Veritable 2020

18/02/2020

Battle for The Rhineland PART 3 Documentary – Operation Blockbuster – Final Moves

The final offensive, Operation Blockbuster, was launched in still appalling conditions and at the Germans’ strongest positions but it fared little better tha...

18/02/2020

Battle for The Rhineland PART 2 Documentary – Operation Veritable

The film shows, why, in spite of their very limited resources of manpower and material, the German defensive tactics were so successful, but how, by maintain...

18/02/2020

Battle for The Rhineland PART 1 Documentary – Operation Veritable

The battle started on Feb 8th, 1945 and ended 31 days later on March 10th. It was a converging attack to close the west bank of the Rhine between Nijmegen an...

14/02/2020

Meer info over 75 jaar bevrijding van Gennep (gemeente) is te vinden op:
website www.evenementengennep.nl/75-jaar-bevrijding/
en www.veritable.eu MarketGarden

06/04/2016

https://youtu.be/1mx6iNKyZFQ

De verfilming van de vergeten slag in het Reichswald laat zien hoe vreselijk de gevechten waren in het grote wald tussen Nijmegen, Gennep en Kleef. Maarschal...

17/03/2016

Varsity was the airborne component of the invasion of Germany and the largest single airlift in WWII. On March 24, 1945, two Divisions were lifted into the area of Wesel Germany near the Ruhr \ industrial area. The American 17th Airborne and the British 6th Airborne were delivered from a skytrain that was three and a half hours long. Over 500 miles of aircraft filled the air.

There were several other ‘firsts’ in Varsity. This was the first time duel tow was used in combat. The new self-sealing tanks put on 200 of the 9th Air Force C-47s caused a fuel issue where many of these planes would not be able to return to their air fields. It was the first time the C-46 was used to drop paratroopers.

This was the first time gliders landed in un-secure Landing Zones. They landed in the face of 88mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns from every field. The 88mm were lowered to destroy the gliders as they landed. Machine gun fire and small arms fire rained from every farm house and barn. The glider pilots were forced into an infantry role until the landing Zone was secured.

After the Landing Zones were secure, the glider pilots were formed into defensive units, in most cases providing support to the combat units they had taken in. One glider pilot group, however, the 435th, had actually been assigned a position on the front line of the 194th Combat Team’s perimeter. That night, they repelled an attack by a company of German infantry that was supported by a tank and two flak guns in what was to become known as the ‘Battle of Burp Gun Corner’.

Operation Varsity is usually ignored in most main stream accounts of WWII, yet it had the highest number of pilots killed in action of any one day of the war. (It also had the highest number of airborne troopers KIA in any one day of the war.) And though the operation lacked the strategic significance of the Normandy invasion, or the drama of the heroic struggle to retain Bastogne, it was, nonetheless, the final blow to the N**i regime. A few weeks after the 17th Airborne completed their sweep of the Ruhr valley, taking almost half a million POWs, the German Army surrendered.

There is a lot to know about this operation. In the coming days during March we will post photos that will hopefully reflect the actions of the men in this operation.

04/03/2016

By: This is the third post in a three part series covering Roma and my journey through World War II history with Liberation Route Europe. The first post explained the background and context of the final years of World War II and the objectives of the German military. The second post…

31/05/2015

Nationaal Bevrijdingsmuseum 1944-1945 - Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein'

Deep in the forests of northwestern Europe, the ghosts of battle from World War II remain. These landscapes preserve troves of bomb craters, trenches and even the remains of supply depots — all of w

11/05/2015

Canada Remembers - Canadian Virtual Military Museum - Kingdom of the Netherlands in Canada - The National WWII Museum - Nationaal Militair Museum - Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei - Liberation Route Europe - Market Garden Veterans Association - Thank you Mr. Veteran - I Wear My Poppy With Pride

Jacques Raymond, from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, and Adrien Boivin, from Chicoutimi, Quebec, helped liberate the Netherlands 70 years ago with the Régiment de la Chaudière. Friday May 8th, at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, in Germany, they recalled the time they spent in the thick forest in the weeks leading up to the end of the war. They still remember the darkness that surrounded them, the cold weather, the noise made by bullets whistling over their heads, and the fear of one of their comrades getting lost in the darkness. Seventy years ago, they all held hands so no one would get lost in the forest. Friday May 8th, they honoured those who died.

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/liberation-netherlands

25/03/2015

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