The Official Commemorations started, as they should, with the veterans of the action in September
1944 and the standards of their units being lead across the bridge by a marching band of pipes and
drums. It was moving, humbling and also immensely poignant as the old men that had been part of
the fighting here back in 1944 marched proudly across the bridge to the backdrop of warm applause
ringing out on all sides.
There were speeches, prayers and all the things you would expect at such civic ceremonies – but it
was the veterans that it was really all about. What they had done, why they had done it and the
gratitude that the Dutch people clearly still hold for them even after 70 years have dulled the
memories and slimmed the numbers who could actually say “I was there!”
And then it was over … and all we stood there looking back at the now virtually empty John Frost
Bridge in the now softening evening light. It was a moment when you needed someone to say
something profound, something to really sum up all the human sacrifice and suffering we had
travelled hundreds of miles to commemorate. Al Coates was up to this task as he stood looking back
up the road with his right hand on his head his words echoing back to soldiers over the years. “I’m
hungry and I need a beer!” So that is what we did! He is a top man is our Al!