The most famous Arnhem veteran, invariably seen in the city with a cigar.

ARNHEM FOR ETERNITY In the section Arnhem for Eternal, Peter Bloemendaal, former journalist of the Arnhemsche Courant, describes life in Arnhem in earlier days on the basis of old photos. Today: the most famous former combatant of the Battle of Arnhem.

Peter Bloemendaal 12-04-22, 03:32 PM

He was not a (former) Arnhemmer, but he was pretty much the most famous Arnhem veteran: Henry McAnelly. Often seen in the city, with invariably a cigar. At the Rhine bridge or the monument in the Berekuil. Or riding in his Landrover with veterans as passengers on his way to the 'Guided Battle Field Tour' he set up.

Advance in September 1944

McAnelly was part of a mortar unit of the 1st Parachute Battalion. During the advance to Arnhem in September 1944 he was seriously injured on the hill next to the Utrechtseweg near Mariëndaal between Oosterbeek and Arnhem.

He suffered dozens of gunshot and shard wounds and lost his left arm. He was rushed to the St. Elisabeths Gasthuis on the Utrechtseweg where the doctor Lipmann-Kessel, with whom he had been dropped together on the Ginkelse Heide, saved his life. McAnelly was transported from there to the King Willem III barracks in Apeldoorn.

German doctors

At the end of October 1944 he was deported to the POW camp Stalag 7 near Freising in Germany. There he was further treated by German doctors. At the beginning of 1945, after several transports, he ended up in Marseille, where he was put on a hospital ship to Liverpool.

Even after the war, McAnelly was in hospitals several times for further recovery and the fitting of a prosthesis. As soon as possible, he travelled from England to Oosterbeek at least once a year to visit the battlefields and the Airborne Cemetery near Oosterbeek. In 1954 he settled with his wife in Oosterbeek. He wanted to keep the memory of the Battle of Arnhem alive and started his 'Guided Battle Field Tour' in 1969.

Hill near Mariëndaal

A lot of guests and especially veterans have used that tour. Part of it was invariably a tour of the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek. He was also regularly found on the hill near Mariëndaal next to the Utrechtseweg where he was wounded in 1944. He did the activities as a 'battlefield guide' until 1995.

McAnelly died on 11 July 2002 in Hilversum at the age of 79. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Kortenhoef at the express wish of his widow. This was very much against the wishes of McAnelly's family: they wanted him to be buried in Oosterbeek. A day before his burial, they conducted summary proceedings to force a funeral in Oosterbeek. They lost.

The reason: only soldiers who died in the war may be buried in the Airborne Cemetery. So little came of the funeral with military honors, which friends of McAnelly had wanted to organize. Ash scattering of later deceased veterans is allowed at the Airborne Cemetery, but McAnelly wanted to be buried.

Researched and supplied by Robert Hilton