What was it like for a 17-year-old girl trying to survive the Battle of Arnhem?

In her diary, Anje van Maanen describes what she and her family went through during the fierce lighting that took place around their home at Pietersbergseweg in Oosterbeek and later during their stay at the Tafelberg field hospital, where her father, a doctor, cared for casualties.

The exhilaration of imminent liberation that followed the arrival of the “Airbornes” was quickly replaced by fear. The village was...

During the Battle of Arnhem Kate ter Horst-Arriëns lives with her family in the old vicarage next to the Old Church in Oosterbeek, the village where the battle is finally decided. There she and her husband are asked by the British to open their house as a first-aid post after the airborne landings on 17 September 1944. They agree, but the rapid victory that had been hoped for, fails to materialise and soon all rooms are crammed with wounded. Kate ter Horst is doing her utmost to help the oft...

During the Battle of Arnhem, Hotel Schoonoord in Oosterbeek, the parental home of primary school teacher Hendrika (Riek) van der Vlist, finds itself in the front line. The British take over the hotel as a field hospital. Together with other volunteers Riek helps hundreds of wounded British, Polish and German soldiers. Even when Schoonoord falls into German hands she continues to care for the wounded.

When the Airbornes are transported from Schoonoord by the Germans, Hendrika goes with them to...