A wargamer´s trip to Arnhem - (part 3 and final) The Bridge and surroundings

While arriving to Arnhem from the Oosterbeek direction you face the imposing St Elisabeth Hospital, today a block of apartments. Here, two famous ambushes occured: the first, a British one that  surprised a group of Germans parading in front of the hospital, from the initial 70, only 2 survived; the second, a German one made by Kampfgruppe Spindler (from the 9th SS PD) that blocked the British paratroopers and denied the possibility of linking the 1st and 3rd battalion with Frost´s 2nd battalion at the bridge also causing a carnage among the paratroopers which faced fire from three sides, including the fire of ex-French AA 75mm guns from the other side of the Nederrijn. 

Several details will be added to my model of the Hospital, everything under the surveillance of Elisabeth of Hungary. 

This simple AI diagram shows the axis of attack of the main German units against the tight perimeter of Frost´s men. 

The bunkers at the entrance of both ends of the bridge are still the ones from the battle, and at least this one had a 20mm AA gun on top on a wooden structure. The bridge itself was rebuilt after the battle. 

The distance from the houses on the right to the bridge during the days of the battle was much smaller. These new ones were built some 15 meters from the original site from were Frost men fired upon Graebnar´s column. The original ones were reduced to rubble, together with all the 18 houses that housed the 2nd battalion due to the german tactic of clearing with tank, artillery and Pzfaust fire one by one all houses that could but turned into a  British strongpoint. 

 

This is nowadays the place were the HQ of the 2nd battalion stood, around 100 meters to the west of the bridge. All those buildings, and many more all over Arnhem, completely destroyed, were rebuilt into a typical simple and modern Dutch look. 

The Church of St Walburgis, already with both towers (one was rammed by a FW190 during the battle) is an imposing site. Looking at it closely will also help to add more detail into the model. 

More small openings will have to be painted together with more detail on the arches. 

This place some 400m nort of the bridge ramp is the probable site of the assembly point  of  Kampfgruppe  Hummel (with Tiger I tanks)and Kampfgruppe Knaust. The Tiger IIs of 506th Heavy Panzer Battalion must have been around this place too but they were mostly used in reducing the Oosterbeek perimeter as they arrived late for the actions around the bridge. 

On the large square of the Arnhem court there is this beautiful building called the Sabelspoort which I want to model. It started to rain when this picture was taken so I went to the Web to find something better. 

~

And here it is a much better view taken in fair weather. 

The one I really wanted was the Devil´s House but it looks a bit complicated to scratch built. These two pictures are also from the Web as mine were taken during heavy rain. 

If you want to pay a visit to the model buildings I´ve made in the past regarding Arnhem and Ooosterbeek here they are:

https://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/rapid-fire-battle-of-arnhem-buildings.html

Some are suffering changes while others will have still to be built, like the Oude kerk or the Sabelspoort. 

Next: More Napoleonic cavalry

A wargamer´s trip to Arnhem - (part 2) The Crossroads at Oosterbeek and the Oude Kerk

 

Writing "Oude Kerk" (the old church of Oosterbeek), makes me look more cultivated for sure even if I don´t know any other word in Dutch. Even so I´m sure it attracted your attention as it surely attracted mine a few days ago as I had no idea how to write 'old church' in Dutch. 

This post is about the Crossroads and the Oude Kerk, particularly this last one as I don´t have many references in order to build the church which is an important building still missing in my collection. I have all other major buildings already made for years and it was very funny to see them in 1/1 scale :)

On top of the page you can see the modern Tafelberg.  First it had the old red brick walls and it was like this that served as General Model´s HQ (together with Hartenstein) and then as a critical MDS station for the British. Today is a private house. Only the front remains from the battle time and it was recently painted white. 

Going down Pieterbergseweg you have on the right the No 35, Hotel Johanna. On the previous post you can see the piece of wall paper taken from this place and used as a kill mark by a British sniper.

While looking for this house I asked a lady that was passing by were Hotel Johanna was. To my astonishement she was the daughter of Kate Ter Horst, and I think one of the few still alive from a total of 6 children. We chatted a bit and I could understand that she was 5 years old when the battle happenned. She was very sad when I couldn´t understand initially her mother´s name in Dutch but then, when I mentioned that I remembered her mother taking care and saving hundreds of British Paratroopers, she became slightly happier. I´m not sure but after looking in the Web she seems to be Sophie, probably the youngest daughter now with the beautiful age of 87. 

