‘We walk in silence’: Sunset March remembers US troops who liberated Dutch city during WWII
by Karin Zeitvogel
• Stars and Stripes • August 14, 2021
U.S. charge d'affaires to the Netherlands, Marja Verloop, front left, walks alongside Association of the U.S. Army European region president, Tony Williams, on the Oversteek Bridge in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Aug. 13, 2021, during the Sunset March. (Karin Zeitvogel/Stars and Stripes)
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NIJMEGEN, Netherlands — The Sunset March that takes place every evening in this Dutch city has only one rule, Lt. Col. Sir Tim Ruijling said.
“We walk in silence, dignified and respectful,” the retired Royal Dutch Air Force officer told 40 Americans and Europeans before they set off to walk across the Oversteek Bridge, which spans the Waal River in Nijmegen near where hundreds of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers crossed on Sept. 20, 1944, in a daring action during Operation Market Garden.
“When you walk, think about the 48 young Americans who gave their lives for our freedom during the crossing,” Ruijling said.
Dutch children still learn about the World War II operation in school, and when the Oversteek Bridge was built in 2013, officials in Nijmegen remembered it, too, incorporating 96 street lights – 48 pairs – in the bridge design, one for each American soldier who died in the crossing.
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2021-08-14/WWII-82nd-Airborne-Market-garden-netherlands-memorial-march-bridge-2551525.html
