v/a – VICTORY IN EUROPE 1944-1945
An evocative double-disc set, Victory In Europe features 150 minutes of rare audio material recorded between 1944 and 1945. The 51 tracks cover the campaign in Western Europe, beginning with the ill-fated airborne assault at Arnhem in September 1944 and ending with the dramatic fall of Berlin and the surrender of Germany in May 1945.
Specific events include Arnhem, the bitter fight for Walcheren island, the devastation of Cologne and other cities, the first Rhine crossing at Remagen, destruction of V-2 launch sites, the Rhine crossing in March 1945, the liberation of Belsen, the first meeting of US and Soviet troops on the Elbe, the deaths of Hitler and Himmler, and fall of Berlin, and the final German surrender.
All materials are authentic wartime recordings carefully digitally remastered. The CD booklet includes archive images and historical notes by James Hayward.
Tracklist:
Disc One:
1. NEWS BULLETIN: DUTCH FRONTIER CROSSED
2. NEWS BULLETIN: BRUSSELS LIBERATED
3. NEWS BULLETIN: LUXEMBURG LIBERATED
4. MONTGOMERY: MESSAGE TO TROOPS 17.9.1944
5. NEWS BULLETIN: OPERATION MARKET GARDEN
6. ARNHEM: PARATROOPS DROPPING
7. ARNHEM: DAKOTA CREW
8. ARNHEM: SUPPLY DROP ON THIRD DAY
9. ARNHEM: STANLEY MAXTED
10. ARNHEM: GENERAL ROY URQUHART
11. WALCHEREN: CANADIANS CLEAN UP
12. BRITISH TANKS IN GERMANY
13. US TANK DESTROYER CREW
14. MONTGOMERY: CHRISTMAS MESSAGE 1944
15. ARDENNES: BASTOGNE DEFENCE
16. V-2: OPERATION BIG BEN (SPITFIRES)
17. ARMOURED WARFARE: COLMAR POCKET
18. CLEVE: ROYAL SCOTS FUSILIERS
19. DEVASTATION IN GERMANY: REICHSWALD
20. COLOGNE IN RUINS
21. NEWSFLASH: FIRST RHINE CROSSING
22. REMAGEN: FIRST RHINE CROSSING
Disc Two:
1. RHINE CROSSING: AIRBORNE ASSAULT
2. RHINE CROSSING: US PARATROOPERS
3. RHINE CROSSING: TUG & GLIDER
4. RHINE CROSSING: GLIDER LANDING
5. RHINE CROSSING: IN A BUFFALO
6. GORDON HIGHLANDERS CLEAR REES
7. CONDITIONS IN HOLLAND
8. IN A GERMAN COUNTRY HOTEL
9. DEATH OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
10. TREATMENT OF SLAVE WORKERS
11. RICHARD DIMBLEBY AT BELSEN
12. RAF MEET SOVIET AIRCRAFT
13. LEIPZIG: SUICIDES IN RATHAUS
14. TORGAU: US-SOVIET LINK UP
15. RUSSIAN LINK UP
16. TALLBOYS ON BERCHTESGADEN
17. NEWS: BERLIN ENCIRCLED
18. BREMEN: DEVASTATION OF CITY
19. NEWS: REICHSTAG FALLS
20. GERMAN NEWS: HITLER IS DEAD
21. BBC NEWSFLASH: HITLER IS DEAD
22. DEATH OF HITLER: PRIVATE TOWNSEND
23. DEATH OF HITLER: A GERMAN SCHOOLMASTER
24. NEWS: FALL OF BERLIN
25. MASS SURRENDER OF GERMAN TROOPS
26. VICTORY ADDRESS: MONTGOMERY
27. VICTORY ADDRESS: GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY
28. DEATH OF HIMMLER
29. FLENSBURG: GOVERNMENT ARRESTED
Liner notes by James Hayward:
Disc One:
1. NEWS BULLETIN: DUTCH FRONTIER CROSSED (0.46)
Broadcast 4 September 1944. Programme interrupted by Freddy Grisewood, to announce that Allied troops have crossed the Dutch frontier for the first time. In fact the failure of Operation Market Garden (below) meant that Holland was one of the last European nations to be liberated.