Next to No34 is this other beauty, in typical Oosterbeek style, maybe also deserving a model. 

Hotel Vreevijk on the Crossroads was another medical post. 

Schoonoord Hotel. In fact this row of buildings was rebuilt after the landing of a revengeful V-1 weapon strike on the 26 January 1945 which killed 26 people. 

Quatre-Bras is probably one of the most elegant buildings at Oosterbeek. But frankly in the middle of so many beautiful buildings its hard to say. The triangular monument at the right bottom corner remembers the sacrifice of the 21 Independent Parachute Company. 

And now to the main target of my visit to Ooosterbeek, the Old Church. This church is famous for being the oldest church ground of the Netherlands and it became the focal point of Lonsdale Force in the last few days of the perimeter. There is a nice model picture of this church in the first Rapid Fire! book on Market garden designed by  Dale Rawson  but I wanted more information and take some pictures in order to make the model in the future. 

The guy in the picture is my wife´s cousin, almost two meters tall and was useful for scale. Well, at least if you use Valiant 1st edition 1/72nd scale figures :). Besides scale he was also a great company. 

The lime tree to the right is still shattered from the battle and next to it 4 British paratroopers died from a mortar shell. 

Going left around the church and still facing the river you can see some details of the windows in Gothic style. They look to be new as the church suffered a lot of damage during the battle with plenty of bullet holes that can still be seen right and left of this door. 

The view from the left side (east). 

With your back to the river there are new structures and different, smaller, windows. 

Using AI I got this information: 

Following the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944, the Oosterbeek Old Church (Oude Kerk) was left in a state of near-ruin due to heavy artillery fire and its role as a final stronghold for the 1st Airborne Division. Restoration efforts between 1946 and 1961, directed by architect Berend Tobia Boeyinga, focused on rebuilding the church while altering its structure to reflect its historical origins. 

Key changes and structural alterations after the 1944 battle included:

• Removal of the 19th-Century Expansion: The extensive 1856 neo-Gothic additions, which included a transept and large windows, were not restored.
• Restoration to "Original" Style: The church was rebuilt to resemble its older, pre-19th-century form (circa 1400).
• Choir Modification: The severely damaged 15th-century Gothic choir was replaced with a new, smaller, and simpler pseudo-Romanesque choir that matched the 10th-century nave.
• Structural Changes to Walls and Windows: To emphasize the Romanesque origins, large windows were closed off and replaced with smaller ones.
• Consistory Addition: A new, smaller consistory (a room for church meetings) was added to the choir.
• Commemorative Features: While the structure was repaired, many battle scars, such as bullet holes, were left in the walls as a memorial. Inside, the church was adorned with memorials to the British and Polish soldiers, including special kneeling cushions with the Pegasus emblem of the Airborne Forces. 

So in order to make model of this church (no interior) you need:

- To add the transept 

- Make larger neo-gothic windows. 

- Take into consideration that the clocks are not contemporary of the battle and frankly I´m not sure if they even existed by then. 

This plate on the wall also clarifies the date of the major changes.

The view of the church from the river. To the left, the beautiful white building is the house of Kate Ter Horst family. 

And the view of the other side of the Lower Rhine river were the remnants of the 1st British Airborne Division and the Polish Brigade arrived after escaping the German encirclementon of Oosterbeek during Operation Berlin on the 25th and 26th September 1944, an operation made under constant fire from the Germans. The river is not very large but the current is very strong which caused trouble to the salvage boats and to swimmers on those days. 

Next: a visit to Arnhem itself

A wargamer´s trip to Arnhem - (part 1) Oosterbeek Airborne museum and surroundings

 

The days of the Carnival break were spent in the Netherlands and - obviously - around Arnhem and Oosterbeek, with a short visit to Eindhoven, Nijmegen and the Vught concentration camp. 

The Oosterbeek Airborne Museum (there is another at Arnhem) is the old Hartenstein Hotel and the HQ of the 1st British Airborne Division during the 9 days of the Market Garden campaign, and also the center of the defensive perimeter very close to the east/west main artery of Oosterbeek, Utrechtseweg. 

As we flew cheap with backpacks I was not able to carry my two large volumes of Market Garden Then and Now but was able to take my two excellent volumes on Arnhem and Oosterbeek of Battleground Europe by Frank Steer which cleared many doubts on the way and helped me find virtually everything I needed. 

