During World War II, 2,500 British soldiers were rescued by Canadian Combat Engineers using plywood boats powered by Evinrude outboard motors. The story began when British Field Marshall Montgomery dropped 30,000 Allied paratroopers behind the German lines in The Netherlands. Called Operation Market Garden, it was the largest air drop in history. The paratroopers were to secure four bridges that were key to the Allied advance into the Netherlands. They had enough food and ammunition for two to three days because the British Third Army was supposed to race up a two-lane road with tanks, artillery, and ground troops to relieve them. However, everything that could go wrong for the British Third Army went wrong, and among many other calamities, 2,500 paratroops from the British First Airborne were trapped by the Germans. In the middle of one long night under a steady rain of bullets, they were rescued by 50 Combat Engineers from Canada using 16-foot plywood boats powered by 50 HP Evinrude outboard motors. 

This remarkable story of bravery, hubris, stupidity, and genius is the subject of WWII Storm Boat Outboard Motors and the History of Operation Market Garden, “A Bridge Too Far,” an illustrated lecture by Larry Stevenson, presented on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 7 p.m. at Boothbay Railway Village, 586 Wiscasset Road, Route 27, Boothbay. A donation of $5 is suggested and proceeds will benefit the Museum’s general operating fund.

Larry Stevenson is an outboard motor historian and collector, and has donated nearly 300 historic outboard motors to Boothbay Railway Village. Larry is a West Boothbay Harbor summer resident, a Navy and Coast Guard Auxiliary veteran and a retired UPS International Industrial Engineering Manager in the international operation. He has lived in the UK, Belgium, and Germany. WWII Storm Boat Outboard Motors and the History of Operation Market Garden is part of the Boothbay Railway Village 2016 lecture series.