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(SECOND WORLD WAR)

1st Airborne Division … September 1944. Arnhem…

“There can be few episodes more glorious than the epic of Arnhem, and those that follow after will find it hard to live up to the standards that you have set… in years to come it will be a great thing for a man to be able to say: ‘I fought at Arnhem’” (From Montgomery’s message of congratulation to Maj.-Gen.Urquhart, commander of the 1st Airborne. Evidently production of this unusual “souvenir” was overtaken by events, after initial successes Operation Market Garden stalled and at Arnhem the British 1st Airborne Division encountered far stronger resistance than had been anticipated. In the ensuing battle a small force managed to hold one end of the Arnhem road bridge, but after the ground forces failed to relieve them they were overrun on the 21st November. The rest of the division, trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge, had to be evacuated on the 25th. The Allies failed to cross the Rhine, which remained a barrier to their advance until the offensives at Remagen, Oppenheim, Rees and Wesel in March 1945. Images include mortars in action, house clearing operations, aerial views - “low oblique air photos … taken a week before [the] operation … flown in the face of heavy flak, they are some of the most remarkable operational photographs yet seen.” - POWs, casualites, glider landings, graphic images of the corpses of General-Major Kussin and his staff, and even a page, “Recording History,” of members of the photographic unit themselves. The three men in the unit were Sergeant Dennis M Smith, Sergeant Gordon Walker and Sergeant C Michael Lewis. This copy of Arnhem belonged to Oliver Frazer MBE who served in the Glider Pilot Regiment in the operations of D-Day, and at Arnhem. Extremely uncommon, we have not been able to trace another copy.

Folio (380 × 300 mm) Original photographic card wraps, spiral bound. Photographic reproduction of Monrty’s congratulatory message to Major-Gen. Urquhart, followed by similar map of the glider landing pattern for Operation “Market” with a “Secret” back stamp, and 34 photographically reproduced plates. Two press photographs - Horsa gliders coming into land, and evacuated airborne troops enjoying their first drink in Nijmegen - with printed captions verso. Wraps a little rubbed, particularly at the margins, plastic spiral binder damaged with leaves consequently coming loose, but overall very good.