White Ribbon Walk – Op BERLIN

• Posted on 26 Sep 2019
• 02 min read

OOSTERBEEK - In the cold and wet floodplains of Oosterbeek, a procession went from the Oude Kerk (Old Kirk) to the Nederrijn on the evening of Wednesday 25 September 2019. During this silent journey, people remembered the flight of some 2,300 young men from the defeated British First Airborne Division over the river 75 years ago.

The participants laid flowers at the monument in memory of the fallen soldiers on the Oosterbeek side of the river.

Lamps were everywhere to mark the white ribbon that scouts had stretched in the night of 25 to 26 September 1944 towards floodplains as a "lifeline" for the soldiers. The Canadian and British Royal Engineers came to their aid in the storm, with rickety boats.

The men were shot at from the Westerbouwing heights and many never made it across. The men were told that the war would be over before Christmas, with Berlin as the capital of Hitler's Nazi Empire as a trophy. The British cynically cited the departure at Oosterbeek as "Operation BERLIN".