2. NEWS BULLETIN: BRUSSELS LIBERATED (0.27)
Broadcast 4 September 1944. Home Service news bulletin read by John Snagge, announcing that Allied troops have captured the Belgian capitol city. Most of Belgium was rapidly liberated at the beginning of September, at a speed which precluded the kind of prolonged power vacuum seen elsewhere, and the excesses were mostly avoided.
3. NEWS BULLETIN: LUXEMBURG LIBERATED (1.40)
Broadcast at midnight on 11 September 1944. Extract from Home Service news bulletin read by Stuart Hibberd, giving the news headlines and announcing the liberation of Luxemburg by American forces. The Grand Duchy had been occupied on 10 May 1940, after which all citizens were declared German nationals. US troops first entered Luxemburg on 10 September, although the small country had to endure the Ardennes offensive before final liberation in February 1945.
4. MONTGOMERY: MESSAGE TO TROOPS 17.9.1944 (1.24)
Broadcast 17 September 1944. On 1 September 1944 Eisenhower had taken over direct military command of the Allied Army Groups, although Montgomery was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. Here he speaks as commander of 21st Army Group, and describes events since 17 August, including the removal of German troops from France and Belgium, and heavy enemy losses. His ending – ‘Forward into Germany’ – diverted attention away from the Allied airborne landings in Holland, Operation Market Garden, which began around midday.
5. NEWS BULLETIN: OPERATION MARKET GARDEN (2.10)
Broadcast 17 September 1944. News bulletin read by John Snagge, broadcast at 18.00. The bulletin also includes a message from Eisenhower’s headquarters, asking the Dutch people to assist the Allies and refrain from sabotage. Operation Market Garden was conceived in haste by Montgomery and planned in just a week. Three Allied airborne divisions (almost 35,000 men) were landed in Holland and tasked with seizing vital bridges across the rivers Maas, Waal and Rhine. The furthest bridges, at Arnhem and Oosterbeek, were 64 miles north of the existing front line. On the ground, XXX Corps were expected to drive a corridor through Holland and relieve the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem within two to three days. It was hoped this bold plan would enable the invasion of Germany and end the war in Europe by Christmas. In reality, the Allies should instead have secured the port of Antwerp.
6. ARNHEM: PARATROOPS DROPPED (3.36)
Recorded 19 September 1944. Ed Murrow provides live commentary from a Douglas C-47 as American paratroops are dropped over Holland on the first day of Operation Market Garden.
7. ARNHEM: DAKOTA CREW (4.14)
Recorded 23 September 1944. Talk by Pilot Officer R.W. Passingham and Flight Lieutenant D.R. Robertson on their experience of the initial lift on Sunday 17 September, and subsequent drop and supply missions, before being damaged by flak on Tuesday 19 September and crash-landing in Belgium. Some 238 transport and 105 fighter aircraft were lost during Operation Market Garden.
8. ARNHEM: SUPPLY DROP ON THIRD DAY (3.15)
Recorded 20 September 1944. A former actor and the oldest BBC war correspondent, Canadian Stanley Maxted was landed by glider, and spent most of the battle in the vicinity of Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek, the 1st Airborne Divisional HQ. His memorable reports, some of which were recorded on the Midget recorder in foxholes, would make Maxted the ‘Voice of Arnhem’ when broadcast after the battle. Here he describes a supply drop under fire, after which we hear battle actuality around the Hartenstein Hotel: ‘These men don’t ask much; all they ask is something with which to fight back.’ In fact only 135 out of 386 tons dropped on 20 September fell within the British lines; during the entire battle only 200 of 1,488 tons dropped were recovered. Together with the rest of the Public Relations Unit and what remained of 1st Airborne, Maxted was evacuated across the Rhine on 25 September. In 1945 Maxted returned to Oosterbeek to portray himself in the Rank film production Theirs Is The Glory.
9. ARNHEM: STANLEY MAXTED (7.26)
Recorded 27 September 1944. Dispatch by Stanley Maxted, recorded two days after the withdrawal of the remnants of 1st Airborne, in which the reporter took part.
10. ARNHEM: GENERAL
