THE BEACH BOYS CHRISTMAS ALBUM

Between 1962 and 1964 The Beach Boys released six albums, Surfin' Safari, Surfin' U.S.A., Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Volume 2 and All Summer Long and, like many other artists before and since, in 1964 they turned their attention to the Christmas market with an album of classics and original songs.

In this article we look back at the album, it's influence, production, release, reception and success.

In November 1963 Phil Spector released the classic A Christmas Gift For You album featuring The Ronettes, The Crystals, Darlene Love and Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans on a selection of Christmas classics with that 'Wall of Sound' production.

The album made a big impact on Brian Wilson and was the inspiration for the Beach Boys to record their own Christmas offering. It is mentioned that Brian played piano on one track, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, but Spector dismissed him due to his substandard piano playing!. Maybe that was another reason that Brian wanted to respond by producing his own collection.

However, before this The Beach Boys did release a single. Little Saint Nick, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love.

Although it was partly inspired by Phil Spector's plans for a Christmas album, Wilson recalls writing the song, "I wrote the lyrics to it while I was out on a date and then I rushed home to finish the music." Originally credited only to Wilson, years later Love's name was added as co-writer.

Part of it's structure and rhythm can be compared to the groups earlier single, Little Deuce Coupe.

Recorded on two days in October 1963 at Western Studio in Hollywood with a tracking session on the 18th and vocals added on the 20th.

Besides guitar (Carl Wilson), bass (Al Jardine), piano (Brian Wilson), drums (Dennis Wilson) and lead vocals (Mike Love), the song featured celeste (Brian), sleigh bells (Carl), glockenspiel (Al) along with additional sleigh-bells by Murry Wilson and backing vocals by Bob Norberg.

Released on 9 December 1963, Little Saint Nick (Capitol 5096) reached #3 on Billboard Magazines seasonal Christmas Singles Chart. An a cappella version of The Lord's Prayer appeared on the B-side.

In the years that followed it did make chart appearances in several countries including Australia, Canada, Sweden, France, Ireland, United Kingdom and America. In the UK it was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Institute (BPI) for sales of more than 400,000.

Sessions for the album ran from 18th June through to the 30th June 1964 at the Capitol Studios and Western Recorders in Hollywood. Along with the five band members a 41-piece orchestra was also present during the sessions.

Brian only arranged four of the songs handing the task to Dick Reynolds, arranger with The Four Freshman, who worked on the remaining tracks.

Brian produced the sessions with Chuck Britz, who had worked on all their previous albums, engineering the sessions.

At the first session at Capitol Studios on the 18th, between 2:30 - 5:30 pm, orchestral tracking sessions were held for We Three Kings Of Orient Are, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, White Christmas and Blue Christmas. At this session Brian also stripped the sleigh bells and glockenspiels off the earlier version of Little Saint Nick and added new vocals. This was done to match the sound of the current recordings being made.

On the 23rd sessions moved to Western Recorders where an attempt was made to add a vocal for Little Saint Nick onto the October 1963 instrumental track of the song Drive-In. An odd recording that failed and would not be used on the Christmas album remaining unreleased for more than thirty years. It is more than likely that the original lyrics for Little Saint Nick were meant to go with the melody from Drive-In but when it didn't work Brian was forced to write a new melody for Little Saint Nick.

Instrumental tracks for Frosty The Snowman, I'll Be Home For Christmas and orchestral tracks for Jingle Bells and Christmas Eve were laid down during a three-hour session at Western Recorders on the 24th. The latter two tracks would not be used.

A fourth session, once again held at Western Recorders, on the 25th resulted in tracking recordings for The Man With All The Toys, Merry Christmas Baby and Santa's Beard. Brian, Carl and Al were present for the session. Also tracked was Christmas Day and the session ended with the group recording an a cappella version of Auld Lang Syne. With all the tracking and instrumental work completed the remaining sessions would be for vocal overdubs.

Four more sessions held at Western Recorders would result in vocals added to The Man With All The Toys, Santa's Beard and Christmas Day (on the 27th), Blue Christmas, White Christmas and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (on the 28th) and Frosty The Snowman and We Three Kings Of Orient Are (on the 29th).

The final session, on the 30th, saw the band adding vocals to the final two tracks, Merry Christmas Baby and I'll Be Home For Christmas. With this session recording for the Christmas album was finished.

Multiple attempts at vocal overdubs and backing vocals were attempted during the sessions, many of which would find an unofficial release years later. No vocals were ever added to Jingle Bells and Christmas Eve and the basic instrumental tracks till remain officially unreleased.

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album was released in both mono and stereo formats (Capitol ST-2164 and T-2164) on 9th November 1964. It was their third album to be released in 1964 following Shut Down Volume 2 and All Summer Long.

The cover photo showed the boys, wearing woolly jumpers, decorating a Christmas tree and was taken by Capitol Records staff photographer George Jerman. A change from the Pendleton Shirt and surfin' images. Several photos were taken including the image at the start of this article.