Unfortunately, the tennis courts at the Airborne Museum of Oosterbeek (old Hartenstein Hotel) were the German prisoners  were held are gone and turned into a sort of rest area. 

Inside the museum you can find a great collection of items very well displayed. The container next to the British paratrooper is of good usage both for modellers and wargamers. 

A Polish radioman.

                           

A very good selection of weapons in the vitrine to the left. The 50mm German mortar is interesting with a base in dunkelgelb and the tube in panzer gray. The large Nebelwerfer rocket probably belonged to Von Tettau´s large Kampfgruppe or less likely to the 10th SS Panzer division as these ones operated south of the lower Rhine. 

I´m not sure if this was the first 8cm German mortar I´ve seen but it looked quite big. I think that its representation in 1/72-20mm size should be slightly increased in most brands. 

It was nice to see the British webbing in a light pea green tone close to what I did with my British paratroopers. 

This is a British list of 'Gerry' casualties fu..., sorry, taken by this sniper. This piece of wall paper was taken from Hotel Johanna, No34, Pieterbergseweg, Ooosterbeek. 

Frost´s hunting horn given to him in Iraq ended up in the museum after some adventures. Now I need a 20mm John Frost with a hunting horn. 

A painting of the medical aid from both sides around the Crossroads.

An animated battle map is one of the best features of this museum as it shows the events from the day one up to the last. Of course, in the basement you can take a ride in a Horsa Glider and go through Oosterbeek ruins in another great animation.  

The HQ of the artillery regiment of the 1st British Airborne was situated some 100 meters to the south of the museum and is represented by this battered 17 pdr AT gun. 

                             

As you can see there is more than one Urkuhart, with the British version (183 cm)) being slightly taller than the portuguese one (170 cm). Unfortunately the weight between the two is getting dangerously close. 

                          

                                                         

The first modelling consequence upon arrival was to repaint sand yellow a good part of the white walls of my scratch built Hartenstein hotel /Airborne Museum as white walls was the perception that many had during decades, including RF! Masters Colin and Richard.  I left the interior white but I may go for some paper wall decoration as in the original. 

Next: part 2 with more Oosterbeek

A Wargaming trip to Piazzale Loreto

The "Wargaming" part is totally BS as Piazzale Loreto (Milano, but far to the northeast from Duomo and Vittor Emanuele galleries) became famous due to two WW2 events that are hardly passed into the tabletop. So the title only has the intention to call your attention (he,he). 

This was the place were Mussolini´s dead body was displaced, head down, together with his mistress, Clara Petacci, and a few other fascists on the 29 April 1945. Mussolini has been killed by partizans the day before near Lake Como. 

This scene always caused horror to some and indifference to others. Horror because this is not the way to display a dead body but indifference due to the fact that Mussolini in the end, not being the monster that Hitler was, was ultimately the responsible for WW2 and its 85 millions of dead, as it headed fascism, which lead to nazism, not forgetting Japan´s imperialism. We can always say that if it was not Mussolini leading the process someone else would, but try to say that to the people of the 20s, 30s and 40s that suffered with the process. Mussolini and the other corpses were displayed from the blue parking plate to the left in the place were a McDonalds restaurant stands. 

The "head down" show has another revengeful meaning: this was the place and way in which 15 Italian partizans were shown to the population after being shot by a joint effort of the fascist Oberdan group and the SS of Theo Saevecke. In fact Piazzale Loreto was called the Piazza Quindici Martiri (Square of the 15 Martyrs) for some years after the war before returning to its previous name. 

This period picture was taken from the aproximate place of my previous picture (in fact a bit to the right due to traffic). Mussolini and four others were displayed hanging from the roof of the local Esso petrol station, now the place of the McDonalds restaurant of the first picture.  

This nice period picture shows the Esso station in the centre left. 

From under the roof of McDonalds you can be under the place were the corpses were hanging. 

In this "then and now" picture available on the web you can have a better idea. 

This last composition from the web is great as it shows with the A and B point the exact places were you can live the situation. 

With this post and this visit I want to stress the nowadays forgiveness about fascist and nazi crimes from the 20s up to mid 40s. There is no plate, no nothing signalling this event that has been shown hundred of times in history books. And this is true all over Europe, both East and West were these crimes seemed to have been placed in the same category of Feudalism or Industrial Revolution, just a normal part of history from were we should move on, forgetting that dark clouds being blown everywere from people missing the 20´s in Italy and the 30´s in Germany, Portugal and Spain not missing the tendency. 

Next: more WW2 Japanese