Type: Statue/Sculpture
The Wellington monument in Nieuwe Niedorp (municipality of Hollands Kroon) consists of a corten steel framework containing a miniature of the RAF bomber made from, among other things, metal remains of the salvaged Vickers Wellington T2990 aircraft. Several large and small bird figures cast in bronze are attached to the image of the bomber and the framework.
Text
The text on the monument reads:
'F/SGT ALOIS ROZUM P/O VILÉM KONŠTACKY
P/O LEONHARD SMRČEK F/SGT JAN HEJNA F/SGT KAREL VALACH'
Symbolism
In the design, the artist has depicted the sea of flames resulting from the grenade impact in the form of a flight of pigeons. These pigeons symbolize the courageous circumstances in which the Czech crew risked their lives to bring freedom.
Change
After the recovery of the Vickers Wellington T2990 bomber in 2021, the municipality of Hollands Kroon commissioned the design of a new monument. This new monument, unveiled on May 4, 2023, replaces the old Wellington monument consisting of a gravel concrete cross with a natural stone plaque underneath with the names of the killed airmen.
THE HISTORY
The Wellington monument reminds the residents of Nieuwe Niedorp of the crash of an RAF bomber on the night of 22 to 23 June 1941. The aircraft, the Vickers Wellington T2990 of 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron Royal Air Force, had carried out a bombing raid that night. on Bremen and was intercepted and shot down on the way back by a Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter of the German occupier. The aircraft crashed in the Kostverlorenpolder near the Kanaalweg in Nieuwe Niedorp and buried itself deeply into the ground. Five of the six Czech crew members died in this crash. The aviator Vilém Bufka managed to save himself with his parachute. Bufka disappears into captivity and was imprisoned in Stalag Luft 3 Sagan and Belaria. After the war he returned to what was then Czechoslovakia, where he died in 1967.
After the recovery of the Vickers Wellington T2990 in 2021, the five crew members were reburied at the military cemetery in Bergen op Zoom on June 23, 2022, exactly 81 years after the crash.
The names of the crew members who died are:
Jan Hejna, Vilém Konštacký, Alois Rozum, Leohnard Smrček and Karel Valach.