The back sleeve featured a black and white signed image of the group with the heading 'We'd Like To Wish You A Very Merry Christmas.' A track listing and brief liner notes are also included. The notes read in part, 'Because Christmas is a very special occasion, the Beach Boys decided that this should be a very special album... and it is. Here for the first time you'll hear the Beach Boys accompanied by a sonorous forty-piece orchestra, with special arrangements written just for this album by Dick Reynolds.' It goes on, 'The songs the Boys have chosen for their holiday greetings to you range all the way from their own light-hearted seasonal hit "Little Saint Nick" to beautiful traditional favourites done with the orchestra.'

A second single was also issued the same day pairing two of the album tracks, The Man With All Toys and Blue Christmas (Capitol 5312) which would peak at #6 on Billboard Magazines seasonal Christmas Singles Chart. In the years that followed sales would build and it was listed in the Billboard Top 100 Selling Christmas songs, although it was well below Little Saint Nick.

The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard Christmas Album Chart during 1964 and in the years that followed would reach, #66 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, #35 on the Billboard Top Catalog Albums and #23 on Billboards Top Holiday Albums Chart.

The Beach Boys Christmas Album opens with Little Saint Nick, the first of five tracks on the album written by band members, four by Brian and Mike and one by just Brian. The best known track on the album it was a re-recorded version that was used, not the original single. With lead vocals by Mike and great harmonies from the remaining band members it is very reminiscent of some of their earlier material.

The Man With All The Toys follows and has a catchy melody, albeit only running for just 92 seconds. The lyrics are simple...A guy in the North Pole peeks into a window and sees a fat man all dressed up in red surrounded by 'little tiny men everywhere' who are making toys. Tempted to go in he decides to stay out in the cold and leaves and tell everybody what he saw. The song features a lead vocal by Brian and Mike.

The child-like tale of a boy who isn't convinced that the Santa he meets at the department store is real is told in the jaunty Santa's Beard. Pulling the pillow out from under his suit and the beard off his face, the child is upset but is consoled when he is told that he is helping the real Santa Claus. Mike sings the lead vocal  

Merry Christmas Baby, with another excellent lead vocal from Mike, has dreamy romanticism as its theme. However, it is not a typical Christmas, cheery song. Having lost his girl the only thing he wants at Christmas is to have her back in his arms.

Up until now Al Jardine hadn't had a lead vocal on any Beach Boys song but this changed with Christmas Day, his first solo vocal. A beautiful song and my favourite on side one of the album. The song includes a fantastic Hammond organ instrumental break.

Recorded by The Ronettes on the Phil Spector produced A Christmas Gift For You album, Frosty The Snowman features a full orchestra on one of the best versions of this fun Christmas song I've ever heard. The song closes the first side of the album in style. 

Side two opens with We Three Kings Of Orient Are, the longest track on the album, running to just over four minutes.  With its beautiful arrangement and harmonies it is by far the best track on the album.

Brian turns in an impeccable lead vocal performance of Blue Christmas with great backing from the orchestra. Recorded by many artists over the years, most notably by Elvis Presley in 1957, this was a great choice for the album. Probably the best Brian Wilson solo vocal on the album.

Santa Claus Is Back In Town. Starting off slow it soon turns into a catchy/jazzy/big band version with both Brian and Mike sharing the vocals, in style. 

Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas back in the 1940s for the film Holiday Inn and the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Recorded by Bing Crosby it has become the biggest selling song of all time with sales of his version exceeding 50 million physical copies. There have been more than 500 recorded versions, many in foreign languages and artist that have recorded the song include Frank Sinatra, The Drifters, Elvis Presley and Darlene Love. Brian's vocals shine, yet again, on this Christmas classic. 

I'll Be Home For Christmas is another song recorded by many artists and, as with Blue Christmas, highlights how exquisite Brian's voice was when used on songs such as this. The remaining band members add some stunning vocal support.

The album is bought to a close with the beautiful harmonies on the a cappella version of the traditional Auld Lang Syne. Dennis Wilson adds a Christmas message during which he messes up the word, "Happen" . Strange, considering how Brian was so particular about perfection on the groups records, that he allowed the mistake to remain. Despite this it is a great way to end an enjoyable album.

Brian called the first half of the album as the 'teen side', hence describing Father Christmas, in Little Saint Nick,  as " a real famous cat all dressed up in red."

Over the years many magazines and on-line sites have reviewed the album. Music historian James Perone wrote, "It is regarded as one of the finest holiday albums of the rock era."

All Music's Jason Ankeny said, "Brian Wilson's pop genius is well suited to classic Yuletide fare, and the group delivers lush performances of standards ranging from Frosty The Snowman to White Christmas as well as more contemporary material like The Man With All The Toys and Blue Christmas."

