commemorates Dutch war dead from the 1939-45
war, in both the netherlands itself and in Indonesia.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
welcomes enquiries and can help you trace
those who be buried in military cemeteries
all over the world. Please contact the office
below or search by family name through the
onlibe Debt of Honour Register on the
Commission's website at www.cwgc.org
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire SL6 7DX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1628 634221
Fax: +44 (0) 1628 771208
E-mail: casualty.eng@cwgc.org
Acknowledgements:
Photographs: @Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Text/Design: @Commonwealth War Graves Commission 2007 (Interpretaction / Ross Associates)
Am Eingang befindet sich auch eine Erinnerungsitzbank mit einer Plakette.
Auf der Plakette steht folgendes:
BIRMINGHAM BRANCH AIRBORNE ENGINEERS ASS.
BENCH DEDICATED TO:
SPR. TOM CARPENTER 9TH FIELD CO. RE. (GLIDERBORNE)
FALLEN BRANCH MEMBERS
AND
ALL AIRBORNE ENGINEERS WHO TOOK PART IN
"OPERATION MARKET GARDEN"
Bild von dem Eingang vom britischen Airborne Soldatenfriedhof.
Auf den beiden Steinsäulen links und rechts neben dem Eingangstor steht folgendes:
1939
ARNHEM
OOSTERBEEK
WAR
CEMETERY
1945
Auf dem Schild an der linken Steinsäule am Eingang steht folgendes:
Nederlandse
Oorlogsgraven
Blick vom Eingang auf den Friedhof.
Rechts neben dem Eingang befindet sich eine Reihe mit polnischen Soldatengräbern. Am Ende der Reihe befindet sich rechts noch eine Steinmauer, in der ein Gedenkstein eingemauert ist.
Auf dem Gedenkstein steht folgendes:
In lasting gratitude to the people of this neighbourhood
for their loving care of the graves of our comrades
who lie here and in other cemeteries nearby
and to the children who honour them with their flowers
BRITISH AND POLISH VETERANS OF 1944
SEPTEMBER 2004
Links neben dem Eingang befindet sich eine Reihe mit polnischen Soldatengräbern.
Bild von dem rechten Pavillon, in dem sich hinter einer Klappe das Friedhofregister und ein Gästebuch befinden.
Blick auf die Klappe, in der sich das Friedhofregister und ein Gästebuch befinden.
Auf der Klappe steht folgendes:
CEMETERY
REGISTER
Bild von dem linken Pavillon, in dem eine Informationstafel an der Wand hängt.
Blick auf die Informationstafel. Der Informationstext ist links auf Englisch und rechts auf Niederländisch geschrieben.
Auf der Informationstafel steht auf Englisch folgendes:
THE LIBERATION OF BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS
AND THE ADVANCE INTO GERMANY
SEPTEMBER 1944 - MAY 1945
In the three months following their landing in Normandy the
Allied armies had defeated the German Army in France,
liberated Brussels, captured Antwerp and, in the east, reached a
line running southwards along the Moselle through the Vosges
to the Swiss frontier.
On 17th September, with the object of outflanking the
Siegfried Line, two American airborne divisions were dropped
in the Nijmegen area and one British at Arnhem to clear the
path for British Second Army. Speedy defensive concentration
and bad weather prevented full success; the crossing of the
rivers Maas and Waal were secured but that of the lower Rhine
at Arnhem had to be abandoned after an epic stand by
the British 1st Airborne Division assisted by the Dutch Resistance.
By late September the Allied advance had outrun the logistic
capacity to support it. The Channel ports, exept for Dunkirk,
were in Allied hands but unusable until bombing damage had
been repaired, and the lines of supply and reinforcement ran
back to Normandy. Antwerp, with the help of the Belgian
Resistance captured intact, was unusable so long as both shores
of the Scheldt estuary remained in German hands.
The south shore was finally cleared by Canadian I Corps on 2nd
November after a month of hard fighting. The clearance of the
north shore and Walcheren Island, completed on 8th November,
involved some bitterly contested combined operations by
British and Canadian troops. The mined approaches to Antwerp
were swept and the port quickly restored. The shortened
supply lines thus gained marked a turning point in the
campaign.
By early December, as a result of the Allied November
offensive, British Second and Canadian First Armies lay along
the Maas and Waal. American Ninth had reached the Roer,
American Third was pushing forward into the Saar and French
First Army had reached the Rhine at Mulhouse.
