Scott's Stamps, Covers & Collectables

1984 Netherlands Commemorative Cover.

Market Garden 40th Anniversary - Battle of Arnhem.

Signed by

General Sir John Winthrop Hackett GCB CBE DSO* MC (1910-1997)

Hackett commanded the 4th Parachute Brigade for the Allied assault on Arnhem, in Operation Market Garden. At the battle of Arnhem, Brigadier Hackett was severely wounded in the stomach, captured and then taken to the St. Elizabeth Hospital in Arnhem. A German doctor at the hospital wanted to administer a lethal injection to Hackett because he thought that the case was hopeless.  However, he was operated on by Alexander Lipmann-Kessel, who, with superb surgery, managed to save the brigadier's life.

After a period of recuperation, he managed to escape with the help of the Dutch underground. Although he was unfit to be moved, the Germans were about to move him to a prisoner-of-war camp. He was taken by 'Piet van Arnhem', a resistance worker from Ede, and driven to Ede. Hackett had extra bloody bandages applied to heighten the severity of his injuries. After leaving the hospital, Arnhem told the checkpoint they were taking Hackett to hospital, and were let through despite the hospital being in the opposite direction from which they had just come.

Hackett was hidden by a Dutch family, called de Nooij, who lived at No. 5 Torenstraat in Ede. The family nursed the brigadier back to health over a period of several months; he then managed to escape to the Allied lines with the help of the underground. He remained friends with the de Nooijs for the rest of their lives and visited immediately after they were liberated, bearing gifts. Hackett wrote about the experience in his book I Was A Stranger, published in 1977. He received his second Distinguished Service Order for his service at Arnhem.

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