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Ukraine is reportedly on the precipice of a major victory, with its counter-offensive around the eastern city of Kharkiv (Kharkov) unexpectedly putting the Russian army on the back foot. According to British intelligence, Russian forces appear to have been “taken by surprise” by the Ukrainians, who have reportedly advanced “up to 50 kilometres (31 miles) into previously Russian-held territory on a narrow front.”

Ukrainian forces said Saturday they had entered Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine dislodging Russian troops from a key logistics hub in a lightning counter-offensive that has seen swathes of territory recaptured. The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, meanwhile arrived in the Ukrainian capital for a surprise visit, which she said was to demonstrate Berlin's support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia. Ukrainian special forces published images on social media showing camouflage-clad officers with automatic weapons "in Kupiansk." It "was and will always be Ukrainian," their statement said. The town of some 27,000 people, that sits on a crucial supply route...

In mid-September 1944, things looked great for the Allies. With their foothold in Normandy secured after D-Day and the successful invasion of Southern France in Operation Dragoon, Allied soldiers began an almost unstoppable advance into Nazi-occupied Europe. German forces were retreating to the safety of the Siegfried Line, a series of hardened defenses and fortifications stretching more than 390 miles along Germany's border with France and the Netherlands. The successes had Allied planners believing there was a serious chance to end the war by Christmas, and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery devised a plan he thought would ensure it.

After four humiliating years of occupation, the German retreat through the Netherlands towards the Reich caused an unusual degree of jubilation, disdain and harsh laughter among Dutch civilians. On September 4, 1944, the day after the British Guards Armoured Division drove into Brussels to wild rejoicing, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had broadcast to her occupied country from London: ‘Compatriots – You know our liberation is coming.’ Three months after D-Day, the formerly invincible Wehrmacht, which had crushed the Netherlands in the summer of 1940, had been reduced to stealing bicycles to escape the Allied advance. Vehicles requisitioned for the...

Every time a paratrooper in Britain’s airborne regiments goes to the stores to pick up his parachute as a prelude to going into action, it’s handed over with the same old corny gallows-humour banter — ‘Bring it back if it doesn’t work and we’ll exchange it.’ You could apply the same logic to the Parachute Regiment’s most famous World War II mission: the abortive attempt to capture from the Germans the bridge over the Rhine at the town of Arnhem in the north-east of the Netherlands in the autumn of 1944. It spectacularly did not work — and, once it...

Every time a paratrooper in Britain’s airborne regiments goes to the stores to pick up his parachute as a prelude to going into action, it’s handed over with the same old corny gallows-humour banter — ‘Bring it back if it doesn’t work and we’ll exchange it.’ You could apply the same logic to the Parachute Regiment’s most famous World War II mission: the abortive attempt to capture from the Germans the bridge over the Rhine at the town of Arnhem in the north-east of the Netherlands in the autumn of 1944. It spectacularly did not work — and, once it...

By Peter Roper The Pueblo Chieftain Published: January 28, 2016; Last modified: January 28, 2016 11:01PM Elmer Melchi survived parachuting into Normandy on D-Day and he survived jumping into Holland in Operation Market Garden -- although a German soldier shot him when the young 82nd Airborne paratrooper tried to escape from a POW camp. But death finally caught up with the tough 92-year-old veteran Thursday afternoon, taking him in his sleep at the Sangre de Cristo Hospice here. It was expected. Melchi had cancer and knew he was dying. "My dad went for his last jump," said a tearful...

About six miles from Maastricht, in the Netherlands, lie buried 8,301 American soldiers who died in "Operation Market Garden" in the battles to liberate Holland in the fall/winter of 1944. Every one of the men buried in the cemetery, as well as those in the Canadian and British military cemeteries, has been adopted by a Dutch family who mind the grave, decorate it, and keep alive the memory of the soldier they have adopted. It is even the custom to keep a portrait of "their" soldier in a place of honour in their home. Annually, on "Liberation Day," memorial services...

In a bedroom lay a white silk pillow - yellowed with age and emblazoned with the screaming eagle emblem of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. On the walls were pictures and plaques telling the story of a World War II veteran; in another room was an adjustable hospital bed and, on a windowsill, a worn Bible. That October day, Jim Bennett was looking for an investment, a house to buy, rehab, then rent or resell, as he has done with about 500 others over more than 20 years. But Bennett found much more at the modest, two-story rowhouse on Winton...

