S8 Ep193: Ceasefire and Post-War Legacy — James Holland — Holland describes the final ceasefire order received at a German farmyard, evoking the profound mixture of "immense relief and overwhelming grief" experienced by surviving regiment members who had endured ye
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
- Ceasefire and Post-War Legacy — James Holland — Holland describes the final ceasefire order received at a German farmyard, evoking the profound mixture of "immense relief and overwhelming grief" experienced by surviving regiment members who had endured years of combat and witnessed countless comrades' deaths. Hollandtraces the post-war lives of veterans including Arthur Reddish and John Semken, documenting their transition from combat to civilian life and the lasting psychological impact of sustained warfare. Holland concludes by noting that the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry continues to exist in contemporary Britain as an integral component of the Royal Yeomanry, maintaining institutional continuity and commemorating the regiment's extraordinary combat history and sacrifice during World War II.
Transcript
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| 0:24.4 | The Home of Every Kind of Christmas. |
| 0:27.4 | The Home of Homes. |
| 0:34.7 | This is CBSI on the world. |
| 0:36.5 | I'm speaking to James Holland. His book, Brothers in Arms, |
| 0:40.9 | details war on the ground, tank war. It was the story of 1944-45 in the Allied victory over Germany. |
| 0:51.7 | We come now to May 5th, 1945. The same Stuart Hills, who is heartbroken |
| 0:57.8 | by the loss of his good friend, Dennis Elmore, is driving back towards headquarters |
| 1:03.3 | where the Sherwood Rangers are waiting for their next orders to keep attacking, because |
| 1:08.4 | the Germans won't surrender, so they have to attack and attack. |
| 1:11.2 | And I think they're headed for Bremen. |
| 1:14.0 | However, Bremenhaven? |
| 1:15.8 | Bremer-Hobin, thank you. |
| 1:17.5 | And Christopherson gets a message that James has reproduced in his book. |
| 1:22.4 | What is the message, James? |
| 1:24.0 | Well, it arrived the previous evening of the 4th of May, and he's handed it. |
| 1:29.1 | He's in this courtyard and this farm yard, and this farm, this beautiful little village |
| 1:34.8 | in the kind of sort of interland between Bremen and Hamburg, sort of farming, low-level farming land, |
| 1:41.2 | called Carl Surfing, and he's overtaker, you know, he's taken over this farm yard |
| 1:44.8 | and building as the regimental headquarters. And suddenly this message is scrawled and sort of on a |
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