THE 80^th COMMEMORATION OF

THE BATTLE OF ARNHEM

SOMERBY & BURROUGH ON THE HILL, LEICESTERSHIRE

SEPTEMBER 2024

Friday 6^th 7.00pm – All Saints Church, Somerby

7.00pm…… ‘Flying Foxhunters’ – an illustrated talk about Planes, Pilots and Paras from around Somerby by Jeremy Heygate. Tickets £10

Saturday 7^th 10.00am – Somerby Memorial Hall

10.00am……The Memorial Hall opens for refreshments

11.30am……Mrs. Davina Bates talks about her time in the village during World War 2 and launches the re-printed book ‘Somerby Remembered’

The film of the 70^th Somerby Commemoration will be showing

Saturday 7^th 2.00pm – The 10^th Battalion Memorial,

Burrough on the Hill

2.00pm……The marquee at the GBLC opens. Refreshments include a hog roast, licenced bar, tea, coffee and cakes

3.00pm……Grahame Warner introduces and will sign his book ‘Arnhem: Eight Days to Oblivion’

5.00pm……March down to the Memorial (Berets & Medals), for the Annual ‘At the Going Down of the Sun’ Service of Remembrance, wreath laying and unveiling of a new Memorial to the USAAF 315TCG at the 10^th Battalion Memorial

6.00pm……Food and drinks in the marquee still available and entertainment by the ‘Lahdidah’s’.

8.30pm……Close.

Sunday 8^th September – Somerby village

The Annual Arnhem Parade and Service

10.15am……The parade forms up

10.30am……The parade moves off

11.00am……The Remembrance Service in All Saints Church followed by the Salute

Refreshments served in the Memorial Hall after the Service

‘Arnhem: Eight Days to Oblivion’

We are delighted to announce the publication of Grahame Warner’s History of The 10th Battalion. An A4 sized hardback, bound in black ‘Wibalin© Buckram’ cloth with silver blocked titles and featuring the ww2 Parachute Regiment cap badge. Four hundred full colour pages, including 300 illustrations, plus over 50 maps and graphics, printed on 130gsm silk paper. Dust jacket designed by and based on an original oil painting on board, specially commissioned from Derek Chambers FRSA.

Dimensions A4 – 297mm x 210mm x 28mm, weight 1665gm.

Published by Friends of The Tenth. ISBN: 978-1-3999-2612-6.

A Sad Glory

This is the very human story of a disparate group of battle-hardened volunteers brought together in the withering heat and sun-baked deserts of North Africa in 1942 and forged into a fledgling parachute battalion.

Moving, sometimes humorous, it follows them from Egypt through the 1943 invasion of Italy and their nine months back home in England to their last stand at the battle of Arnhem in September 1944, where their battalion was destroyed.

Of the 604 men dropped into action at Arnhem, just thirty-seven reached Allied lines in the immediate aftermath of the battle. Ninety-nine lost their lives, 405 were wounded or captured, and the rest were hidden by the local Dutch people.

The Tenth had been destroyed in just eight days of ferocious combat.

A Veteran’s Opinion:

Victor Gregg – The Tenth’s Last Man Standing:

“I have just finished my second reading of Arnhem: Eight Days to Oblivion. I sit and wonder at the number of hours Grahame Warner must have spent collecting and distilling all this information. As an author myself, I give him full praise. He’s managed to make a very readable account out of a scenario that was utter chaos from start to finish. Most of all, he has captured the spirit of those who were involved, despite the realisation, from late on Tuesday, that we were all on a loser.”

Friends of The Tenth Padre, the Reverend Brian McAvoy says:

“Grahame, you’re a great storyteller and you made all the characters real and alive at every stage of the whole tragic event. Those personal accounts are what made the difference between just another historical document and being directly involved with the events as they happened. All the feelings experienced by everyone involved are shared by the reader, the excitement, the fear (those who show the greatest courage usually experience the greatest fear but do what they must do despite it!), the humour and above all the bonds of this band of brothers.

The “Oblivion ” of your title was only a physical one, the spirit of the 10th is built on and continues to thrive because it was conceived and born in such a crucible. I’m very proud and grateful to be a small bit player in the whole story.

You’ve brought together a huge and valuable collection of experiences and I have to congratulate you. I don’t know how you’ve done it but I suspect that your innate respect and admiration for everyone involved from all backgrounds ensured that. Your players are from all sides and the stresses and the fog of war come across vividly to your reader. The inevitable statistics, maps, lists and photos are all presented with a purpose and I was never bored.

If I picked up “8 Days….” and began to read I’d be hooked and I’d have to have it. Knowing the local and regional part of The Netherlands and Dutch people as I do made it all the more interesting but it’s a pretty gripping read anyway! Thanks for sharing it with me. I’m looking forward to the finished article!”

ONLY AVAILABLE DIRECTLY FROM the Friends of The Tenth website shop