Arnhem Battlefield tour. The Oosterbeek Perimeter 1944
Bit of a coincidence. Walked into the Airborne museum at Hotel Hartenstein and came upon an exhibit of a piece of wallpaper with some graffiti on it taken from a house at 34 Pietersburgseweg which had been defended by two British members of the 21st Independent Parachute Brigade. One of which was named in the exhibit as my great Uncle Fred Hocking and his mate Tony Crane. The graffiti reads (excuse the language) "Never Surrender. F**k the Gerrys. 1st Airborne Division. Germans Killed or wounded" and then a tally of over five days as they defended the house from attack. On the 25th they made it down to the river and crossed under fire. The picture above is myself with a photograph of him next to the graffiti, the video interview with Tony Crane, and then myself outside the house which they defended during that time in September 1944.
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ReplyDeleteHi - Hey I found your blog because I am speaking about this piece of wallpaper in my graduate seminar about war and material culture. I was wondering if your great uncle said he remembered writing this on the wall paper or was he so busy that it was forgotten. Do you know how it got into the museum? Anything else about it that you can remember him saying? Thanks so much, Heather
ReplyDeleteheathersmithportrowan at gmail.com