This is an early photo of the Nijmegen bridge. It was taken in the late 1920's. The two small boys on the handrails are the van Empel brothers. They were arrested in 1942 by the Germans and taken for forced labour in the Ruhr armaments factories.
I went over Nijmegen bridge just after it was taken. Up in the girder steelwork were infantry with riflles and Brens waiting to shoot sea mines that the Enemy were floating down, trying to blow the bridge up. My orders were to get as near Arnhem as possible and find an "harbour area" for the company to move to later. When I first came to the bridge an infantry man stopped me, "do you have to go over mate?" "if you do...Hurry"...... Hurry I did ! Having found a place suitable, I made my way back only to discover they were already on their way in the opposite direction towards Overloon and Venraij, Where later my war came to an end, a pretty violent end. Sapper
Elements 6 LAA Battery were mounted on SP Bofors. They were used to protect the Guards Armoured Division as it moved from Grave and Neerbosch to Nijmegen. The 82nd American Airborne had done a magnificent and costly job in taking the bridge. On the 17th Sept 1944 6 LAA Battery got as far as Nijmegen Bridge and were then redeployed to protect the bridge, instead of moving on to Arnhem. Nothing was moving to Arnhem. My father was in 6 LAA Battery but he never got to the Arnhem Bridge to rescue his brother Sgt Jim Gamble 1st Airborne. Of the 10,000 airborne troops flown into Arnhem he was one of the 2,000 who managed to survive and escape to Nijmegen.