HUNDREDS of Colchester paratroopers will drop into Arnhem, in the Netherlands, to mark one of their earliest operations.
This weekend marks the 65th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, one of the most controversial military operations of the Second World War.
The commemoration will take place at Arnhem, and will see more than 500 British soldiers from the Parachute Regiment jump into the Drop Zone.
Among them will be 250 soldiers from Colchester’s 2nd Batallion.
They will jump alongside 90 soldiers from America, 300 from the Netherlands and an unknown number from France and Belgium. The men and women will jump from 12 C130 Hercules aircraft and the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s DC3 Dakota.
Veterans from all of the Allied countries involved in the operation will then join residents of Arnhem in a series of special services of remembrance.
Operation Market Garden was one of the most controversial Allied operations of the war, and was portrayed in the film A Bridge Too Far.
In an attempt to end the war in Europe by Christmas 1944, the Allied forces aimed to capture the Ruhr, the German industrial heartland, in a special operation between September 17 and 25.
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