Aircrew Memorial

A new shoreline memorial has been placed at my hometown, to honour the collective 117 allied airmen that lost their lives in different crashes between 1941 and 1945 in the vincinity of Harderwijk that is located on the shores of the old Zuiderzee or Ijsselmeer in The Netherlands

Most of them came down in these waters, that were part of a beaten path for bombers in- or outbound Germany, and was favored for being far away from flaksites and nachtjagdbases. The route however directly overflew the German radarsite called Stellung Hase, that guided nightfighters to the bomberstreams.

Today, this specific water is called Veluwemeer as a result of large postwar land reclaim works and connects to the larger Ijsselmeer around the Flevopolder, that is seen in the background.