Edward Arnott

3 HAA Royal Marines were based at Antwerp providing anti aircraft cover for the port and the shipping lanes down the river Scheld to the North Sea.

Antwerp had been taken in September 1944 but it had taken to November before the Scheldt estuary was cleared of German forces and the port could be opened up to become the major hub for Allied forces and supply route for the North West Europe campaign.
The Germans had started a V1 and V2 campaign against Antwerp to disrupt the Allied campaign and to terrorise the Belgian population. From October 1944 to March 1945 Antwerp was hit with thousands of rockets, but 16th December 1944 was the deadlist day.
The cinema, located on De Keyserlei 15, had opened in 1935. Designed by Leon Stynen based on the large American movie theatres of the times it was 5 stories tall. The V2 had been launched from Batterie 500 from it's base at Hellendoorn, The Netherlands at 3:17 pm and 6 minutes later the rocket crashed through the roof and exploded causing all five floors to collapse. It took almost a week to recover all the bodies from the rubble. There were 1100 in the cinema to watch Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in "The Plainsman" many were Allied servicemen but audience also included local civilians including children. 567 were killed, of which 296 were Allied servicemen with another 194 servicemen injured. 74 children were killed.
The 16th December was the first day of the Germans counter-offensive, the Ardennes Offensive. Antwerp was the main target as they needed to retake the port to disrupt the supply lines and to split the Allied forces.