“In attack most daring, in defence most cunning, in endurance most steadfast, they performed a feat of arms which will be remembered and recounted as long as the virtues of courage and resolution have power to move the hearts of men” (Winston Churchill, in honour of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem) 

Operation Market Garden was a huge airborne assault to capture several bridges in the Netherlands in September 1944. This one over the River Rhine at Arnhem was the final objective. The Allies would then be rattling the gates of Germany and WWII would be over by Christmas. All very simple in theory.

History records what happened here as a catastrophe. A full-scale counterattack completely over ran the British lines pushing the surviving remnant of the 1st Airborne back to the village of Oosterbeek. Arnhem would be a bridge too far. 

A beautiful 1,000 year old church in a quaint Dutch village, but all is not as it appears. According the sign outside the front door the most poignant event in the history of this 1,000 year old church was its virtual destruction during the Battle of Arnhem.

The day before the war came here to Oosterbeek, it was a normal Sunday. The church service has finished and Kate ter Horst and her children ran out of the Old Vicarage to watch the British 1st Airborne Division coming through the clouds. 

A close up glance of the building reveals the extent of the damage that was caused when 150 soldiers ran for cover among the candles and the pews. Their commanding officer stood in the pulpit and addressed an unusual congregation “We will stay here and hope” he said, “Let’s stick together and fight for our lives”

The following day the church and the Old Vicarage descended into full-scale carnage. Over in the house, the ter Horst family’s furniture was thrown into the garden and the children, including and a newborn baby were taken to the cellar for safety as the house was transformed into an aid post. 

For four days Kate nursed and comforted the wounded and prayed for the dying. As supplies ran out she took water for the boiler and then the toilet to keep the soldiers alive, walking among them reading the Bible. They called her the Angel of Arnhem.

A harrowing story of a time long gone when the peace of a small village was replaced by war and a church of all places became the battlefield. Churches, for lots of us, conjure up images of Christenings, weddings and Carol Services not really desperate struggles for survival. 

But here’s an interesting thought. According to the Bible the word church has pretty much nothing to do with buildings at all. It’s all about people who are loved by the same Father and reconciled to him because the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

A people called to stand together in shared purpose to care for the hurting and do what Jesus did. So when that officer climbed into the pulpit and told his men to “Stick together and fight” maybe it was a brutal yet profound picture of life in peacetime also. Maybe that is the very thing that should be said in churches every week. Maybe that’s what the church is all about.