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AS THE NATION prepares to mark the 66th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation in history and one of the most audacious of the Allied offensives in World War Two, the Big Lottery Fund is awarding grants to veterans across the nation to return to the places they served their country.  

A force of over 86,000 men comprising paratroopers, air and ground units, were involved in the daring operation to seize control of bridges and river crossings in Germany and the Netherlands. The Allied assault (September 17-25 1944) was initially successful, but ultimately ended in defeat with thousands killed and many more injured or taken prisoner. Had the operation succeeded it is possible that the war would have ended in 1944 and that the map of post-war Europe would have been very different.

To reflect the nation’s debt to the British Armed Forces veterans of WW2, the Big Lottery Fund has been awarding grants through its Heroes Return 2 programme. Today sees 107 awards made to 237 Second World War veterans, widows, spouses and carers across the UK.

RETURNING ‘ROBIN HOOD’

Six veterans from The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry Regimental Association (Southern Branch) are making a poignant trip to the Netherlands later this month to return a faithfully-restored Sherman Tank to its last resting place at the Dutch National Liberation Museum. The ‘Robin Hood’ tank was donated to the museum 25 years ago and had recently fallen into a state of disrepair following an episode of vandalism.

It will travel with the veterans, their spouses and carers, to the village of Groesbeek, two miles from the city of Nijmegen, where it will be unveiled by the Mayor of Nijmegen as a memorial to the Sherwood Rangers who fought so valiantly in Operation Market Garden.

All restoration work was carried out in Wakefield, Yorkshire, meaning that this World War relic will be completing an epic, full-circle journey.

One of the veterans who will accompany the tank thanks to the group’s £5,500 grant from the Big Lottery Fund is 90-year-old Arthur Hinitt. The Retford-based veteran joined the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry in 1936 at the age of 16 and served his regiment with great distinction until being ‘demobbed’ in 1946. This will be the very first time that he has returned to the Netherlands since the end of World War Two.

Joining the war in September 1939, Mr Hinitt saw action at Operation Market Garden as a tank driver and survived skirmishes throughout North Africa and North West Europe. He was among the first waves of British wading tanks to hit the D-Day beaches at Normandy in 1944 but his vehicle was hit by a shell and sunk before it made dry land. Soon after, he also managed to escape from another, seconds before it exploded during action in Belgium.  

Of Operation Market Garden, Mr Hinitt recalls: “The German army flooded the fields that surrounded the strategic Arnhem bridge meaning that it wasn’t great ‘tank country’ for chaps like myself. The Dutch people had seen their crops destroyed by the occupying forces and they were slowly starving to death. We shared our rations with them but there was only so much we could do.

“It will be an emotional experience to return the Sherman tank to Groesbeek and to see it sitting on the plinth at the museum where it belongs. I’m looking forward to meeting with the Dutch people once again as they make all war veterans feel so welcome. It’ll be the first time that I’ve been back since the war so to be able to do so is quite something.”

GUARDING WINSTON CHURCHILL

Another veteran who took part in the allied advance through Holland in the months following Market Garden is Ernest Briggs from Peterborough who joined up with the Coldstream Guards aged 17 and a half. After undergoing military training, and while awaiting posting to action, Ernest found himself regularly deployed for guard duty down at Chequers in Kent as part of Winston Churchill’s personal bodyguard.

However, as the allied invasion stepped up he received his first posting to Normandy, landing at Gold Beach three weeks on from the invasion. From there he joined the allied advance up through Belgium and into Holland as a Lance Corporal with the 3rd Mortar Platoon, 5th Battalion Coldstream Guards.

Ernest soon found his first action on 9th of March 1945 as the 5th Battalion prepared to clear the Rhine bridge-head against fanatical resistance from the German 7th Fallschirmjager. Heavy fighting ensued, with the Battalion taking heavy casualties.

He recalls: “It was known as the Guards death parade. I was positioned back on the embankment, there was such a lot shelling and I remember seeing our padre walking about amongst the explosions helping the injured men, any injured man, English or German. The attack started at 2.30 in the afternoon and the fighting went on through till midnight. A newspaper reporter at the time said ‘The Guards came over in one line strolling as if they were on a shoot.’”