Meanwhile Jason Birchmeier stated, "Beach Boy's Christmas Album features the Beach Boys performing a variety of holiday favourites. Most of the featured songs are well known, some of the more popular being Frosty The Snowman, White Christmas, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and I'll Be Home For Christmas, among others. Furthermore, there are four songs composed by the Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick, The Man With All The Toys, Santa's Beard and Merry Christmas Baby - which begin the album. This mix of favourites and originals makes this a balanced holiday album that should please both Beach Boy admirers and those unfamiliar with the group."

Finally, in 1971 Billboard wrote, "At some time or another, most major artists have recorded either albums or singles devoted to the holiday season, and from there, it's only logical that a few would create classics in this manner. But if we were to chose just one out of the wealth of pop Christmas albums, it would have to be The Beach Boys endearing efforts of a few seasons back." They went on to say, "While the thrust of the album is directed at Christmas as a fun-time event, there are elements of (well...) social commentary (Santa's Beard) and straight emotionalism (Auld Lang Syne), all covered over those uniquely transcendent Beach Boy harmonies and a 'sonorous' (yep, that's what is says in the liner notes) 40-piece orchestra."

Talking about the album, Brian Wilson said, "For our Christmas album we more or less made one side in our own style and the other side in a more traditional style. My memory of recording that album was that it was a real happy time for us, It took about a month to record at Western. I liked that studio because they had a good sounding bass and good-sounding highs."

In 1991 the album was re-issued on CD with bonus material. Along with the twelve original tracks the CD included the single version of Little Saint Nick,an a-cappella The Lord's Prayer, which had been the B-side of The Man With All The Toys single, and alternate takes of Little Saint Nick and Auld Lang Syne without the Dennis Wilson message.

These sessions have been well covered on the unofficial market. The bootleg label Sea Of Tunes have released many CDs under the title Unsurpassed Masters covering The Beach Boys career up to the end of the 1960s. many of these are multi-CD sets covering individual albums.

Among these is the 3-CD set Christmas Sessions - The Alternate Beach Boys Christmas Album.

Over the three CDs are multiple takes of all the tracks on the album with instrumental takes, instrumental overdubs, try-out takes, vocal overdubs, alternate vocals, mono takes, stereo mixes and much more. Also included is the instrumental Jingle Bells but unfortunately no takes of Christmas Eve. An interesting listen for completists only.

The best summary of The Beach Boys Christmas Album is to be found on the original notes on the back sleeve which end with... 'Here, certainly, is an outstanding Christmas album - one that you'll enjoy for many seasons to come.'

How true, as sixty-one years since it's original release many tracks can still be heard on the radio today and the CD will be spinning this festive season in my office.

Check out my other Christmas articles here:

Christmas With Elvis

A Christmas Gift For You

Do They Know It's Christmas @40

All that leaves is for me to wish you all,,,

...A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

EVERYTHING AND THE KITCHEN SINK

I love the films from the 1950s and 1960s and this new book, Everything And The Kitchen Sink - UK Film, Music and TV Before The Beatles, written by Simon Matthews, looks in detail at a period whose movies, and TV programmes, have been classed as 'Kitchen Sink Drama'.

The term 'Kitchen Sink Drama' comes from a British cultural movement from the 1950s/1960s that used social realism to depict the gritty and everyday lives of working-class people. It focussed on many themes including social inequality, poverty, pregnancy, abortion, domestic struggles and created the disillusioned, rebellious working-class heroes who, frustrated with the hand they had been dealt in life, became 'Angry Young Men.'

The term originated from a 1954 article by an art critic on young painters who concentrated on mundane domestic scenes. The movement began in British theatre but soon spread to film and TV. 

Over seven main chapters Matthews gives the reader a detailed look at the many films released during the 1950s and 1960s including such classics as A Taste Of Honey, Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, Room At The Top, The Leather Boys, Look Back In Anger, Billy Liar and A Kind Of Loving.

There are details about how many of the films started life as books and stage plays, including where the plays were first performed. Problems finding distributors and the different actors who were considered for the lead and supporting roles are covered in comprehensive detail and make for fascinating reading.

The list of people mentioned in the book reads like a who's who with authors and playwrights (John Osborne, Alan Sillitoe, Shelagh Delaney), actors (Albert Finney, Alan Bates, Rita Tushingham, Leonard Rossiter) and producers and directors (Michael Winner, Richard Lester and Ken Loach) all featured.

There are too many other movies to list here but A Place To Go, The L-Shaped Room, Idol On Parade, The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner, Lucky Jim and Only Two Can Play are just a few that are covered in similar detail to the rest.

Both Tony Hancock and Peter Sellers  work on TV, radio and films is covered with a look at Hancock's Half Hour, The Rebel, The Goon Show, Carlton Browne Of The F. O. and I'm Alright Jack among others.

During the late-1950s and throughout the 1960s there were many 'pop' musicals that featured the top artists/groups of the time. Most were simply vehicles to bring together a selection of current hits wrapped up in flimsy plots. However, they were very popular at the time and I have fond memories of many of them.