On 16th December the Germans launched their last counter-
offensive of the war against the lightly held Ardennes sector. Its
object was to recapture Brussels and Antwerp thus cutting the
Allies' supply lines. The advance, 50 miles at its maximum, was
halted on Christmas eve. On 3rd January the Americans, with
some British reinforcement, struck back and within 4 days the
Germans were withdrawing. Meanwhile British Second Army
eliminated the bridgehead west of the Roer and the Americans
and French dealt similarly with the salient south of Strasbourg.
The last main battle of the campaign began on 8th February
with an attack by Canadian First and British Second Armies
from the Nijmegen bridgehead south-east through the Siegfried
Line and the Reichswald into Germany itself. On the 17th,
American Ninth Army attacked north-eastward and, after
intense fighting, the armies made contact on 3rd March in
Geldern. To the south, by 9th March American First and Third
Armies had secured bridgeheads at Mannheim and Oppenheim.
Preceded by intensive air and artillery bombardments the
passage of the Rhine was successfully accomplished by the
British and Canadians on the evening of 23rd March. By the
following evening the bridgeheads had been expanded to link
up with the British 6th and American 17th Airborne Divisions
dropped that morning to the north of Wesel. Further
crossings in strength followed and, by 3rd April, the British and
Canadians had taken Osnabruck and were approaching Minden,
American First and Ninth Armies had encircled the Ruhr,
trapping large German forces, and in the south French First and
American Seventh had crossed the Rhine. This battle marked
the end of co-ordinated German defence although improvised
battle groups continued to resist stoutly until late April.
First contact with the westward advancing Russians was made
on 25th April. By that time Canadian First Army had reached
the North Sea Coast and contained the large German force cut
off in west Holland. British Second Army, with a corps in
Denmark and another in Schleswig-Holstein, was on the Elbe
from its mouth to Wittenberge, southward of which American
First and Ninth Armies lay along that river. Further south
French First and American Seventh Armies were in Austria and
American Third had entered Czechoslovakia. Final German
capitulation came on 8th May and after five years and eight
months of war Europe was again at peace.
The Commonwealth servicemen who died in the campaign are
mostly buried in war cemeteries, and Commonwealth sections
of other cemeteries, along the line of advance. Allied command
of the air played a large part in the success of the
campaign and many of the airmen who died during operations
over Europe are buried singly or in small groups in village
cemeteries and churchyards where their graves are tended
with loving care by the local communities. The 1.062 soldiers
whose graves are unknown are commemorated on the memorial
in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and the missing sailors
and airmen on memorials at their home ports or at Runnymede,
England.
ARNHEM OOSTERBEEK WAR CEMETERY
This cemetery will for ever be associated with the epic attempt
by the British 1st Airborne Division (of which the Polish
Parachute Brigade was part) to seize the bridge across the Lower
Rhine at Arnhem ahead of the main advance of the land forces.
Most of the casualties suffered by the Division are buried here:
a small number are in Jonkerbos War Cemetery at Nijmegen.
The graves here are those of 1 sailor, 1,633 soldiers and 113
airmen of whom 1,625 are British, 33 Canadian, 4 Australian,
4 New Zealand, 2 Netherlands and 79 Polish.
THIS CEMETERY
WAS BUILT AND IS MAINTAINED BY THE
COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION
ARCHITECT : PHILIP HEPWORTH
Bild von dem Altar.
Auf dem Altar steht folgendes:
THEIR NAME LIVETH
FOR EVERMORE
Blick von dem Altar auf das große Gedenkkreuz.
Blick auf die linken Gräberfelder.
Blick auf die rechten Gräberfelder.
Blick auf das rechte Gräberfeld.
Blick auf das linke Gräberfeld.
Bild von dem großen Gedenkkreuz.
Blick auf den Eingang vom großen Gedenkkreuz aus gesehen.
Kriegsgräber:
Auf dem Friedhof am Van Limburg Stirumweg in Oosterbeek der neben dem britischen Airborne Soldatenfriedhof liegt befinden sich 9 Gräber von alliierten Soldaten und ein Gräberfeld mit zivilen Opfern. Das Schild hängt am Eingang zum Friedhof.
Auf den Schild steht folgendes:
Oorlogsgraven
van het Gemenebest
Commonwealth
War Graves
Das Schild zeigt den Weg zu den alliierten Soldatengräbern.
Auf dem Schild steht folgendes:
Commonwealth
Graves Commission
3 alliierte Soldatengräber:
Bild von den 3 alliierten Soldatengräbern.
