We heard that the inner city was on fire, the old Walburg and Eusebius churches are enormous flaming torches,which made the clock in the tower turning madly by the surging heat, sending sparks all over the place.
The war front changed from day to day, first the Red Barets seemed in control and then a day later we heard German voices barking orders. Apparently General Urquhart, the Commander of the 1st Airborne Division was holed up in an attic of a house in Zwarte Road for 36 long hours, together with the second in command Gerald Lathbury. No doubt their long absent has contributed greatly in the failure of Market Garden, together with the fatal mistake of the Americans not to carry on with their four tanks on the road to Arnhem despite the lack of necessary infantry., they stopped in Nijmegen., while the road to Arnhem was open.
Across the Oranje Street railway bridge, German tanks occupied the whole of Brem Street, sure enough a SS soldier sitting in a captured English jeep.
Near the Rijn Paviljoen (Rijn Hotel) a couple hundred metres from us, around the corner, lived Mr Wigman our High School teacher; where his wife is close to deliver her first baby. From him we hear of the ferocious fighting that went on near his home and the sight of three dead English soldiers against a wall. Home of our teacher is second house from right.