The book looks at a few of these... It's Trad Dad! (Helen Shapiro), Play It Cool (Billy Fury), What A Crazy World (Joe Brown), Serious Charge (Cliff Richard) and Expresso Bongo (Cliff Richard), the two Cliff Richard movies having a more serious storyline than many of the others. This all leads to The Beatles and A Hard Days Night.

A number of TV productions are also included, many of which I remember watching as a youngster... Z-Cars (one of my favourites), Dixon Of Dock Green, Danger Man, Coronation Street, The Avengers and Steptoe & Son.

As well as the 'Pop' musicals discussed earlier, a number of music programmes also get a mention... Oh Boy!, Six-Five Special, Ready Steady Go and Top Of The Pops.

One of my favourite movies from this period is Beat Girl, set in the Soho scene and starring Adam Faith, Gillian Hills, Noelle Adam and Christopher Lee with music by Adam Faith and The John Barry Seven and I was pleased to see it covered.

The book includes a foreword by Sir Tom Courtenay, a detailed list of commercially released music related to the films, theatre and TV productions mentioned in the book with details of singles, extended play releases and long playing albums and a comprehensive index to the books content.

There are so many great stories throughout the book and I'll leave it to the reader to find out more. However, I do want to mention one that I found very interesting, regarding The Beatles and their first film role. I have added additional information to that covered in the book.

In 1964 A Hard Days Night was released and became an instant and major success, as did the accompanying soundtrack album and singles that were released.

However it could all have been so different. The Beatles were first offered a chance to appear in the 1963 film The Yellow Teddybears, a slice-of-life drama whose plot was described as... 'A clique of girls in an English school who wore small yellow teddy bears on their uniforms to signify that they were no longer virgins!' The leader of the girls, Linda, fears she might be pregnant by her boyfriend, with the name 'Kinky', a wannabe singer.

The movie, directed by Robert Hartford-Davis with a script by Donald Ford and Derek Ford, had a cast that included Jacqueline Ellis, Georgina Patterson, Annette Whiteley, Jill Adams and Iain Gregory.

In the movie The Beatles would be required to sing six songs, none of which would be written by them. It was also going to be released with an alternate, and less-appealing, title... Gutter Girls!

Manager Brian Epstein, and no doubt the band themselves, turned the offer down. Paul McCartney, in later interviews said, "We were excited but it turned out that the fella involved was going to write all the songs, and we couldn't have that." John Lennon also had a few words of his own, "We didn't even want to make a movie that was going to be bad, and we insisted on having a real writer to write it." Fortunately Alun Owen wrote a screenplay that did appeal to the band... A Hard Days Night and the rest, as they say, is history.

Taking a slight detour I wanted to mention a Hidden London Tour I went on a few years ago... Euston Underground - The Lost Tunnels. What has this to do with the book I hear you say. Well, the tour included walks along old running tunnels, passenger walkways and old lift shafts, all of which hadn't been accessed by passengers for many years.

One tunnel was a fascinating trip into the past with the walls covered in adverts and original movie posters from the 1950s and 1960s. One poster was for 1962's A Kind Of Loving and is shown above. There were many others advertising titles like West Side Story, Psycho and The Terror Of The Tongs, although none of these fall into the 'Kitchen Sink Drama' category. 

I really enjoyed this book and it bought back so many memories and has prompted me to add many of the films mentioned in the book to my Blu-Ray collection. I also learnt so much more about the films, directors, authors, artists, screenwriters and fascinating background to the making of the films, especially locations used.

If I had one minor complaint, and it takes nothing away from the text in the book, is the lack of illustrative material. Yes, there are a handful of great black & white, period photos but a book like this would have benefitted from more images including original posters, lobby cards, advertising material, cinema ads and publicity photos. I have included a collage of several of these above to help illustrate my review/article.

Despite the above comment, this book gets five-stars from me and is highly recommended... I'm now off to watch A Kind OF Loving.

OPERATION MARKET GARDEN

Back in July I went on my sixth Leger Battlefield Tour... Operation Market Garden, the September 1944 military operation aimed at securing a number of bridges in The Netherlands. I was accompanied by my good friend and fellow history enthusiast John Chisholm and in this article I look back at the tour, highlighting the various sites we visited along with a brief overview of what happened during those few days in September. I am also including some of the many photos I took during the tour. 

Operation Market Garden, which lasted nine days from 17th to the 25th September, was General Bernard Montgomery’s attempt to end the war before Christmas, by launching a ground offensive through The Netherlands into Germany with the route secured by Airborne forces.

Market was the Airborne side of the operation by the 101st and 82nd US Airborne Division and 1st British Airborne Division who would land by glider and parachute at various drop and landing zones, with the intention to secure the bridges along the route.

Garden was the ground offensive by the British XXX Corps who would advance across the bridges and over the Rhine. The main bridges were at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem with smaller bridges at Veghel and Grave.

