Opposite the Johan Willem Friso barracks in Assen, about eighty soldiers stand stock still for a minute. At this place they commemorate the victims of ‘Operation Amherst’. Due to the commemoration, the Balkenweg between the barracks and the memorial monument was temporarily closed by the military police.
Seven hundred French paratroopers were dropped in Drenthe in April 1945 to prepare for the major attack by the Canadians and the Poles. 33 French paratroopers were killed in this operation.
Normally you would expect such a commemoration in April or May, but because of a so-called battlefield tour it has been decided to dwell on it now. “We were looking for a subject to learn from the past and at the same time continue to honor the liberators of the past,” explains Major Marco Huizenga of the Air Mobile Brigade. “And then we came across this operation, which took place between Assen and Schaarsbergen near Arnhem. That is why we are focusing on it this week.”
The purpose of Operation Amherst was to secure bridges in small groups and create confusion. “Making life difficult for the Germans here,” Huizinga describes the assignment given to the French.
And all this while they had to fight without the direct support of a large front. In that sense, the soldiers of the Air Mobile Brigade feel connected to the French. Huizinga: “Some of us are also trained as paratroopers, and they have an even stronger involvement in that.”