“When I held Marine John ‘Joe’ Flannagan’s cross for the first time, it was quite emotional.” Tonnie Ebben from Groeningen recently received four metal grave monuments of fallen Allied soldiers from the Second World War. They will soon be given a prominent place in the new visitors center at the military cemeteries in Bergen op Zoom.
“They were found in a scrap metal bin in Sint Anthonis. I have no idea who left them there. Fortunately, there was someone who realized that they were objects with a special historical value. That’s how they ended up with me,” Tonnie explains.
De Groeninger has had his own war museum ‘From Postage Stamp to Tank’ for years, with a special collection of objects from the Second World War. “When I had cleaned the crosses, the names of the fallen soldiers became visible. After a short search, it turned out to be English and Canadian soldiers who are buried in the military war cemeteries in Bergen op Zoom.”
Allied field crosses are rare
The metal grave monuments were replaced in the war cemeteries in the early 1950s by the well-known natural stone ones. The original steel field crosses often ended up on the scrap heap. That makes Tonnie’s four crosses extra unique.
Tonnie immediately decided that the museum pieces had to be returned to Bergen op Zoom. Work is underway here to set up a new visitors center at the war cemeteries. “I came into contact with the people here through various means. They were immediately very enthusiastic. I am happy that they are going back to the place where they belong.”
He continues: “I’ll be honest, a lot of money is offered for these types of objects. But that is not my blood type. I never sell anything of historical value. These are field crosses of soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom. They are therefore priceless.”
“The story behind the cross of the deceased Marine resonates with me. It feels like a kind of colleague of mine.”
Tonnie immediately felt a special kinship with one of the names on the crosses: 20-year-old Marine John ‘Joe’ Flannagan. The Englishman was killed during the Battle of the Scheldt in Zeeland. He was originally buried in Westkapelle and years later reburied with his comrades in arms in Bergen op Zoom.
“I served in the Marine Corps in 1995 and experienced quite a bit in the former Yugoslavia. The story behind the cross of the deceased Marine really resonates with me. He feels like a kind of colleague of mine,” says Tonnie.
On May 4, he will hand over the four crosses to the visitors center in Bergen op Zoom, where they will be on display to the public later this month.
The military plots in Bergen op Zoom consist of a British and a Canadian cemetery. Together, more than 2,400 Allied soldiers are buried here.
Many of them died during the Battle of the Scheldt in the autumn of 1944. The Allies wanted to conquer the Western Scheldt in order to use the port of Antwerp for the supply of troops and equipment.
The battle took place in Zeeland and West Brabant and was characterized by heavy fighting in flooded polders, dikes and difficult-to-access terrain. German troops fiercely defended the area, causing the operation to take a long time and claim many thousands of casualties.
The killed soldiers were temporarily buried in field graves close to the place where they had died. After the war, the bodies were exhumed and moved to war cemeteries such as the one in Bergen op Zoom. The original wooden and metal crosses have been largely destroyed. Only a few have been preserved.
