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Krieg in het Hurkske in Erp (Niederlande)
am 23. September 1944
ES IST IMMER JEMANDES VATER,
ES IST IMMER JEMANDES SOHN.
It is the third week of September 1944. Operation Market Garden is threatening to end in disaster due to the fierce and unexpected resistance of the German troops. The 82nd Airborne Division, tasked with holding the bridge over the Waal River at Nijmegen, is under heavy fire and in danger of being overrun. On September 23, the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR) is flown to the village of Overasselt to reinforce the 82nd.
However, not all Waco gliders make it to the landing zone. The Germans fire with everything they have at the overflying C-47 transport planes and the gliders trailing behind them. Many C-47s and gliders are hit and, in some cases, forced to land in enemy territory.
The same was true for the glider with pilot Alvin Jones.
After the C47 was hit in one of its engines over Veghel, the glider had to be detached, and Jones managed to land the aircraft safely in a field along a wooded area.
On their way down, they are shot at from the ground,
and the Waco glider soon catches fire upon landing.
The pilot and thirteen heavily armed infantrymen immediately took cover in a trench after being fired upon from the edge of the forest.
Since they do not know where they are, but assume they can reach their own lines, they take up the fight.
What followed was an hours-long firefight with the Germans, who were apparently present in large numbers. Outnumbered, exhausted, with many wounded in their ranks and almost out of ammunition, they were forced to surrender.
All fourteen were taken to the village of Gemert and a day later transported to different prisoner-of-war camps. Here they would spend the rest of the war.
On the German side, there were six or seven dead. The Americans also suffered heavy losses in the battle; some of them were seriously wounded.
Der damalige Graben, in dem die Amerikaner Schutz suchten und die Stelle, an der der Gleiter gelandet ist:
Nun folgt die Liste der 14 Amerikaner:
------------------------------------
1LT Irvin Christian Andersen
1921-2006
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 6G, Bonn
SGT Walter J Barc
1919-2001
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 3B, Fürstenberg
PVT Cecil Leroy Blood
1925-1991
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 7a, Moosburg
PFC Richard Donald Cator
1922-1996
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 7a, Moosburg
(kein Foto vorhanden)
PFC John T. Clark
1916-unknown
Stalag 7a prisoner-of-war camp, Moosburg
(no photo available)
SSGT Billy Condon
1919-2004
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 6G, Bonn
PVT Louis A Delosh
1919-2004
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 2a, Neubrandenburg
(kein Foto vorhanden)
T5 James C Dunlap
1918-2008
Stalag 3c prisoner-of-war camp, Alt Drewitz
(no photo available)
PFC Carl L Ellis
1911-1987
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 7a, Moosburg
PVT Julian E Gorski
1922-1991
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 6J, Krefeld
(kein Foto vorhanden)
FLIGHT OFFICER Alvin Charles Jones
1920-2005
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag Luft 1, Barth
PFC Robert C. Miller
1920-1997
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 6G, Bonn
en wellicht ook Stalag 7a, Moosburg
(kein Foto vorhanden)
PFC Galen Overholsters
1922-1988
Stalag 7a prisoner-of-war camp, Moosburg
PVT Robert Hugh Wood
1923-1991
Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag 7a, Moosburg
(kein Foto vorhanden)
Die Familien der US-Soldaten sind alle gefunden worden, mit einer Ausnahme: die Familie von PVT Julian E. Gorski.
Leider waren nicht alle US-Familien interessiert......
The six German soldiers who died during the firefight with the Americans after the plane
landed on September 23, 1944:
Erich Hammermeister
* 02-12-1914
Oberfeldwebel
Erinhard Glasmeier
* 10-09-1922
Unteroffizier
Friedrich Wilhelm Lüneburg
* 17--06-1905
Hauptmann
Gustav Waldmann
* 19-02-1915
Unteroffizier
Heinrich Schönemann
* 09.01.1914
Leutnant
Helmut Gäbel
* 04-011-1921
Obergefreiter
On September 22, 2024, a monument commemorating the event of September 23, 1944, was unveiled in het Hurkske in Erp.
This event took place exactly 80 years after the incident, next to the meadow where the glider had landed.
You can get an impression of the ceremony that took place on that day on YouTube.:
Monument 't Hurkske. September 22 - Erthepe Local History Society YouTube
A link to a 60-minute video showing the complete event of the dedication and unveiling of the monument on that sunny Sunday in September will soon be available on this website.
When I entered the site where the unveiling was to take place on September 22, 2024, I was very surprised to find my German friend and webmaster of this website, Peter Zabel. He had traveled all the way from Germany to Erp: a journey of several hours!
On his website he has published a wonderful report about the day in German:
Monument unveiling NL Hurkske 2024
The local history society of Erthepe also wrote a report about the day:
Onthulling monument 't Hurkske in Erp 22 September 2024- Local history society
This page will soon contain much more information.
For those interested in learning more about the war in het Hurkske in Erp: There is a comprehensive brochure (in English) and a leaflet (in Dutch): “Cycling and hiking along the events in and around het Hurkske, 1939-1945”.
If you would like to receive this brochure and/or leaflet, please send an email to the webmaster, Peter Zabel, or to me, Jan Cornelis de Mik, and we will send it to you free of charge and without obligation.
