[BITList] Eindhoven - 18th September

[John Feltham]

G'day folks,

I sent this msg to some friends of mine...


G'day 

This is the city where my wife is from.

http://www.stichting18september.nl/bevrijding.php

If you go the web site above, you will see that they were liberated 9 months before the end of the war. The rest of the Netherlands celebrate a different day. Click on the little tab which says "English Translation".

Now to something a little different.

http://www.oorlogsmusea.nl/artikel/300/Plaquette-Willem-Hikspoorsbrug.htm

This little bridge can be seen on the small map on the web page. My sister in law's house is located within this map. I walked out to see the bridge the other day and I am happy to report that a new road has gone in that by-passes this little bridge.

When I first saw this bridge, many years ago now, it had a plaque on it telling us the story. The poem had the word "Moffa" - a derogatory term used to describe the Germans. The next time that I visited the bridge that word had been changed to the dutch word for the enemy!

The story goes something like this. A German convoy of 5, tracked armoured troop carriers approached  the bridge and stopped. A farm labourer, Wilhelm Hikspoor, hearing them coming went forward and spoke to the German Officer who was inspecting the bridge with a view to checking whether it could carry his vehicles and tanks that were coming along.

He managed to convince the officer that the bridge wasn't strong enough. By doing this he saved a lot of lives. The tanks would have attacked the flank of the advancing allied troops. 

My wife translates the poem as follows...

God saved us without thought,
Through this weak bridge.
Her weakness was her strength.
Here, the enemy had to retreat.

There is a comment at the bottom of the page from a niece of Wilhelm Hikspoors - she writes...

As a niece of Wilhelm Hikspoors I am staying strong as too what my Uncle wilhelm did during this period of the war.

He convinced the enemy that the bridge was too weak to carry heavy vehicles.

So he stopped the retaking of Eindhoven by the Germans.

One branch of the family lives in the Antwerp region of Belgium. and we often talk about the bridge and my Uncle. The bridge is inspected often by the faMily.


ooroo

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