Hardcover
Pages 164
ISBN 978-1-917120-67-8
Colour Images
 
The Battle of Arnhem has always attracted a lot of attention with numerous films, books and articles been written about it. Most concentrate on the actual fighting and briefly mention the casualties. Around 12,000 men from the 1st British Airborne Division, the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade and men from the Glider Pilot Regiment when to Arnhem. From this band of brothers, the number who died during the fighting is around 1,930 with a large number of these being buried in the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.
 
Martin Middlebrook records the dead as 1,485 from the 1st Airborne Division, 368 Royal Air Force and 79 Royal Army Service Corps Air Despatchers.
 
A number of men who died as a result of the battle are in some instances buried as far away as the Czech Republic, Germany and indeed a number of men died later of wounds or illness and are buried in the United Kingdom.
 
In this first volume of The Silence of Stone Niall Cherry has looked at the circumstances of 50 men who died as a result of the fighting in what can be called ‘a story behind the headstone’. These 50 stories include a Royal Navy man, a Dutch civilian, a CANLOAN officer and men from a wide range of units that comprised the 1st British Airborne Division. Each story is unique and personal and so provides a new insight into the men who fought at Arnhem.