Today, 3rd September marks the 80th anniversary of the declaration of war by Britain and France.
2 days earlier Germany invaded Poland.
An estimated 70 - 85 million people died. approximately 3% of the world's population at the time.
It would be another 5 years until Europe was liberated.

Bless those who perished and those who have lived there time in the war every day since

Too many innocent victims on both sides

But maybe Hitler was underestimated. Didn't they give Czechoslowakia to him, trying to appease him?

There were a lot of deals being done that were never intended to be honoured by Hitler.
Same as the deals done at the end with Russia. Churchill did warn them but he was brushed aside. bring on the cold war!

In 1939 already? Wow...

Bless everyone who fought for our freedom, and everyone who perished during that horrible war.
May it and they always be remembered and honoured, not to hate or fear, but to bear the lesson in mind and to make sure such a thing never ever happens again.

Those figures larsi are from both sides and the innocent people caught up in it.

I know those figures. For me, there is no winners in a war.

Larsi

Crystal, 75 years on the 19th that started the liberation of the Netherlands

Yes, I saw it actually started on the 12th in Limburg (the 'leg' that sticks out in our southeast corner) and then moved upward from there.

Are there extra festivities cos it's 75 yr anniversary?

Yes, I think they start on the 16th. The schools play a big part with music and other displays.
I'll try find a link but if you search arhnem celebrations it should come up.

Okay, will do. Would make sense as 75 is a special number in a way, right.
But that means your trip is quickly approaching now!

Fly on the 19th. Every hotel, air bnb, guest house was booked in the city well before Christmas gone!

https://www.airborne-herdenkingen.nl/en/airborne-program-2019/

this should get you there crystal

My dad's half-brother Michael was one of the paratroopers dropped over Arnem. He was one of the 'lucky' ones in that he was captured and spent the remainder of the war in a prison camp.

Have you been seamus? My grandfather's brother was a glider pilot. I never met him.

I'm afraid not. My eldest brother goes to these things all the time though.

I'll look at it.
Typical that apparently the battle in/around Arnhem & Nijmegen caused an awful lot of death and problems for allied forces here during the Battle of the Scheldt...
It was horrible, took 5 weeks at least, and had to be done as the allied forces needed the harbour of Antwerp to stock up again.

"The Battle of the Scheldt has been described by historians as unnecessarily difficult, as it could have been cleared earlier and more easily had the Allies given it a higher priority than Operation Market Garden. American historian Charles B. MacDonald called the failure to immediately take the Scheldt "[o]ne of the greatest tactical mistakes of the war."[91] Because of the flawed strategic choices made by the Allies in early September 1944, the battle became one of the longest and bloodiest that the Canadian army faced over the course of the Second World War."


I remember some 8 years ago when they were building the tracks for that high speed train and a motorway section, all works had to be stopped as they'd found mines from WW2. Roadworks were stopped for a few years I believe. Took forever. Go figure how much they put in the ground...

Yes, it was bloody, the British got stuck and had to pull back across the river as the American advance from nijmegen had stalled.

No, that quote and what I was talking about, the Battle of the Scheldt, was here, 40 kms south of me.
The Germans held the coastline of the Scheldt on both north & south side of it which blocked access of the allied forces to Antwerp harbour. That access was imperative to get fresh supplies to the allied.
They could've taken it easily, but someone, I believe Montgomery, prioritized the Arnhem & Nijmegen area. By the time that was done they couldn't just take the areas around the Scheldt anymore as the Germans had nested themselves with very heavy artillery and plenty of ammo.
Many, many, died. They even had to flood on of the islands (breaking the dykes in 3 places) to get the Germans out of their bunkers along the coastline. They had to bomb the dykes to do that, and almost 200 civilians were killed.
If they'd taken that area right away, it wouldn't have cost all that many lives and probably barely have delayed the Arnhem & Nijmegen battle.
That's what that McDonald called "one of the biggest strategic mistakes of WW2."

Peculiar that indirectly these two events & places are connected.
..
.

Yes, I understand that it was some fierce fighting, with lots of casualties.

Yes, I understand that it was some fierce fighting, with lots of casualties.