Although most of the bridges were captured the plan eventually failed. The British 1st Airborne Division found itself embattled at Arnhem waiting for XXX Corps, a battle in which only 2,000 Airborne troops would escape out of 10,000.

An early start on Monday saw us travel to Stop 24 in Folkestone where we boarded our tour coach for the rest of the week. A pleasant crossing on the DFDS Ferry to Dunkirk was followed by the drive through the French and Belgian countryside to our hotel for the first night... The Crowne Plaza in Brussels. A lovely hotel and a chance to enjoy a couple of beers outside overlooking a lake before retiring for the night.

Leaving the hotel the next morning we headed out for the journey to our first stop, Joe's Bridge, located near the towns of Neerpelt and Lommel and a few miles from the Belgium-Netherlands border. On 17th September the British XXX Corps advanced from here and it marked the start of Operation Market Garden. However, the bridge did not fall without a fight. Bridge No. 9, as it was originally named, was a wooden structure that crossed the Bocholt-Herentals Canal and played an important role in the operation.

On 10th September it was captured by the Irish Guards in a surprise attack led by Lieutenant Colonel J. O. E. Vandeleur and forever after would be known as Joe's Bridge.

Despite several attempts by the Germans to retake the bridge it held, although there were many casualties, military and civilian. The Germans had mined most of the bridges in the area to prevent any chance of the opposing armies advancing into The Netherlands and then Germany. Fortunately they did not have the chance to blow up the bridge and engineers managed to remove all the explosives. A Bailey bridge was later put in place to allow more traffic to cross the canal.

During our visit we had the opportunity to view the bridge, which was rebuilt after the war, and the memorial to The Irish Guards which was located on the northern bank of the canal.

Operation Market Garden's planned corridor was a 62-mile route through Belgium and The Netherlands  to Arnhem where an Allied bridgehead over the Rhine would lead into Northern Germany. It would pass through Valkenswaard in Holland which was our next stop.

Just south of the town, in a pine forest, lies the Valkenswaard War Cemetery, a British cemetery established in 1945. There are 222 graves, many of whom were killed during the military operation. Like all Commonwealth War Grave Commission cemeteries it is peaceful and immaculately maintained.

We had time to walk around and read many of the inscriptions. I have been to many CWGC cemeteries over the years and never leave without feeling so grateful to all those who gave their lives for our freedom.

Heading north our journey continued towards Overloon but we had another cemetery visit on the way.

At Ysselsteyn, a village near Venray in the province of Limburg, is the only German War Cemetery in The Netherlands. Constructed in 1946 and covering almost 60 acres, the cemetery contains 87 First World War graves and almost 32,000 from the Second World War. Although the majority are German soldiers there are also graves of the SS, war criminals, Dutch collaborators and a number of civilians.

As you walk past the visitor centre and the vast number of graves come into view it becomes overwhelmingly sad. A powerful reminder of the human cost of war and the fact that so many young German soldiers also gave their lives in both wars.

We only had a short time there and managed to view a small selection of graves, many unmarked with the wording... 'Ein Deutscher Soldat (A German Soldier). One of the saddest visits of the whole tour.

At Overloon we visited the first of three museums on the tour. Opened in May 1946 the Overloon War Museum, also known as the Dutch National War and Resistance Museum, is the biggest in The Netherlands and contains an amazing collection of exhibits. It focuses on World War Two history and in particular The War in The Netherlands.

Among the many vehicles on display are a Panther Tank, a Soviet Union T-34, Sherman Tank, and two British tanks, the Churchill and Cromwell. There are also a number of aircraft, including an Airspeed Horsa Mk I glider, which played an important role in Operation Market Garden with over 900 deployed, a C-47 Dakota and a Spitfire. One of the highlights is the wreckage of a crashed Lancaster from 1945 whose more than 2000 pieces of wreckage, large and small, has been laid out in its correct position and makes for an impressive display. There are many more military vehicles to view, although there is so much more to the museum than the vehicles.

There are display cabinets full of weapons, shell cases, military uniforms, utensils, radar and radio equipment and other militaria. 

A number of reconstructions featuring troops, military vehicles, firearms and scenery give an idea of the fighting that took place during the war.

I have been to many military museums, not only during my Leger Battlefield Tours but also throughout England, and this was by far the most impressive.

Lunch was also provided at the museum where we were all shown into a room and served soup, rolls and drinks. A well deserved rest before we were back to the coach and our next stop.

Graves Bridge, which crossed the Maas-Waal Canal, was a crucial strategic point in Operation Market Garden as it provided a major crossing point for the British armoured vehicles moving north.

It was captured, intact, on 17th September by a small force led by Lieutenant John Thompson, assigned to the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division. In 2004 the bridge was renamed the John S. Thompson Bridge in his honour. The action at the bridge was considered to be one of the most successful of the operation.

