Vinkel and Kaathoven Memorial

On June 22/23, 1943 in a field close to the village of Kaathoven, Netherlands, a Halifax, DK141 ZL-N, of 427 Squadron was intercepted and shot down by a German nightfighter. The previous night another Halifax of 158 (RAF) Squadron was destroyed mid-air and wreckage fell approximately 20m from that of the 427 aircraft. Sgt. Jim Spencer, the Flight Engineer, of the 427 aircraft was the only crew member to survive. He was later captured and finished the war as a POW. All other crew members perished.

158 Royal Air Force Squadron Crew

427 Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron Crew

Seventy years later, these two events, the crews of the downed aircraft and the gratitude of the Dutch people were memorialized by a ceremony and unveiling of a memorial close to the two crash sites. The dedication was part of a full day of remembering.

Parts of both aircraft were discovered by Adrian Zantvoort assisted by Ton Bosmans and Ebert van Wanrooj . Restrictions on recovering aircraft parts for identification were placed by the farmers owning the two fields. Crops took first priority. Adrian is a Bomber Command amateur Historian and has done extensive research on wartime crashes in the South Eastern part of Holland. He has an archive which contains 250 files with details on aircraft, crews, operation and accounts of witnesses and ex crewmembers. He was the driving force to honour the 427 and 158 Squadron crews with a memorial.

Recovery and identification of the aircraft parts led to further investigation and identification of the crew names and later when the memorial was a reality he identified the relatives and issued an invitation to attend the unveiling. However, only UK residents were able to attend.

His next step , aided by others interested in his project, was to involve the local authorities. On Saturday June 22, 2013 he organized with their financial and supportive participation a day of remembering.

Along with British relatives, Major Gary Fleming and Pvt. Laura Sharpe from 427 Squadron were able to attend . The New Zealand ambassador, British Attache and F/Sgt Johnson from the Canadian embassy in Brussels were also in attendance.

The full day planned for the Memorial dedication had many emotional but proud moments. The day began with a bus tour of the surrounding country side with a commentary from our guide, a local retired Headmaster, meneer Hombergh. We commenced in Vinkel at the grave site of a local Resistance fighter killed in 1944. Several wartime sites were also visited and we stopped at the site where the 501 Parachute Division were mistakenly dropped in Operation Market Garden. The tour was followed by a church service conducted by a young priest accompanied by a beautiful choral presentation by a large local choir. This service and the unveiling of the memorial later was dedicated to the people of Vinkel who lost their lives in WW II.

Participating in the service were the local retired Headmaster, our bus guide later, the Mayor and the visiting dignataries as well as relatives and town citizens. All of the service was conducted in Dutch followed by an English translation. As we left the church, the local band led us to the memorial unveiling and as the memorials were unveiled the church bells rang out across the town.

Then it was off to lunch. The sponsored lunch took place at a very nice local restaurant after which we were driven to Kaathoven, the site of the memorial to the crews. It was moving to see that the site was already well attended by local people, young and old. They stood in silence awaiting the ceremony. At the bottom of a street, a block away from the memorial, the priest, relatives and dignataries, formed up and walked to the memorial site. Over a hundred of nearby village and town people joined in the parade to the memorial.

Although the memorial service was not lengthy, it was respectful and dignified. On a table in front of a simple memorial, people from the area had laid their own wreathes and crosses. Additionally wreathes were laid by the dignataries. Adrian Zantvoort then spoke to the crowd in English,

The priest then blessed the memorial with these words,