Arnhem remembered: Not for what happened, but because we tried, says Para officer

Operation Market Garden began 82 years ago and although it failed its aim of making the world a better place lives on, a Parachute Regiment officer has said.

Major Max Wright, the OC of C Company, 3 Para, was speaking at a service in Colchester to mark the anniversary of Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem.

"The Battle of Arnhem holds a special place in the heart of all airborne forces, and especially the Parachute Regiment," he told BFBS Forces News.

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A noble quest

"It's one of our defining battle honours, and it's a place that lives with us throughout. It's one of the things that we look back on to work out where we're going.

"It was an operation where we used air manoeuvre, parachuting, operating at reach, in the vanguard of conventional forces to try and seize an objective and then deliver success."

Among the dignitaries attending the service at the city's war memorial was the military attaché from the Dutch forces, and Maj Wright explained the connection shared between the British and the Dutch in the wake of the 1944 battle.

"I've been lucky enough to go to Arnhem a few times in my career," he said. "And the way that Arnhem itself and the local towns around it come out to celebrate the Battle of Arnhem is pretty incredible.

"It's one of those things that a lot of times soldiers will go to Arnhem and think [of the Dutch people] 'why are you celebrating this?'.

"We came to Arnhem back in 1944, and the place was decimated, and eventually the operation wasn't a success. So we brought death and destruction to your area, but yet you celebrate it.

"And from their point of view, it's not what happened, it's because we tried.

"And being able to share that and solidify that bond with the Dutch, with our other allies, and celebrate not the operation itself, but the spirit of the operation, trying to make the world a better place and deliver peace to the people of the world, is something that is a noble quest and something that everybody can share."

The symbolism of the sunflower

The sunflower has become symbolic of the battle, with Dutch schoolchildren planting one on the graves of the fallen.

That theme has been picked up in Colchester, with sunflowers being placed on the memorial.

"So the Dutch children in school each get given a grave," the Parachute Regiment officer explained. "They research the individual who fought in the battle who is buried there.

"And then once a year, as part of the commemorations, they come out and they lay flowers on that grave, and they sort of celebrate that life and it keeps that individual's memory alive.

"And it's really special to see here that Colchester has reciprocated that, and the children here learn about the battle, and they learn about how the flower children work. And they do the same here.

"There aren't the graves, but we have the memorial. And they share that symmetry just in the same way that we share the symmetry with our Dutch allies of celebrating the battle, for what it means and represents to us."