Corine Koek-Maasdam, author of a book about the English bomber that crashed in Werkendam during the Second World War, finds it terrible that a war monument has been severely damaged in her village. A truck overturned on Tuesday afternoon and landed on the monument. “To see it in pieces is not a pleasant sight.”
“The propeller blades that are attached to the engine block are next to it,” Corine describes the damage to the war memorial, which is located at the intersection of the Weeresteinweg and the Grotewaardweg in Werkendam. Two steel poppies are bent: “I was shocked, but luckily it can be repaired.”
The biggest blow was to the monument on Tuesday afternoon. The truck driver was taken to hospital for a check-up and is said to be doing well.
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The monument means a lot to Corine. Last April she published the book ‘Lancaster LM508 SR-P – About heroes in the air who fought for freedom’. In it she reconstructs what took place in Werkendam on the night of June 22, 1944: an English bomber was shot down by a German night fighter and crashed burning in the Werkendam Borcharenpolder. Eight crew members were on board, six of whom survived the crash. They are eventually taken prisoner of war.
One of the crew members is Sergeant John Keogh. In October 2014, his human remains were found during the recovery of the aircraft. Two years later he was reburied at the cemetery at Laantje in Werkendam, near his comrade Thomas Duff.
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“Those men fought for our country,” says Corine. The war memorial in Werkendam means a lot to her. “It commands respect. It is a nice place to pay tribute to them.”
She also pays that tribute in her book. The first step towards this was already made in the summer of 2009, when she spoke to the resident of the farm where the burning fragments of the bomber landed in 1944 for the local newspaper. But then it stayed with that story.
After the unveiling of the monument in 2016, the ball really started rolling. Corine obtained eyewitness accounts, diaries and photos and even found documents from the POW camp. Through Facebook she came into contact with someone who had access to archives with information about the bombings. “Step by step I made progress. That made it very personal and I started to wonder what I would do in such a situation.” Her search eventually led to a 288-page book with 400 photos.
“I think it is important that these types of stories are preserved,” says Corine. She therefore sincerely hopes that the war memorial will be restored to its full glory. “This must be recorded, preserved and passed on, because it colors history.”
