Danny:-
And yes, we were more popular in Holland !
Indeed, Danny, and hopefully that is still the case. I had the privilege to fly the annual commemorative para drop at the Arnhem DZ one year. The DZ of course was vast, but reduced to the size of a postage stamp by the masses of Dutch civilians who had turned out to witness it. Thankfully the nav got his CARP right and the half dozen or so stick of Paras that we dropped ensured that they all made the postage stamp.
For an Operation that essentially failed, ensuring that the population were thus condemned to a cruel winter of starvation before some relief was ensured by Bomber Command's Operation Manna airdrops (co-ordinated with the occupying Germans), it is perhaps surprising that the British are so highly rated, especially as Liberation had to wait until the war's end. They are though, and the hospitality that we were treated to by our hosts at Deelen testified to that.