www.voicesofwar.co.uk
Introduction
Over the last decade or so, we have spent considerable time researching
the personal histories of soldiers, and Sandy was one of the veterans
we were fortunate enough to meet.
It was September 2020 and we were sat in the Schoonoord cafe in
Oosterbeek, for the 75th commemorations. We saw a veteran in a
wheelchair come in, looking for somewhere to sit in the extremely
crowded cafe, so naturally we made space at our table and got chatting
to him. His name was Sandy Cortmann, and it transpired that this
was his rst visit to Arnhem since landing there in somewhat different
circumstances 75 years ago. His friend Gary, (himself an ex-para) and
his carer Alana had taken him from his care home in Aberdeen for this
special visit. Before this trip, Sandy had never really talked much about
his military past until he was contacted by the local para association,
who looked into his story. He was a “lost veteran”. His memories of
the battle had kept him away from the reunions over the years, and this
was his rst visit since 1944.
Whilst we sat with him, he had a phone call - relayed to him by Gary,
as Sandy couldn’t hear a thing - and it was loudly announced he was
t to jump! Sandy’s face was a picture of joy. He was no longer an old
man in a wheelchair - you could see the 22 year old paratrooper that
had volunteered for a mission all those years ago, not knowing what
was ahead of him. He turned to us and asked us to wait for him on the
DZ afterwards, as we would need to help pick him up. “There’ll be my
leg....” he said, “there’ll be my arm...”, then he paused for a moment;
“And there’ll be the biggest bit of me!”, Well, that part is best left to the