On a wonderfully warm day and evening our event on September 17th to mark the 80th anniversary Arnhem operations from TR was a great success. Throughout the day a 1990s army radio truck run by the Royal Signals Museum amateur radio society transmitted using their special call sign GB80OMG while in the evening an ex-RAF land rover and two wartime jeeps rolled in through the main gate to the airfield to recreate the sort of vehicles used back in September 1944. Then at 6pm we held a short Talk and Talk to recount the events of September 17th 1944 as we headed up to the end of the main runway to listen to one of the wartime pilots recount his story, made during an interview back in 1992.
Finally our chair Anne Gardner led a moving short service of remembrance with readings and the enigmatic bugle of Marcus Adams resonating off the front of Hangar 1.
Everyone there felt the mood of the evening reflected the events we were remembering with suitable honour, the sort of event we wish to hold to mark events during the years ahead.
Martin Simonsohn at the transmitting console of his radio truck sending out calls to fellow radio enthusiasts across Europe. Using the special call sign GB80OMG ( for Operation Market Garden!) Martin made some 270 contacts during the day despite some challenging early morning disruption caused by solar flare activity on the Ionosphere, the layer of the atmosphere that enables short wave radio signals to be “bounced” across our globe. Our furthest contact was to former Yugoslavia, our nearest Sturminster Marshal just over the horizon who could probably hear the Last Post played later in the evening!
Starting from the memorial with a brief introduction to how Operation Market came into being the group moved out onto the perimeter track with Badbury Rings looking on just as it did back in 1944. We headed up to the end of the main runway where we heard a short recording of Halifax pilot GH ‘Buster’ Briggs recounting his flights to Arnhem before returning to the memorial for the service of remembrance.
As ever, thanks to Andrew P.M. Wright for some wonderful images that captured the mood of the day.