A couple of weeks later the allies constructed pontoons over the Rhine and on Good Friday 1945 the Guards crossed over from Holland into Germany where they took part in the attack and liberation of Enchede and from there fought on up through Germany and into Schleswig- Holstein where the Germans finally surrendered.

Ernest recalls his experience: “It’s funny when you’re young like that, you don’t realise things. The Guards were like a family. We had sticky moments, but everyone was friendly, and our officers were marvellous, they were an inspiration to us all. Being in the mortar platoon, I was in the support group and always slightly back from the action. We had the easy job of the battalion - it was the infantrymen down at the front that had the hard job.”

Ernest who has recently come back from a Heroes Return 2 funded trip to Enchede in Holland said: “The Dutch people are wonderful and so friendly towards us. I was walking down the street when a little girl, no more than four who was walking towards us suddenly broke away from her mother and came running up to me and shaking my hand said; ‘thank you for what you did’.”

The Big Lottery Fund is continuing to ensure the efforts of Second World War veterans from across the UK and Ireland are not forgotten through its Heroes Return 2 scheme, awarding grants for ex-servicemen and women to return on commemorative trips back to places across the world where they saw action. Veterans or their widows/widowers are still being urged to apply to the initiative, which remains open for applications until January 2011.

Peter Wanless, Big Lottery Fund Chief Executive, said: “The 66th anniversary of Operation Market Garden is a poignant reminder for us all of the sacrifice made by hundreds of thousands of British servicemen and women during the Second World War. They built the peace and protected the freedoms we enjoy today.

“A huge debt of gratitude and recognition is owed by today’s society to the men and women who fought across the world and I am delighted we are able to offer Lottery funding for them to return and pay their respects at the places they served and to attend memorial events within the UK.”

BIG is continuing its support for UK veterans through its new £35 million Forces in Mind initiative to establish an independent trust to provide long term support and advocacy for former service personnel. The funding will help veterans who served in conflicts including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf War struggling with the transition to civilian life, especially those whose psychological well-being subsequently impacts on the quality of their life and others around them.

Launched to mark the historic 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004, BIG’s first Heroes Return scheme awarded £16.6 million to over 39,000 veterans, spouses, widows and carers to fund commemorative visits to Second World War battlefields, cemeteries and other significant places across the world. Heroes Return was the centre-piece of the Veterans Reunited programme including Home Front Recall which awarded £19.2 million to support UK-based group events and activities to commemorate those who contributed to the war-effort on the home front, and Their Past Your Future with an ongoing £9.6 million scheme funding a UK-wide schools and education programme to give young people the opportunity to learn first-hand from veterans about their experience of war.

Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
HEROES RETURN 2 HELPLINE: 0845 00 00 121
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone:  0845 6021 659

Notes to editors

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £24 billion has now been raised and more than 330,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
• Heroes Return £17 million scheme provided funding to Second World War veterans, their wives or husbands, widows and widowers and, where required, their present-day carers to visit the overseas areas where the veterans saw active service.  By linking with activities funded through the Their Past Your Future scheme, Heroes Return is also helping to give young people a better understanding of the efforts and sacrifices made by veterans.
• Home Front Recall provided grants of between £500 and £20,000 for regional and local projects across the UK in 2004-2005 that commemorated the events of the Second World War and the contributions of different groups in society.  The scheme funded a very wide range of projects including special community days; reunions and exhibitions; recordings of the experiences of those who lived through the War; plays and pieces of creative artwork. In addition, the scheme funded a number of national grants to organisations such as the TUC to fund a range of commemorative activities.
• Their Past Your Future is an ongoing UK-wide schools and education scheme to give young people the opportunity to learn first-hand from veterans about their experience of war. The Big Lottery Fund is working closely with the Imperial War Museum and the museums, libraries and archives sector UK-wide to help young people to research and learn about the personal experiences and roles played by forces personnel and civilians. Competitions have enabled schools to take part in World War Two related visits with veterans. The Imperial War Museum has a website (www.theirpast-yourfuture.org.uk) with a wide range of resources for schools to use and details of projects delivered by museums across the UK.