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Amsterdam, rightly, is on the Unesco World Heritage List. The famous canal city is a fascinating destination – but, not far away, is historic Arnhem. This is the Dutch town which saw one of the most significant battles of the Second World War.
Market Garden was the code name for the largest airborne military operation carried out during the war – some 30,000 British and American paratroopers forced entry into Germany in September 1944.
Their mission was to bring the war to an end by Christmas and, though unsuccessful, it shaped history as we know it.
If Operation Market Garden, planned to take place in the area near Arnhem, in Holland, had succeeded, the western Allies could have punched their way across one of the last great natural barriers between them and the German fatherland.
Their tanks and troops might have reached Berlin weeks before the Russians, ending the war by Christmas 1944. The fate of post-war Europe might have been very different.
Market Garden was one of the boldest plans of World War Two. Thirty thousand British and American airborne troops were to be flown behind enemy lines to capture the eight bridges that spanned the network of canals and rivers on the Dutch/German border.
At the same time, British tanks and infantry were to push up a narrow road leading from the Allied front line to these key bridges. They would relieve the airborne troops, and then cross the intact bridges.
The plan was conceived by General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British forces in Europe. The glittering triumph of the D-Day landings in France had become bogged down in the slow and costly progress through the Normandy fields and hedgerows, which the Germans defended with skill and tenacity.
Despite this, after weeks of heavy fighting, the Allies had finally broken through. For the next three weeks they rolled through France and Belgium, liberating Paris and Brussels. Victory for the Allies seemed close.
But Hitler's forces were regrouping, and as the Allies pushed nearer to Germany's borders, German resistance stiffened. Montgomery believed that a powerful, narrow thrust deep into German lines would be more effective than an advance on a broad front, which had become difficult to supply from the few ports controlled by the Allies, and this was why he devised Operation Market Garden.
You can join this Western Daily Press reader travel trip on the 70th anniversary as we follow in the footsteps of these courageous soldiers and see the world's largest collection of Operation Market Garden memorabilia. This is set to be an inspirational journey of discovery.
Next year is the 100th anniversary of the First World War, and we have arranged a thought-provoking tour as we pay our respects to the fallen heroes of this conflict.
From our base we visit Ypres, which was at the heart of some of the largest battles, and Tyne Cot Cemetery – the largest British war cemetery in the world. We also walk through the doors of Every Man's Club, where hundreds of thousands of British servicemen came to find respite from the front line.
On December 11, 1915, the house at number 43 Gasthuisstraat (at that time the street was called by its French name – Rue de l'Hôpital) opened its doors for the first time, welcoming British soldiers to a new club.
The large house was owned by a wealthy brewer, Monsieur Coevoet Camerlynck. In the early summer of 1915 some German shrapnel shells had landed in the garden and damaged the rear of the house.
Having removed his family and all his belongings M. Camerlynck was pleased to offer the empty house for rent to the British Army for 150 francs a month. Two conditions of the lease were that the house was to be made weatherproof and a large safe was to be removed from the front room.
An Army Chaplain the Rev Philip "Tubby" Clayton saw a use for the property as a soldier's club. It became a rare place where soldiers could meet and relax regardless of rank, an Every-Man's Club.
A notice was hung by the front door bearing the message: "All rank abandon, ye who enter here."
One of the conditions for allowing the military to occupy the house in the owner's absence was to help remove all the furniture; including a large safe. The house therefore needed to be refurnished. In an attempt to make the house more homely soldiers quickly acquired all sorts of pieces of furniture including a piano. Gifts of soft furnishings were donated by people in England and books arrived by post or were left by soldiers to fill the shelves of the library.
Initially it was proposed that the House was named Church House. According to Padre Talbot, "the staff of our division saw a scarecrow in the name and smelt tracts."
And so the house was named Talbot House in memory of Lieutenant Gilbert W L Talbot, aged 23, who was the brother of Padre Talbot.
Gilbert was serving with 7th Battalion The Rifle Brigade when he was killed at Hooge in the Ypres Salient on July 30, 1915. The name Talbot House soon became known to the soldiers of the Ypres Salient in a shortened form of "TOC H". TOC was the British Army signaller's code for 'T', and H was 'H'.
This is a special chance to visit these moving places and remember the courage and honour of all those who fought, as well as the men and women who followed in their footsteps to become today's soldiers.
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