Mario Patruno, a 93 year old World War Two veteran, formerly of the 101st Airborne Division, is featured in this documentary on Operation Market Garden. The short film, produced by the USAF 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, mixes rarely seen documentary footage with contemporary coverage of the 70th anniversary celebration and jump recreation by combined U.S. and Dutch airborne troops. Private Patruno jumped at Normandy and Eindhoven with the 101st, and was wounded in both operations. He fought in house to house battles with Nazi troops, and was shot in the face, but survived to tell his...

On September 17, 1944 the Dutch sunshine was blotted out by 4,700 aircraft of all types in a stream that stretched ninety-four miles long and three miles wide. It was the largest aerial armada in the history of warfare featuring 35,000 Allied glider and paratroops. .......................................................... Although a major defeat for the Allies, it did provide a great story for Cornelius Ryan's book "A Bridge Too Far" which director Richard Attenborough and producers Joseph and Richard Levine made into the epic war film of the same name in 1977. It featured an all-star cast that included Robert Redford, Sean Connery,...

-excerpt- A world away from Afghanistan, over in Holland, was approaching the 65th anniversary of the allied liberation from Nazi occupation, and I had been invited to attend by James “Maggie” Megellas. Maggie, who had fought his way through Holland and is today remembered there as a hero, is said to be the most decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division. Now 92, Maggie has recently spent about two months tooling around the battlefields of Afghanistan, and though it would be an honor to finally meet him, there was the matter of extracting myself from Kandahar City...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

OOSTERBEEK, Netherlands (AP) - Sixty years ago, the skies above the Dutch countryside filled with the white silk of parachutes of 30,000 Allied troops while tanks rolled up from Belgium along a narrow road that became known as "Hell's Highway." In the legendary "Market Garden" operation, which began Sept. 17th, 1944, a massive force that was supposed to end World War II found it had attempted to go "a bridge too far." A ceremony Sunday commemorated the heroic but doomed assault with Dutch schoolchildren raising flowers above their heads before laying them on the graves of the 1,750 Allied soldiers...

ARNHEM, The Netherlands (AFP) - Dutch Queen Beatrix and Britain's Prince Charles laid wreaths for the victims of the failed Market Garden operation in World War II in a religious ceremony to honour the veterans of the epic Allied defeat. In the daring but doomed nine day operation in 1944 more than 1,700 paratroopers of the 10,000 dropped over Arnhem were killed. "It was not in vain, because here we stand 60 years later in a spirit of friendship and cooperation between European States that was just a dream 60 years ago ... 'A Bridge Too Far' has become a...

Netherlands relives largest airborne operation in history Sat Sep 18, 8:45 AM ET EDE, The Netherlands (AFP) - When British veteran Charles Grocett first saw the Ginkelse Heide, a piece of heathland near Arnhem, he was a 18-year-old paratrooper dodging enemy fire...sixty years on he was back to commemorate the failed operation Market Garden, the largest airborne and glider operation in history. "I was dropped here in this same place. It was not good, there were fireballs coming at you because the Germans were waiting for us," he recalled Saturday. More than 50,000 spectators gathered on the heather-covered land to...

EDE, The Netherlands (AFP) - When British veteran Charles Grocett first saw the Ginkelse Heide, a piece of heathland near Arnhem, he was a 18-year-old paratrooper dodging enemy fire...sixty years on he was back to commemorate the failed operation Market Garden, the largest airborne and glider operation in history. "I was dropped here in this same place. It was not good, there were fireballs coming at you because the Germans were waiting for us," he recalled Saturday. More than 50,000 spectators gathered on the heather-covered land to see several hundred parachutists commemorate the day when almost 10,000 British, American and...

AMSTERDAM — Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands has launched a blistering attack on Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on the eve of the 60th commemoration of the costly failure of the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. Speaking on Dutch television on Tuesday, the 93-year-old German-born father of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands said Montgomery had ignored warnings that his plan, Operation Market Garden, was doomed to failure. Bernhard also said the British had tried to pin the blame on the commander of the Polish forces who took part in the operation. He said he was convinced the British exerted pressure on...

It was part of the Allied’s Operation Market Garden, the biggest airborne operation in history. It was devised by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Its aim was to end the Second World War by the end of 1944. Operation Market Garden consisted of two strands: the occupation of bridges close to the Dutch-German border by airborne troops (Market) and the advance of the Second British Army (Garden). Some 35,000 British, American and Polish airborne troops were to be dropped into Holland over a three-day period from September 17, 1944. Once the waterways were secured they would be reinforced by ground troops...