Description

‘THE LAST DROP OF THE TENTH’ Ginkel Heath, September 18^th 1944

This is the latest and final picture created by and donated to FoTT by Derek Chambers FRSA 

An artist hand-signed and numbered limited print edition of 80 studio quality, fine art giclée prints on Hahnnemuhle 310gsm paper. Overall size 50cm (20 inches) x 60cm (24 inches).

Each print will come with a numbered and signed copyright certificate of authenticity

£150 inc P&P (UK only)

Packaged in a robust cardboard tube and mailed by ‘Royal Mail track & trace – next day delivery’ (UK)

£175 inc P&P to all non-UK destinations (overseas)

Packaged in a robust cardboard tube and mailed by Royal Mail ‘International Tracked & Signed Heavier’

 

Kindly donated to Friends of The Tenth charity by the artist to commemorate the 80th

Anniversary of the parachute drop by the 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment into

the Battle of Arnhem.

 

‘The Last Drop of The Tenth’ Ginkel Heath, September 1944

At 15.10hrs on Monday 18th September 1944, and as part of the second lift of Operation

‘Market Garden’, 33 C47 Dakota aircraft of the USAAF 315th Troop Carrier Group

dropped 582 men of the 10th Battalion onto Ginkel Heath as part of the landings of

nearly 2000 men from the 4th Parachute Brigade. They had taken off from RAF Spanhoe

in Northamptonshire around three hours earlier.

Approaching the three main rivers of southern Holland – the Maas, Wall and the Rhine

– they encountered a good deal of flak during their final approach towards the drop zone

with two of the battalion’s aircraft being downed south of the Rhine. Quartermaster, Lt

‘Pat’ Glover described the flak as ‘being similar to someone battering the aircraft with

a sledgehammer’.

Unlike, Sunday, during the First Lift, when the paratroopers dropped unopposed, on this

day, the enemy was waiting and prepared for the men of the Tenth – indeed below the

feet of the descending paratroopers, a battle was raging, and parts of the drop zone were

already ablaze, caused by exploding mortar bombs and tracer rounds.

Derek’s painting depicts the scene perfectly. Clearly visible is the chalky track of Wijde

Feldweg bordering the eastern end of the drop-zone with the billowing smoke from the

burning heather and gorse drifting slowly westwards across Ginkel Heide.

If you look closely, you can even see ‘Myrtle the Parachick’ peeking out from her small

jump-pouch carried on Pat Glover’s back as he exits the aircraft! The plane from which

he is jumping is the C47 Tail No 316023 flown by Capt Paul Melucas of the 315th US

Troop Carrier Group.

Synopsis by Grahame Warner, historian of The Tenth