There are also two pillboxes in the area. One painted black and white to help disguise its position in the woods and the second now houses a small museum, but unfortunately this was closed on the day we visited.

Our final stop of the day was in Nijmegen where the bridges, crucial objectives during the operation, were captured by the American 82nd Airborne Division to secure the 'Airborne Corridor' for the British XXX Corps who were advancing towards Arnhem. Both the road bridge (Waalbrug) and Nijmegen railway bridge were captured.

A daylight crossing of the Waal River on 20 September was a pivotal moment in the ground forces advance. Unfortunately, as mentioned later in this article, the operation ended in failure to capture the final bridge in Arnhem.

German reinforcements at Nijmegen resulted in delays to the allied plans and it took longer than planned to secure the route to Arnhem.

It was then off to Arnhem and our hotel, the Ibis Styles Arnhem Centrum, for the rest of the tour. Located just ten minutes from the centre of the town it was an ideal location to explore the area.

Before the tour I had been told about the Unibar and advised to go there for a drink. John and I decided to stop for a couple of pints before finding a local restaurant for dinner. 

Serving behind the bar was the lovely Hannah who served us drinks and even said she could order in pizza from a local restaurant for us to eat at the bar to save us moving on. We ended up spending an enjoyable evening there and thanks must go to Hannah for her hospitality. It was a lovely end to a busy but enjoyable day.

Following the long day, and evening, a good nights sleep was needed before an early start the next day.

Our third day started with the short drive to Heelsum where we stopped to view the Airborne Memorial. The first in the area to be erected by the locals to commemorate the Battle of Arnhem. Unveiled just one year after troops from the British 1st Airborne Division landed on the heath nearby.

The monument features a parachutist hanging from an arch crowned with helmets and guns. A canon sits underneath and is mounted on a foundation of containers and other material that was left behind after the landings. Originally located on one of the routes from the landing zone it was later moved to its current location.

Moving on to the story of the various landing and drop zones we headed to Wolfheze, north of Arnhem. There were three landing zones in the area and the locations were chosen due to the landscape, which was mainly meadow and ideal for gliders to land. The zones were labelled 'S', 'X' and 'Z' with another 'L' to the east of Wolfheze. It was Landing Zone 'S' that was our next stop.

Landing Zone 'S' was the landing site of the British 1st Airlanding Brigade, under the command of Brigadier R. H. W. Hicks, and involved the following units... 1st Border Regiment, 7th King's Own Scottish Borderers, 2nd South Staffords, 9th Field Company RE and 181st Airlanding Field Ambulance.

To commemorate the glider landings, which took place on 17 September, a memorial was erected next to the road depicting a Horsa glider making its final approach to the ground.

In 2022 a second memorial was placed in the field with a brief history of the events of 17th-26th September 1944 while the reverse features statements by the last remaining survivors of the glider regiment.

The actual field where the gliders landed is now known as Peter Colthup field, who was a veteran of the Glider Pilot Regiment.

Following the story of the landing zones we moved onto the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, close to the German border. The building is 12-metres high and shaped like a parachute and houses many artifacts that tell the fascinating story of War and Freedom Without Borders in the Netherlands and Germany.

The highlight of the museum was the 'Resurrection' exhibit which was designed by Fransje Povel-Speleers. This terra cotta display is of the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery and depicts the resurrection of the war victims who are buried there. Each statue is a unique human being with their own dreams and their own face.   

Due to a planned event, and major road closures and diversions in the area, there was a change to our planned itinerary. At first it seemed like we would not be able to visit the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery but thanks to the perseverance of our guide and drivers we still managed to visit all the sites that were scheduled on the tour, including the cemetery.

There are 2610 members of the Commonwealth armed forces killed during World War Two buried in the Canadian Cemetery, which is the largest Commonwealth War Cemetery in the Netherlands. With just one exception, all Canadians who lost their lives during Operation Veritable in February 1945, also known as the Battle of the Reichswald, are buried here. 

Many of the dead were taken here from Germany following the orders of General Crerar, commander of the Canadian forces in Europe, who said that no Canadian dead would be buried in German soil.

One of my favourite memorials of all those I have visited during my many battlefield tours is the Airborne Memorial at Ginkel Heath (Ginkelse Heide). It was here, on 17th September, that more than 2,000 allied paratroopers landed.

Known as the 'Windows of the Past, the memorial was unveiled at a ceremony in September 2019, 75 years after the 4th Parachute Brigade had landed there. The memorial depicts an airborne landing and around the base are a number of plaques telling the story of the Battle of Arnhem.

Close by is the Airborne Monument, a concrete pillar with a copper eagle at the top with its wings spread. There are three copper symbols on the pillar, a winged parachute wearing a crown, the emblem of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and an image of a purple Pegasus .

Our final two stops of the day were both memorials located in wooded areas on Sportlaan. The first was the memorial to the 10th Battalion Parachute Regiment and marks the spot they reached on 19 September 1944 before having to retreat. The inscription on the memorial reads, 'Where once there was war, peace now reigns supreme.'

