Commemoration ceremony in Breedeweg
The commemoration ceremony in Breedeweg on Wednesday morning focused on the spring of 1945. At that time, the population that had returned to this border region began rebuilding. Houses and homes had disappeared and the land was littered with war material. During the memorial service in the church in Breedeweg, children and grandchildren recounted the impressive experiences of their parents and grandparents when they returned to a destroyed village after the evacuation. A delegation from the 82nd Airborne Division was present and the 82nd Airborne Division choir sang a few appropriate songs. The Groesbeek Airborne Vrienden Foundation organised this event together with the 17 Septemberstraat Commissie from Breedeweg and Mosaik Kleve.
Commemoration ceremony at the temporary American cemetery in Molenhoek
On the afternoon of 17 September, a commemoration ceremony was held at the site of the temporary American cemetery in Molenhoek, where more than 800 Allied soldiers were buried until 1947. Exactly 80 years ago, a large commemoration ceremony took place here, and now those who fell for our freedom were remembered once again. A delegation from the 82nd Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division choir were also present. Chloe Gavin, daughter of General Gavin, who was responsible for Operation Market Garden, gave an impressive speech before wreaths were laid. The event ended with the presentation of a new book about the temporary cemetery and the soldiers buried there. The Groesbeek Airborne Vrienden Foundation and the Bevrijdingscomité Overasselt-Nederasselt Foundation were jointly responsible for organising the event.
‘Heaven Can Wait’ memorial service in Hommersum
On the evening of 18 September, a memorial service was held at the ‘Heaven Can Wait’ memorial plaque. On 18 September 1944, three American B-24 Liberator bombers were shot down during a supply flight to Klein Amerika, Groesbeek. In 2004, an American relative of one of the fallen crew members took the initiative to erect a memorial plaque at the crash site of one of these three aircraft, named ‘Heaven Can Wait’, in the Nuthgraben watercourse near Hommersum (Germany). In the presence of the delegation from the US 82nd Airborne Division and the choir of the 82nd Airborne Division, the Groesbeek
Airborne Friends organised a memorial service here.
Memorial service ‘Hate kills, love reconciles’ in Kranenburg
Finally, on Sunday morning, 21 September, the municipality of Kranenburg and the Groesbeek Airborne Friends organised a memorial service at the ‘Hate kills, love reconciles’ monument in the presence of the delegation from the 82nd Airborne Division to commemorate the two American prisoners of war who were shot there in September 1944. The memorial service was accompanied musically by the clarinet ensemble ‘Mooi van Hout’. During the music, photos from 1944 of the Kranenburg and Groesbeek area were shown. Pupils from the Euregio Realschule in Kranenburg also contributed poems and stories.
The Euregio Rhine-Waal supported these events with funds from the ‘80 Years of Freedom’ programme and from the small projects fund of the EU programme Interreg Deutschland-Nederland.
(Translated with DeepL.com)
