Well worth a visit... This Memorial was erected in memory of the seven crew members of the Halifax JN920, which crashed on this site on the night of October 22, 1943. They gave their lives for our freedom. Passerby remember them: Flt. Sgt. C.E. HALL RCAF Pilot, aged 25 Sgt. G.H. BENNET Navigator, aged 20 Sgt. R.S. SITCH Wireless Operator / Air Gunner, aged 21 Sgt. J.C. COWIE Mid Upper Gunner, aged 20 Sgt. T.V. LEWIS Rear Gunner, aged 25 Missing / Missing Sgt. M.S. WILLIAMS Flight Engineer, aged 29 Missing / Missing Sgt. E. PARKER Air Bomber, aged ???
Memorial was inaugurated on October 23, 1999
'Until the dawn breaketh'
A witness report: On the evening of October 22, 1943, 569 planes took off in England to bomb Kassel in Germany. To distract the Germans, they first made a mock attack on Frankfurt. But the Germans were not deceived. 25 Halifax aircraft and 18 Lancasters were shot down that night. One of those Halfaxes was the new Halfax JN 920 that crashed here in Beverdonk. Jan Stessens, then 11 years old, heard the anti-aircraft guns that evening. Together with his father they went outside to look at the front of the house. Through the flares they saw that it came from the German anti-aircraft guns that were positioned at the Castle of Retie. Suddenly a Halifax was hit from the back of the tail and the fire spread rapidly, forward. Jeanne Mariën saw how the plane, burning and roaring, skimmed over their farm in Beverdonk and exploded two hundred meters away in a sea of fire. The five crew members perished here. Four of them are buried in Antwerp. Sergant Sitch is buried in the cemetery in Retie. On November 11 of each year, a poppy wreath is placed on every grave of an English soldier. This is a wreath of poppies for the honor of their country."