It was one of the turning points in World War II. The moment in 1944 when the German soldiers seemed defeated. And then suddenly they started fighting back. Brabant in particular received the full brunt of this. In the autumn of 1944, our province turned into a horrible front area. Hitler wanted to stop the Allies here. Due to the tough resistance of the 15th German army in particular, the war lasted even longer.
The tragic events of this autumn 78 years ago have long been investigated by Jack Didden (70) from Drunen and Maarten Swarts (77) from Waalwijk. They investigated exactly how the German army maneuvered, just before the liberation of Brabant. They have made a new book about it: The Army That Got Away.
Coast
Their story begins on D-day (June 6, 1944) in Normandy. The Germans were crushed. Some army units were able to escape along the French and Belgian coast.
“That was a planned withdrawal, not a flight,” emphasized Didden. “See their route from the Seine to the Scheldt! The Germans marched here 300 kilometers on foot, or with horses. And still be motivated to keep fighting.”
Market Garden
In September 1944 the end of that 15th army seemed imminent. It became enclosed in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. But it was a bit quieter at the front then. The Allies had their eyes on a completely different place. They wanted to push through East Brabant quickly via Arnhem, across the Rhine. Operation Market Garden swallowed up all the men and equipment.
This allowed the Germans in Zeeland and West Brabant to catch their breath. More than 90,000 German soldiers were adrift. Exhausted and with dirty clothes, they had to march on. By train, some went by bus, even walking towards Bergen op Zoom, into Brabant.
Exhausted
For example, the 245th Division moved from the French port of Dieppe to Hilvarenbeek and Reusel. Of the original 8,000 men, 1,000 were left. The rest were dead, wounded, missing or prisoners of war.
But those 1000 exhausted Germans again counterattacked in Brabant and fanatically against the advancing Allied liberators. “Now I understand why those people who ended up at Tilburg were so exhausted,” said Didden. He thinks it’s a fine example of military tactics. He has no admiration for the enemy back then. He would like to have said that.
Americans
The German 59th Infantry Division landed in Heerle, near Wouw. From there they had to advance towards Boxtel and Best in a counter-attack against the Americans who had landed at Son. That attack was disastrous. The very tired Germans lost 600 men.
The wanderings of that 15th Army have been fully investigated for the first time. It has been six years in the making. The 500-page book contains more than 900 photos, many of which have never been published. “It was quite a birth again,” jokes researcher Johan van Doorn from Heijningen. He played an important role as an expert in the background.
Trilogy
The book is in English, because interest is worldwide. Japan, England, America, Canada, Hong Kong. Strangely enough no one in Russia.
It is the third edition in a trilogy that started with ‘Autumn Gale’ (2013) about the counter-attack of the 15th army in Brabant and ‘Kampfgruppe Walther’ (2016) about the battles at Son, Veghel and Overloon. Didden is already busy with the next book about the Polish liberators.