1.
General view of marchers in the centre of Nijmegen.


2.
Some of the marchers.


3.
Two shots of men of the 2nd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regt.


4.
Men of the 5th (Territorial) Battalion. Welsh Regt.


5.
Two shots of some the countryside the marchers saw.


6.
Different shots of Welch Regiment marchers.


7.
Two shots of Monmouthshire Regt. men.


8.
The two Welsh groups together.


9.
Comprehensive shots of the two groups on the march.


10.
Two shots of Welsh soldiers marching with local children holding their hands.


11.
Different shots of civilian marchers.


12.
Some footsore marchers resting by the wayside while other marchers go by.




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Twelve men of the 2nd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment and 11 man of the 5th (Territorial Army) Battalion of the Welch Regiment have been taking part with some 15,000 other people, in the four-day "pleasure march", which ends today, around the town of Nijmegen, in Central Holland. Altogether 16 countries have had representatives in this gruelling event, the 43rd of the series.

Visnews cameras filmed the men of the Monmouthshire and Welch Regiments today as they marched by, sometimes with Dutch small children running beside them and slinging to their hands. The men all looked fit and happy and said that, despite the great heat, they had enjoyed marching through the beautiful wooded countryside watered by the Rhine. (It will be recalled that Nijmegen and the neighbouring town of Arahem and the heaths round about were the scene of the heroic but unsuccessful attempt by British paratroops, dropped behind the German lines in the latter stages of the war, to capture and hold the great Rhine bridges).

The object of a "pleasure march" Well such marches, though on a smaller scale, are not infrequently held in Holland and other Continental countries and are regarded as sporting events. The Nijmegen march, with so many people from so many countries taking part in it each year, helps people of many nations to get to know each other and understand something of each other's points of view. And these marchers -- Service men and women, or civilians, who complete the full distances on each of the four days, receive medallion, proudly displayed by some of then to their local walking clubs when they return home.