During the night of 14 to 15 February 1943, German artillery shot down a Royal Air Force bomber above Meerhout. The HE164, a Vickers Wellington, was on its way to a bombing raid on Cologne. Three crew members were killed. Three others survived the crash thanks to their parachutes. The Germans captured them.

The Germans cleared the wreckage. Some residents of Meerhout hid a piece of the wreckage in a barn on a nearby farm. After the liberation, they made a memorial with it in De Donken, near the crash site. They called it De Vleugel (The Wing), but it was actually a piece of the tail of the crashed bomber. The monument fell into oblivion until hikers rediscovered it in the 1970s. Today, it is still a unique memorial.

In addition to the wing itself, there is a monument on the other side consisting of a bench with figures decorated in corten steel and provided with texts about, among other things, the liberation and "dancing with the Scots".

Dancing with the Scots. In the night of 12 to 13 September 1944, the Germans left Meerhout. The next morning, the Allies reached Zittaart. The residents rushed to meet the liberators, the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders. A triumphant entry into Meerhout followed via the Zittaartsesteenweg (today the Bevrijdingslaan). Later in the day, transport troops, tanks and cannons followed.

There was a party in the village. The Allied soldiers played music and taught the residents songs and dances, such as the Hokey Cokey. This folk dance, with fixed steps, was very popular in the United Kingdom in the 1940s. The soldiers brought a piece of home with them to Meerhout.

Source: liberationroute.com/nl/stories/147/de-vleugel-een-bijzonder-monument

Translated by Google •

lilian2260

January 3, 2021

De Vleugel is a strange monument. Popularly called the wing, it is actually a tailpiece of a British Wellington bomber, which crashed here on Valentine's Day 1943 during World War II. 3 crew members were able to save themselves with their parachute, 3 were killed. The tail piece left behind was later erected as a keepsake.
De Vleugel has been included as a special monument in the prestigious Liberation Route Europe that connects places from the Second World War.

Translated by Google •

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Location: Meerhout, Turnhout, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium

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