April 26, 1945. After a day long struggle, the British and Dutch troops from Hedel cross the Maas, back to the safe Den Bosch. The soldiers are impressed by the fighting. But there are also questions: what was this good for? And: why did we have to withdraw? There are still not satisfactory answers after 80 years.
The region above Den Bosch was a scene of heavy fighting. Since D-Day in Normandy, the Princess Irene Brigade has not suffered such heavy losses. On the Dutch side, twelve dead and more than thirty people are injured. The victims are mainly young men, who have never fought the front before.
Force majeur
“I only have praise and appreciation for that. The boys who have given their lives should never be forgotten,” says Johan van Doorn, military historian. The Germans suffer the biggest losses: at least seventy Germans die and many more soldiers are injured.
There are approximately a thousand German soldiers in the area. The few hundred Dutch people and British have to compete against a good force majeure. Moreover, the enemy also gets reinforcement from Amsterdam. Among the German dead are many sailors of the Crosmarine.
SS
In the rear, the Germans also receive help from dozens of men from the Waffen SS Landstorm Nederland. Countrymen in a foreign military service. They mainly served as a guide.
Upon returning to the barracks in Brabant, the officers are praised by their British general. Towards the outside world, the proud is visible. He takes shape in the new corps banner with inscription: ‘Hedel 1945’.
A soldier from the brigade receives the highest award, the Military Willems Order. It is Captain Willem de Roos (1906-1986) But among the men, frustration also arises about the how and why of the operation.
‘Just seem’
Only long after the war does a book about the battle at Hedel appear. Bosschenaar Luc van Gent (1925-2013) was himself an eyewitness and tried to find out what it was like. In vain. “Anyone who has come up with the idea of taking an attack on the Bommelerwaard in the last days before the end of the war will never be traced (..),” he writes.
Van Gent suggests in the book that the attack may have been a Dutch initiative. Emergency signals come from occupied area in April 1945. Officers of the Princess Irene Brigade want to intervene military to prevent ‘only corpses being liberated’.
And then there was also the letter of April 6, 1945, written by Prince Bernhard. At that time, the prince is the head of the Interior Forces (the former resistance that has been ‘merged’). His headquarters is near Ulvenhout, on the Anneville estate. The letter from the prince ends up on the mat of a British commander. Stretching: We have a brigade that wants to free the country but has nothing to do.
Incomprehensible
Bernhard offered the British the Princess Irene Brigade at the time? Military historian Johan van Doorn suspects that the Dutch wanted a more active role during the liberation. There is no evidence. Van Doorn mentions operation Orange irresponsible. “An attack at the moment of the war? With so few men, without reinforcements and without sufficient artillery support. Incomprehensible. It had no military goal”.
In the last days of April 1945 it becomes clear that ‘larger interests’ played at the end of the war. Behind the scenes is negotiated by friend and foe. The weapons must remain silent to let food aid.
The majority of Noord-Brabant was liberated in the fall of 1944. Except for the Land van Heusden and Altena. That only got the freedom back in May 1945. Every day you can read in this series about the events at the end of the Second World War in Europe.