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(foto: Rolf Hensel/De Gelderlander, 2018)

Welkom op de website van Martijn Reinders, KNA Archeoloog gespecialiseerd in conflictarcheologie en werkzaam bij Xplosure en Greenhouse Advies (onderdeel van DAGnl).

Volg me op Instagram om up to date te blijven: @ww2archaeology

Worker by day, student by night. Then and now: German cemetery during WW2 in an Arnhem forest. Using aerial pictures, height-maps and GIS, this specific location could be retrieved. What is seen here is a moment in time when a soldier of the SS-Regiment Der Führer is buried with honour: a black flag with SS-runes and flowers on the coffin of a soldier who most probably died during the assault on Fort Westervoort, 10 May 1940. Arnhem chief of police Borstlap is seen paying a last tribute. In the following years, especially after September 1944, the graveyard would become overcrowded. A few years later, it was vanished of the earth: all remains were recovered and brought to Ysselsteijn Kriegsgräberstätte in Limburg, where nowadays most (more than 30.000) German soldiers died in the Netherlands rest. The filled up graves can still be seen as shallow depressions in the sandy soil. What is left is this unmarked, but tainted landscape. Yesterday I gave a presentation in the Airborne Museum about my work for a varied and enthusiastic audience. Many thanks to the @airbornemuseum_hartenstein and @vvamoosterbeek for organising this and giving me the opportunity to lecture on WW2 archaeology. Hopefully until next time! Last preparations for my lecture tomorrow at @airbornemuseum_hartenstein . I will discuss several researches I conducted at Luftwaffe sites around Arnhem and the excavation at Villa Heselbergh headquarters. Expect some in-depth information on these archaeological approaches. Tickets still available. Maybe see you tomorrow at 15h00 in Oosterbeek! Next weekend: my lecture on conflict archaeology in the @airbornemuseum_hartenstein . I will give an introduction to this branch of archaeology for non-archaeologists, a short overview of WW2 projects in the Arnhem region, and also zoom in on my own Ensemble Deelen projects. I will elaborate on several cases including the mysterious Teerose III and an emergency-excavation at a Flak site. Tickets available via the Airborne Museum website. @vvamoosterbeek On 15 January 2023 I will give a lecture in the Airborne Museum on conflict archaeology. I will tell about several projects I have conducted through the last 10 years. Tickets are on sale via the website of @airbornemuseum_hartenstein Haunted by my thesis subject, after a drive home from college I suddenly found myself stuck in traffic in a Market Garden situation. The A12 motorway cuts through one of the Landing Zones near Arnhem. Swipe for the historical situation, with British gliders that transported infantry, vehicles and guns. The motorway in September 1944 existed as a sandy track and was only finished in 1957. Today, thousands of cars drive hastily across this adapted landscape daily. After working for ten years in archaeology it was time for me to go a step further. I have never studied for a master's degree, so last February I started at @leidenarchaeology . Doing this besides my work and family is a challenge but far from impossible. Moreover, this encouraged me to bring an older idea into effect. My thesis will be about the Archaeology of the Battle of Arnhem (September 1944). Besides results from professional archaeology, I will include efforts of metal detectorists, provided some documentation was done. Pictured are some finds done in 1994 by metal detectorists who documented their searches in detail by maps and pictures. The finds were done at the positions of The Border Regiment in Oosterbeek, presumably in the fox hole of privates Jury and Malcolm who were photographed (swipe). Note the similarities like the rhododendron and curved Bren gun magazine. Anyone interested in more information, or if anyone has something to share with me, feel free to DM. Battle of Arnhem: when after a few days already no primary goals were achieved, the British Airbornes withdrew to a U-shaped defence line in Oosterbeek, the so called Perimeter. The artillery positions at the Old Church (pictured here) could reach Arnhem bridge, so supported John Frost in his defence until he gave up on 21 September. This then and now clearly shows how the church and its yard nowadays have changed drastically. For example, the nave of the church is completely different. The line of willows in the back and the floodplains towards the Lower Rhine can be clearly seen.