Crew of the estimated 34 aircraft that crashed during the Second World War in Altena and the Biesbosch are reminded with eleven monuments in the municipality of Altena. The first monument will be unveiled next week.
Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, eleven new war memorials are added to the municipality of Altena. The idea for this arose during a bike ride along the Battlefield Tour, a route past locations that remind us of the war.
Adri Burghout from the Altena War Museum noticed that there were few monuments in those historic places. On the other side of the Maas, in the Bommelerwaard, they are already there. “Not anyone had come up yet,” says Adri.
That is why plans were made in 2018 to place the first war memorial in Veen, but the municipal administration of the then municipality of Aalburg put a stop to that.
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But sitting still, the war museum has not done that in recent years. The ‘Monuments Crash locations WWII Altena’ workgroup was created. The group put a lot of time into thorough investigation into the victims of the aircraft crashes in Altena and applying for permits for placing the monuments.
The first monument has since been realized: a propeller leaf on a concrete base. A plaque was attached to this with the side view of the fighter plane, a description of the event during the Second World War and the names of the crew members. A QR code leads to a website about the Air war in Altena.
Of the estimated 34 aircraft crashes in Altena, 21 have been determined with certainty. Because some locations are in the middle of the Biesbosch, monuments will eventually appear at 11 accessible locations.
For example, three monuments will be placed in Dussen, two at the Biesbosch and also in Drongelen, Genderen, Wijk and Aalburg, between Almkerk and Uitwijk, a monument in Werkendam and near Nieuwendijk. “The locations that we can hardly reach may be a twelfth collective plaque at the Altena War Museum,” says Adri.
The first monument will be revealed next Tuesday, in the presence of two English and American relatives, at the Reformed Church in Drongelen. Then it is eighty years ago that nearby, in a minefield in the floodplains at the Veer van Drongelen, a British bomber of the Royal Airforce crashed.
The crew was on a mission from Melsbroek, Belgium, to the German Xanten. “On the way they got in thick clouds, the contact with the air traffic controller lost and probably lost. They were shot at the German anti -aircraft guns, so that the plane crashed,” says Adri.
“They left their lives for the liberation of Europe. That heroic act is definitely worth commemorating.”
The English air shooter Ronald Goldsmith (23) survived the crash, but was made prisoner of war by the Germans. The Schote pilot David Fenner (29), the English bomber Laurence Trapp (27) and the Zimbabwean air shooter Kevin Clarke (27) died.
They were temporarily buried in Drongelen and later reburied at the military cemetery in Nijmegen. “They left their lives for the liberation of Europe. That heroic act is definitely worth commemorating.”