D-Day veteran, 100, 'overwhelmed' at Arnhem tribute

A 100-year-old D-Day veteran has said it was "overwhelming" to attend a commemoration ceremony honouring fallen soldiers in Arnhem in the Netherlands.

Arnold Walton, from Rotherham, was guest of honour during the ceremony at the weekend, when he paid tribute to friends killed in action.

Organisers asked him to be present after they learned he was one of the last surviving Polar Bears - a nickname for soldiers from the British 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division who freed Arnhem in April 1945.

He said: "I want to thank all the people that helped me get here today. Without them I wouldn't be here."

Arnold was able to visit the graves of two friends - Stanley Antcliffe and George Alfred Yorke - at Arnhem's Oosterbeek War Cemetery.

They were 21 and 18 respectively when they died.

Arnold said: "It was emotional because they were the last two lads in my squad that [had] come through the ranks with me, all the way through from D-Day onwards.

"They'd been with me all that time and to say I've lost them. What can you say?"

"It was so peaceful, the birds were singing. And as I looked down at the head stone, I could see my mates, literally."

It was a poignant moment, not only for Arnold but for those who witnessed his emotions as he choked up while speaking about his fallen comrades.

Arnold's invitation to the Netherlands and the events of the weekend were organised by Maikel and Amanda Slotboom, who run the group Forgotten Liberation of Arnhem.

They were surprised to find that while commemorations were held regularly for 1944's Operation Market Garden in Arnhem, on which the film A Bridge Too Far was based, there was no event to mark Operation Anger in 1945, which finally liberated the city.

The Slotbooms, with the help of the local mayor, held an event last year for the 80th anniversary but they were unaware there were any surviving soldiers from that action.

Then Maikel Slotboom came across Arnold's story after an appeal for 1,000 cards for the veteran's 100th birthday, and recognised the cap badge for the Hallamshire Regiment in a photograph taken of him in 1945.

He said Arnold and his fellow soldiers needed to be remembered.

"It wasn't just walking in, taking this city," he said.

"It took more than 60 Allied lives, and having not been any commemorations, these chaps were forgotten about as well."

The Forgotten Liberation of Arnhem group launched a fundraiser which allowed Arnold to make this trip, accompanied by his neighbour, Tracy Richardson, who first made the appeal for birthday cards.

During the weekend, Arnold was guest of honour at a remembrance event at Arnhem's town hall, attended by Keith Allan, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in the Netherlands, Jens-Volker Ginschel, attache with the German Embassy in the Hague as well as representatives from the Royal British Legion and the York and Lancaster Regiment - Hallamshire Battalion.

He was also taken to the house of the Van der Waal family in Ede where he had been billeted as a young soldier, sleeping on their kitchen floor.

Martin Kapper, grandson of the woman who lived in the house at the time, said: "He stayed with my grandparents in their house and with my mother and my aunt Eve.

"My mother, he called Binky.

"What I heard from him is that he called them his parents abroad because when he stayed there he got a warm welcome."

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