My name is Des Page, Desmond of course, but i prefer Des.
I was a fully operational glider pilot two months
before D-day. Arnhem came up about six
months later. I was on it.
(Radio announcer voice): He puts on his parachute, slips on his harness, while other soldiers from the sky go to their waiting gliders.
We took off on the second day, jeep, trailer and motorbike.
(Radio announcer voice): Passing over the coast only a short stretch of water now lies between them and the continent.
About 3 and a half hours later made
landing in Arnhem field, landing zone Z. While we unloaded my co-pilot poked
his head through and said "give me my rifle Des." He said "we're being fired
at." Well that was a bit unsporting, I
wasn't expecting this. Having unloaded we
weren't hit at all, I joined up with the ret of the squadron. It had
all gone wrong, they were in trouble at the
bridge, as was far more men against us
than was supposed to be. We were
totally outgunned, outnumbered out everything.
I'm very fortunate because I've been going back to the battle of Arnham now for 58 years.
This year of course is the really
big one. I think Heroes Return is a great
cause some probably who couldn't afford
to go back, but it's benefiting people
who haven't been back still. What happens at about 10 o'clock you can hear children's
voices, the school children, they're being
lined up eight outside the cemetery.
They've all got flowers. At 11 o'clock
usually a woman will tend to wave flowers in
the air, bend down, and lay them by the grave, headstone and whisper the man's name.
There's nearly 2,000 graves. If you
don't cry then, you never will. But the
Not so macho are we? There must be a lot of people that haven't been back to their
old battle zones and that. A bit proud that they can't really afford it.
If that's the reason then the back up of Heroes Return will help you.
If you're not going back because you,
you're one of those chaps "oh let's
forget the war." Don't do that lads, go
back, you'll be surprised and don't
forget we're all getting pretty old, so
don't leave it too long.
