Hi All, You are all missing the point what does it matter where they are or the name of the cemetery... What really matters is that each of us go to the cemetery to pay the respect that they all deserve, most of you who know me will know that I have been to 98% of the cemeteries that have a link to Arnhem in some form... Don't forget its about the Man and Woman that are in fact in the cemetery and not the name of it.... Very well put Tom.
"so far away" - sorry, I don't understand that; it's less than 30km to Groesbeek from Arnhem and takes, what, 30-40 minutes? The Groesbeek Memorial is not an Arnhem memorial remember; it commemorates all the missing up to the end of the war, and there are men on there I have researched who died more than 200km away from where the memorial is. It's location isn't "misleading" as it's history clearly stated and of the many people I have taken there to see relatives 'misleading' is a word I have never heard. The IWGC decided in the 1950s to commemorate the missing for NWE on two memorials. The money to build battlefield memorials, as was the case in the Great War, was not there. So a decision was made to build two monuments, one in Bayeux commemorating those killed from D Day to the Seine, and Groesbeek commemorating those who died from the Seine to VE Day. "Misleading" was clearly the wrong word, and I would like to retract it, but my comment was based on a trip we made to Arnhem many years ago, and took with us a cross to put down from a relative of a fallen Arnhem soldier, it was when we got there we found out the chap was named on the Groesbeek Memorial, we journeyed there, did the job, noticed the name of the cemetery, (we had not done enough homework) I am now fully aware of the significance of the Groesbeek memorial, and have taken vets there since, however,my post was perhaps, how I felt at that time, I should not have put it into words, it comes out all wrong. sorry. lofty
What really matters is that each of us go to the cemetery to pay the respect that they all deserve....... Don't forget its about the Man and Woman that are in fact in the cemetery and not the name of it.... I couldn't agree more Tom, well said Sir.........
As always it's easier to go back to the original documentation and see what the intention surrounding the creation of the cemetery was. Here, from June 1945, the documentation clearly states that the intention of the cemetery was to bring together the remains of all of those that had "been killed in the Arnhem Operations - both Airborne and Ground Forces". Therefore it is clear that the inclusion of ground forces from the surrounding areas was not an afterthought but always part of the original planning. Work to identify the bodies to be concentrated here had commenced within 48 hours of the liberation of the area. It's therefore difficult to see how, apart from in the hearts and minds of the local population, it could ever have been officially referred to as an "Airborne Cemetery'.