On our journey back to the hotel we made our final stop at Hackett's Hollow. This was where, on 20 September 1944, Brigadier J. W. Hackett, commander of the 4th Parachute Infantry Brigade, took command of 150 men from the 156th Battalion Parachute Regiment and ordered them into a charge into the woods.

They were pinned down in a hollow by the road for over eight hours and fought off heavy German attacks. In the thick of the fighting, Hackett led a bayonet charge and the survivors escaped from the hollow and took their positions on the eastern flank of the Oosterbeek Perimeter. The perimeter was the defensive line formed by the British and Polish airborne troops where they retreated when surrounded by German troops. 

A refreshing pint on the rooftop bar at the hotel, with its impressive views over Arnhem, bought a long day to a close.

Day four of our tour took us first to the Old Church in Oosterbeek. The church, a 10th-century structure, played a vital role in the battle and was one of the last bastions for the British and Polish airborne troops before their retreat across the Rhine. The church was left in ruins after the war, but has since been restored, although there are still signs of the past with bullet holes visible on the church walls. 

A memorial was erected outside the church with the wording, 'In September 1944 British Airborne soldiers and their Polish comrades with the support of brave Dutch men and women fought a grim battle around this ancient Church in the struggle to liberate the Netherlands from Nazi tyranny. This stone commemorates all who took part in this action, and above all, those who died. Not one shall be forgotten.'

Behind the church, and just visible through the trees, is The White House, which served as a rectory and was the home of Jan and Kate ter Horst. It became a refuge for the increasing number of wounded troops and despite having five children of her own to care for, Kate assisted doctors and comforted those who were dying. The wounded and dying troops named her the 'Angel of Arnhem'.

The church also became the starting point of the evacuation and troops gathered there before moving south across the floodplains towards the southern edge of Oosterbeek and The Rhine. There they were transported by boat across the river. The evacuation was codenamed 'Operation Berlin' and took place during the night of 25th-26th September. The route across the floodplains was marked as the 'White Ribbon Mile' and a memorial is located at the point where the troops boarded the boats. We had a chance to walk a small section of the path and to see the view across to the river. 

The former St Elizabeth's Hospital, now an apartment block, was the next place we visited. During Operation Market Garden, Dutch, British and German doctors helped the wounded of not only British and Dutch casualties but also German. This was despite the hospital being right in the front line and while war raged outside, inside they continued to save lives.

It was a medical unit of the 1st Airborne Division, the 16th Parachute Field Ambulance, who went to the building on 17 September to care for the wounded of the 1st Parachute Brigade. When they arrived they found a German medical unit caring for wounded of both sides and although the British took over the hospital they allowed the Germans to remain and in the days that followed they all worked together.

It is an impressive building and as it was now housing we couldn't go inside but looking at the building it was not hard to imagine what it looked like inside and also during the war. 

Just around the corner we learnt the story of Major-General Roy Urquhart. Having had no information on the progress of his battalion he decide to go and take a look himself. Along with Lieutenant Jimmy Cleminson, Captain Willie Taylor and Brigadier Lathbury, they found themselves surrounded by German troops. Lathbury was shot in the back and they left him in a house and all three went down an alley behind the houses and on to Zwarteweg Road where they ended up hiding in another house.

The house was owned by the Derksen family and Anton Derksen hid them in their attic where they stayed for 24-hours before being rescued by British troops. The property is now called 'Urquhart House.'

They were told there were German's everywhere and Urquhart would later say, "At the moment we still expected the Germans to storm in at any moment. But everything remained quiet." Getting out of the house seemed impossible as right outside was a German gun and a group of soldiers.

Frustrated he could no longer influence the course of the battle the time went really slow. Eventually they managed to escape and Urquhart chartered a jeep and headed back to Hartenstein Hotel, where he had set up his headquarters, to take command again of his airborne division.

We had the chance to see the house where they left Lathbury, the passage way and the Urquhart House, all of which were within a few yards of each other.

It was then back to Arnhem city centre and the story of the John Frost Bridge... which came to be known as 'A Bridge Too Far' in military history and on film.

The Rijnbrug (Rhine Bridge) was the last bridge that needed to be captured during Operation Market Garden. Once captured the route into Germany would lay open. 

It was the task of the British 1st Airborne Division to capture and hold the bridge until the ground troops, the British XXX Corps, could relieve them. With the drop zones a considerable distance away from their ultimate target and German resistance much stronger than anticipated it was only the 2nd Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Frost that reached the bridge. 

To make matters worse, XXX Corps were making slow progress and unable to reach the British forces in and around Arnhem.

Frost's men managed to capture the northern end of the bridge but soon found themselves surrounded. With only just over 700 men and facing two Panzer Divisions, they did manage to secure the bridge for three days and four nights before surrendering.

