ABSTRACT
The people of southern Holland had followed the events in France and Belgium over the past few weeks closely. Details broadcast by the BBC of the rapid advance of 200 miles from the Seine to Belgium's frontier with Holland had spread like wildfire, and there had been the visual evidence of a stream of tired and dispirited German soldiers arriving from the south. The bombings in the Arnhem area made a deep impression on the memories of the local people. Except for a few minutes in February 1944, when an American formation mistakenly dropped its bombs on the edge of Arnhem, no part of the whole area had ever been subjected to bombing or shelling during the war. From the diary kindly provided by Father Bruggeman and translated by Adrian Groeneweg of the Airborne Museum at Oosterbeek. Maastricht, in the extreme south of Holland, had actually been liberated by American troops.
