#Arnhem76
Day 6.
Friday 22nd September 1944.
Today we are looking at the south sector of the defensive perimeter based (circled in the map) around the Old Church in Oosterbeek on Benedendorpsweg.

It was around the Church that the 75mm Howitzers of the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment Royal Artillery were located. Often overlooked is the fact they had been firing in support of John Frost’s force at the Arnhem Road Bridge. They had more to bring up than just the PIAT..

The positions of the Gun Batteries around the church (circled) can be seen here in this brilliantly annotated aerial reconnaissance photo. The image comes from a superb book, ‘Target Mike One’, an illustrated history of the Regiment. It’s a book I’d strongly recommend.

Arguably the best-known photo of the Gunners at Arnhem is this one of No.1 Gun from D Troop. The above aerial image allows you to place exactly where it was.

A detail to note in this close up of the aerial image. Circled just to the west of the church is the home of Jan and Kate ter Horst. During the fighting it was used as the Regimental Aid Post of the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment Royal Artillery.

The Regimental Medical Officer in command at the RAP was Captain Randall Martin. His right-hand man was Bombardier Ernest ‘Scan’ Bolden (pictured). Also at the RAP was two Chaplains, Selwyn Thorne of the Light Regiment & Robert Talbot Watkins of the 1st Parachute Battalion.

This brings us to events on this day, 22 September. The men defending the Perimeter around the church were being hard pressed by determined German attacks when a German Tank fired a shot straight through the House despite the clear presence of the red cross outside.

This enraged Scan Bolden who picked up a red cross flag (the cross on which was reportedly painted using blood) and went outside waving it furiously accompanied by Chaplain Thorne (pictured in the centre, back row) in the direction of the Tank.

The Chaplain of the 1st Battalion, Robert Talbot Watkins (pictured) stated that Bolden was shaking the flag and gave to the German Tank Crew ‘the most comprehensive display of East London Invective that he had ever heard'.

A German officer then arrived during the momentary ceasefire and said that the house would be spared if a machine gun that was firing from the house was removed. Talbot Watkins and Kate ter Horst always denied there was a machine gun in the house although Thorne was not so sure.

The Tank retired and the firing resumed. The Ter Horst house continued to be used until the end as a Regimental Aid Post. This is the house after the battle.

It is sobering to think that by the end of the fighting 57 men had been buried in the back garden of the house.

Chaplain Talbot Watkins was one of those evacuated across the Rhine on the night of 25/26 September. He was later awarded the Military Cross.
https://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/robert_talbot_watkins.htm

Along with Chaplain Thorne, Captain Randall Martin and Scan Bolden stayed behind and were taken POW. Martin and Bolden weren’t to be reunited until the 40th anniversary in Oosterbeek in 1985. Scan Bolden died just a few months later in March 1986.

To end this thread. Kate ter Horst in 'Theirs is the Glory' reading the 91st Psalm to the wounded lads in her home, just as she did during the fighting.