They had attempted to take the southern end by using a flamethrower to destroy the German positions but accidently ignited an ammunition store, which resulted in the fresh paint on the bridge catching fire. With the whole area illuminated they had to abandon their attempt.

During the fighting Frost was wounded and captured. In 1978 the bridge was renamed the John Frost Bridge in honour of his bravery and leadership.

The bridge was bombed in October 1944 and rebuilt in 1978 to its original design. The majority of the surrounding area has been rebuilt although there are still parts of the original area around the bridge still standing. The concrete steps leading up to the road and the metal railings are still intact. There is also a plaque on the bridge, bullet holes and damage to the metalwork and brickwork that can still be seen.

I have already mentioned the story of Major-General Roy Urquhart and his return to his headquarters at the Hartenstein Hotel which was the next stop on our tour.

Our final museum, The Airborne Museum, was housed in what was the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek, and during Operation Market Garden it was the headquarters of the British 1st Airborne Division's Major General Roy Urquhart.

After the failure of the operation the property was left in ruin. However, shortly after the end of the war plans were made to open a museum to commemorate the battle. Originally Doorwerth Castle, near the Rhine, was chosen to be the site and it soon became clear it could not house the vast collection and so Hartenstein, functioning as a hotel again after the war ended, was chosen as an ideal location for a museum. It was opened in May 1978 by Urquhart.

It is an impressive structure in beautiful grounds which was also home to many deer and after visiting the museum we walked over to see them.

The museum houses an extensive and diverse collection of weaponry, uniforms and other military equipment.

The highlight of the visit was the 'Airborne Experience' which took over the new basement which was added to the property in 2008. The experience started with you seated in a mock-up of the inside of a glider, with the feelings of taking off and landing after which you entered the main part of the display, a number of dioramas of the battle. These were well laid out and very effective with the flashing lights and sounds of battle as you walked around.

The display was awarded the Gouden Reiger (The Golden Heron), a Dutch award in the category 'three-dimensional media interaction.'

Every year Hartenstein is involved in various commemorations of the Battle of Arnhem.

Our final cemetery visit was to the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery. Established in 1945 and the resting place of 1,764 men, most of whom lost their lives during the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 or the liberation of the city the following year.

At other cemeteries John and I have visited over the past couple of years we have picked a random grave to leave a cross in remembrance of all those buried there. At the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery the grave we chose was that of WO11 (CSM) W. W. Scott (4342669) of the Parachute Regiment, Army Air Corps who died sometime between 21st and 25th September aged just 29. The personal message on the grave reads, 'Sadly missed by his loving wife Ruby and darling daughter Joan. At rest.'

During Operation Market Garden there were five VC's awarded and one of those was a posthumous award to Flight Lieutenant D. S. A. Lord VC, DFC a pilot in the Royal Air Force. On 19th September Lord was flying his Douglas Dakota in an attempt to drop supplies to the British 1st Airborne Division who were in desperate need of supplies. He encountered fierce anti-aircraft fire and was hit twice and realising one of his wings might collapse any minute he made one final drop and then ordered his crew to bale out. Seconds later the Dakota crashed in flames with its pilot and six crew members. Navigator Harold King was the only survivor. The rest of Lord's crew are also buried alongside him at the cemetery.

Earlier I wrote about the 'Angel of Arnhem', Kate ter Host and during our visit to the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery we took the opportunity to cross the road and visit the Algemene Begraafplaats Zuid Cemetery. After a long search we came across her grave. In 1980 the British Ambassador to the Netherlands decorated both Kate and her husband as Honorary Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  Kate died in February 1992 after being struck by a car outside her home.

The British & Canadian Sappers Memorial in Driel was the final location we visited during our tour. The memorial commemorates the evacuation of the survivors of the British 1st Airborne Division from Oosterbeek. Taking place on the evening and night of 25th and 26th September, boats were used to make dozens of trips to evacuate troops from the north side of the river. Across the river we could see the church where we had been earlier in the day.

A black marble panel on the memorial has the wording, '...they were just whispers and shadows in the night...'

As we arrived back at our hotel we were told that we had to be on the coach by 5am for our journey home! Although an early night was necessary John and I decided that we couldn't say goodbye to Arnhem without another visit to the Unibar.

Once again we were met by the lovely Hannah and enjoyed a couple of drinks and pleasant conversation with the other patrons before saying our farewells and finally calling it a day.

Operation Market Garden was another informative and enjoyable tour that I am pleased I went on.

This article only gives a brief overview of Operation Market Garden and there are plenty of resources available, printed and on-line, for those who would like a more detailed look at this important Second World War operation.

Thanks to John Chisholm for his company and Sue and Paul who we met on the trip and enjoyed a few laughs together along the way.

Last, but by no means least, thanks go to our knowledgeable tour guide Scott Brady and our excellent drivers Steve and Glenn who all did an amazing job.

I have already booked my next tour which will see me returning, with John, to The Western Front and various World War One sites on the All Quiet On The Western Front tour.