What happened was that on the way to the Paris train station our train struck a vehicle. That put us in limbo in the Paris train station for nearly two hours. The Paris train station is not the most desirable place to spend any time. There is no where to sit and sketchy characters all around. We were told ahead of time to be very vigilant of our purses and backpacks. Two of our fellow travelers, get this -- a retired 4 Star Combat General and his Air Force pilot daughter traveling together had their backpack stolen! The General's passport was in the backpack! So, we left them behind to deal with the Paris Police and wait for the American Embassy to open Monday morning. This happened on a Saturday of course.
Super bummer! These trips are not without risk. I compulsively check my passport, cell phone and credit cards multiple times a day. Trust no-one!
Operation Market Garden was our next objective. The operation went from Sept 17-25, 1944. Hopes for a quick end to the war quickly turned to ashes as the Allies outstretched their supply lines and Germans reinforced their defenses. Montgomery had a plan to flank the Germans to the North. He would then attack into the Netherlands with an armored force. He would drop three airborne (paratroopers) ahead of the ground force to capture the all important bridges and towns.
The Allies were under the delusion that the forces left to defend this area were the lower echelon of the German forces. Old men and very young men with no combat experience. Some of the soldiers were 16 years old. However, these young men had grown up in the Hitler Youth and had the Nazi ideology so engrained in their souls that they fought fanatically for the Fatherland. Hitler said something to the effect of "Give me your youth and I will control the future". Take warning my friends.
Operation Market Garden was not considered an Allied success by any means. It cost us over 17,000 soldier's lives with very little gain. It did liberate some Dutch towns and they are forever grateful.
We visited one such family in Sonbruggel at their farm.
On the morning of September 17, 1944 a little 6 year old boy walked out into the farm field behind his house and saw this.
Thousands of Allied paratroopers were being dropped in to start Operation Market Garden.
We met that six year old little boy and his family at the same farm house. He is now 84 years old and doesn't speak English so his grand-daughter translated for us. The have a little museum set up to commemorate this big moment in their family history.
We were able to ask him questions and he seemed happy to answer them all. He told us of a paratrooper who landed near his back door and was hurt and his mother helped bandage his wounds. He showed us the exact spot as he remembered it as a little boy. 40 years later that same solider came back to visit the family and they had a huge dinner together to celebrate.
Their museum is full of military items that they have found in their fields through the years.
His prized item is a parachute.
The 4 year German occupation of their homeland was a nightmare. Many people starved to death and the German soldiers pillaged their homes for what ever they pleased.
The war for them was over on that Day 1 of Operation Market Garden, as they were liberated by the paratroopers. So, for the Dutch the operation was a success.This visit with an old man was the highlight of the trip so far for me. Dates and statistics and bridges and strategies are interesting but talking with him touched some of us to tears.
Tomorrow we set out for the Ardennes and a whole new bloody chapter of this war.
P.S. The Paris police actually caught the General's thief, but the passport was, of course, gone. They had tried to use his credit card unsuccessfully and that tipped off the police.
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