Auf den Grabsteinen steht von links nach rechts folgendes:
573105 SERGANT
F. T. LAX
FLIGHT ENGINEER
ROYAL AIR FORCE
3RD FEBRUARY 1943
AGE 21
PILOT OFFICER
V. M. SMITH
PILOT
ROYAL AIR FORCE
29TH JULY 1942
1314643 SERGANT
A. ALDRIDGE
WIRELESS OPERATOR/AIR GUNNER
ROYAL AIR FORCE
29TH JULY 1942 AGE 20
6 alliierte Soldatengräber:
Bild von den 6 alliierten Soldatengräbern.
Auf den Grabsteinen steht von links nach rechts folgendes:
572648 SERGANT
J. P. HARPER
FLIGHT ENGINEER
ROYAL AIR FORCE
15TH JUNE 1943 AGE 21
1319045 SERGANT
C. A. S. BARNETT
NAVIGATOR
ROYAL AIR FORCE
15TH JUNE 1943 AGE 19
1430145 SERGANT
H. BIGGIN
NAVIGATOR
ROYAL AIR FORCE
15TH JUNE 1943 AGE 20
1535807 SERGANT
J. W. DEACON
AIR BOMBER
ROYAL AIR FORCE
15TH JUNE 1943 AGE 20
1038105 SERGANT
H. R. RHODES
AIR GUNNER
ROYAL AIR FORCE
15TH JUNE 1943 AGE 22
1388306 SERGANT
G. S. COLE
PILOT
ROYAL AIR FORCE
15TH JUNE 1943
Grab vom ehemaligen alliierten Soldaten:
Rechts neben den 6 alliierten Soldatengräbern befindet sich das Grab von Alexander Lipmann-Kessel. Er gehörte der
16 Parachute Field Ambulance an und war ein angesehener Chirurg im St.
Elisabeth Krankenhaus in Arnheim. Dort hat er vielen Soldaten das Leben gerettet darunter auch das Leben von General Hackett. Die Deutschen nahmen Lipmann-Kessel gefangen er konnte sich aber aus der Gefangenschaft befreien. Nach dem Krieg schrieb er das Buch
"Surgeon in Arms". Er verstarb 05.06.1986 und sein Wunsch war es in der Nähe der verstorbenen Kameraden beigesetzt zu werden, die auf dem britischen Soldatenfriedhof in Oosterbeek beigesetzt wurden.
Auf dem Grabstein steht folgendes:
LIPMANN-KESSEL
M.B.E. (MLTY) M.C. F.R.C.S.
1914-1986 WIJ VERGETEN NIET
PROFESSOR OF ORTHOPAEDICS
SURGEON TEACHER HUMANIST
FIGHTER FOR FREEDOM
LIPPY: REMEMBERED FOREVER
BY ALL WHO LOVED YOU
AND THOSE YOU SERVED
Ziviles Massengrab:
Bei den 9 alliierten Soldatengräbern befindet sich auch ein ziviles Massengrab. In dem Massengrab wurden 32 Bürger von Oosterbeek die durch Kriegshandlungen im 2. Weltkrieg ihr Leben verloren haben begraben. Auf dem Bild ist das ganze Massengrab sichtbar. Vorne rechts befindet sich eine Informationstafel. Sie soll an die insgesamt 140 Bürger von Oosterbeek erinnern, die ihr Leben durch Kriegshandlungen im 2. Weltkrieg verloren haben.
Bild von dem Gedenkstein, der auf dem zivilen Massengrab steht.
Auf dem Gedenkstein steht folgendes:
BURGER
OORLOGSSLACHTOFFERS
1940 - 1945
Bild von der Informationstafel, die bei dem zivilen Massengrab steht.
Auf der Informationstafel steht folgendes:
NIET VERGETEN MAAR GEDENKEN!
Deze plaats is de blijvende herinnering aan de ruim
140 Oosterbeekse burgers die ten gevolge van de
Tweede Wereldoorlog het leven lieten. Ze stierven in
concentratiekampen, kwamen om in het verzet, vonden
de dood door uitputting als gevolg van tewerkstelling
in Duitsland of verongelukten door achtergebleven
oorlogstuig.
Van de Oosterbeekse ingezetenen, die omkwamen tijdens
de Slag om Arnhem vonden hier 32 van hen hun laatste
rustplaats. Voor zover hun namen bekend zijn, worden
deze in volgende van overlijdensdatum genoemd.
Rotaryclub Oosterbeek, september 1997
At the going down of the sun and in the morning: We will remember them
