It’s not dry on June 18, 1970, it’s bone dry. Not a drop of rain has fallen for six weeks. Why on earth is there shooting at the Artillery Shooting Camp (ASK) near ‘t Harde that Thursday?
And what did Prince Bernhard do at the shooting camp? Reconstruction of the
day that the Noordveluwe village and surrounding area escaped an inferno.
Anne Boer
General reporter
In 2010, Stentor reporters Anne Boer and Joop Offringa delved into the disaster that struck the Veluwe in 1970.
It resulted in this reconstruction, which readers of the then Zwolsche Courant read in the summer.
Due to the enormous fire at the end of April 2026, we are now giving our readers the opportunity to read the reconstruction of that inferno – now online.
Just come back when I’m on my deathbed.
Such a response, given by a soldier almost forty years after one of the largest forest fires in Dutch history, does not bode well. Others shoot with live ammunition.
Erik van de Beek (60), for example. The son of the then security officer at the shooting camp is still annoyed by the fact that his father was accused of laxity at the time. Erik works in the navy in the summer of 1970, visiting his parents in ‘t Harde before his frigate accompanies Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard on a cruise.
The twenty-year-old Hardenees knows the training area like the back of his hand, has lived there for years and is drawn to the shooting range that day by a plume of smoke. During that time you can still walk in and out without hindrance or, in his case, drive.
It burns more often
Erik sends his Tomos to the so-called zero point, where you have a good view of the ASK.
“There is a large area of heathland ablaze and no action is being taken. Now it often burns during shooting exercises. That in itself is not strange, but in this case the fire is in the wrong place. The grenades usually land in a kind of moon landscape that is so destroyed that little can burn. This time it happened differently, partly due to the strong wind.”
The strong easterly wind plays a decisive role. But also gas clouds that are formed when fire rushes through bone-dry pines to the tops of the trees and develops such heat that the gas is released from the needles.
Former ASK commander Piet Bouman (90) is convinced of this. After the first report he jumps into his jeep. What he subsequently sees at the scene of the disaster burns indelibly into his memory.
‘It was very threatening’
“It was hell. I thought, Jesus, the Hard is going to burn. I can still see the flames going at a furious pace over the railway line and the highway. We all thought that was impossible. It was so incredibly threatening, the worst thing I have ever experienced.”
‘t Harde now looks like a war zone. Residents of the endangered local bungalow park put their most valuable belongings in and on their cars, fire engines cluster around the gas station in the center of the village, smoke creates a foggy view and a pungent smell does not bode well.
‘Like a heavy rain shower’
The Petra school, like the bungalow park, is in the line of fire. Teacher Reina Scholten (76) does not have to think long when a mother reports that the fire has spread over the highway. Leave the classroom without a closing prayer. “It was as if a heavy rain shower was coming, it became so dark.”
Scholten lives near the school, quickly packs photos and a dog in her house, knows that her sons are already safe, is amazed at a neighbor who is watering his thatched roof with a garden hose and finds temporary shelter with acquaintances.
Water from the pool
Her husband is in the fire brigade and is part of the rapidly growing army of no fewer than fifteen alert brigades (Epe, Oldebroek, Heerde, Doornspijk, Elburg, Nunspeet, Elspeet, Zwolle, Kampen, Deventer, Apeldoorn, Arnhem, Hattem, Dronten and Vaassen), which ultimately consists of 36 units.
They pump water from the local swimming pool. Tanks, soldiers, blaring sirens and frightened citizens ready to flee complete the chaotic picture.
In addition to almost a thousand firefighters, soldiers and young people picked from the street also help put out the fire. ‘Professional’ Herman Toetenel (62) still remembers everything like it was yesterday.
“We had to put on our combat fatigues and go with a pioneer shovel, helmet, canteen and gas mask.” Not that Toetenel and colleagues are getting involved in the heat of the battle.
“There was an hour and a half between the call and the action. By then the fire had long since spread over the railway and the highway. We had never trained to extinguish it. We had to knock out the fire with our shovel and some kind of twig brooms. That took me hours.”
Nature decides
Firebreaks are being constructed with heavy Centurion tanks to save ‘t Harde. One is also being built behind the bungalow park, but the blaze does not reach that far. Nature makes its own decision.
The wind shifts just as the inferno reaches ‘t Harde, sparing the center of the Noordveluwe village in the nick of time. The damage was ultimately limited to three hundred hectares of forest, roads destroyed by tanks and six destroyed villas and farms, whose thatched roofs served as a source of fire.
Already in the evening the village fills with disaster tourists. An image that lasts for the next few days. Fire brigade and soldiers are busy extinguishing the fire, valuables are stolen from a burned down villa and the first dignitaries report.
The sequel is predictable and recognizable. Minister Beernink (Home Affairs) announces an in-depth investigation. A small fire breaks out internally. The Ministry of Defense (Minister Den Toom) is arguing with the mayor of Apeldoorn (Des Tombe) about who warned whom and when.
Then the prince shows up
But what makes the most impression is the smoke screen that the defense creates. Juggling with times, further investigation into the question of guilt is of course a requirement and to top it all off, the prince’s presence is admitted.
The prince? Yes, as Inspector General of the armed forces, Bernhard turns out to be not only a ‘lighter bird’ but also an early bird. According to a defense spokesperson, he visited the army air observation school from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., hours before the fire broke out.
In ‘t Harde at that time it consisted of no more than a take-off and landing strip plus a bare outbuilding.
Grenades were shot
The press provides the most interesting ammunition. According to an officer, Bernhard flew above the shooting range during the exercise and a soldier reported on the radio that incendiary high-explosive grenades were fired.
Reports that nuclear grenades were temporarily removed from the then existing American nuclear site are not confirmed anywhere.
The official reports contain fewer surprises. The recommendations are easy to guess: better coordination of aid agencies, tighter organization, etc. Defense ultimately acknowledges guilt and, after many ifs and buts, pays out the last damage claims years later.
The final salvo comes forty years after commander Piet Bouman. He reveals that he had to appear before a court-martial because of the fire, but never heard anything about it afterwards.
