Arnhem War Museum 40/45
Out of Ammo, God Save the King was a unique exhibition with twelve different dioramas that give a picture of Arnhem in September 1944.
The Walburgiskerk was heavily damaged during the Battle of Arnhem because a Luftwaffe pilot flew into one of the towers.
Captain Mackay lay with his men in the Van Limburg Stirum School (on the east side of the northern driveway of the Rhine Bridge) and described the event in his booklet “Whoa Mahomet”.
At 3:30 am, something amazing happened. The "Luftwaffe" had been increasingly active throughout the day. A “Messerschmitt” came over the bridge from the south and tried to bomb the school. The bomb fell on the street, but did not explode. The “Messerschmitt” tried to avoid our machine gun and flew into a church tower, tearing the left wing off. And crashed into a square about 400 meters away. Great joy all around.
Arnhem War Museum presents exhibition 'Out of Ammo'
The Arnhem War Museum has opened the doors of the Walburgiskerk for the exhibition 'Out of Ammo'. “The name of this exhibition refers to the legendary words that Major Digby Tatham-Warter uttered at the foot of the Rhine Bridge, when he was forced to surrender to the Germans due to a lack of ammunition,” explains Eef Peeters, owner of the Arnhem War Museum, the name of the exhibition.
He talks about the idea behind this exhibition, which can be visited for a year in the heart of Arnhem. “From the start, the objective of my museum has always been to illuminate the Second World War from all angles, from the perspective of both the Allies and the occupying forces. After all, every story has multiple sides.
A Bridge too Far
The Battle of Arnhem is of course best known to the majority of people
of 'A Bridge too Far', forcing the Allies to halt their advance.
The war winter of 1944 was the result. That is what almost no one realizes
halting the advance was also the last time
that the Germans have won a battle,” says Eef.
In a nutshell, he then explains how the idea for this exhibition came about
came into being. “With 'Out of Ammo' I bring back a piece of Arnhem history
to the place where history was written in Arnhem. the heart of the city,
the central place in world history, where Operation Market Garden ended in failure.”
Diorama
'Out of Ammo' is built on the basis of dioramas
(Wikipedia: a diorama is often a museum-like, three-dimensional arrangement
showing an existing or possible reality). A tour
through the Walburgiskerk takes you back in time past places such as
the flower garden of Musis Sacrum, the Red School, Restaurant Ruteck's
and Boulevard Heuvelink. It is the absolute pride of the exhibition
life-size canvas that hangs in the back of the church with an image of
the John Frost bridge (which of course did not bear that name at the time).
Eef Peeters during the walk: “The size of that image and the location
where it hangs is conscious, with that we want to create involvement,
take visitors into the intensity of everything that happened at the time
occurred. We try to make people feel what it must have been like.
U ziet dat ook terug in twee andere diorama's: wij hebben een diorama
with a jeep in which four young men are sitting. Innocent boys
who (have) had to fight without clearly knowing what for, cannon fodder.
Another diorama depicts the evacuation of the 90,000 and 130,000 inhabitants
from Arnhem who fled the city in rows after the failed capture of the
bridge."
Finally, Eef Peeters, looking up at the two parachutes hanging in front of the Walburgiskerk: “This height alone makes Out of Ammo a unique exhibition. No museum in the world can go that far, that's because we are allowed and can be in this church.”
