Memory Route World War ll Ammunition Train Exploded in Rijen

Oosterhoutseweg 55, Rijen (Gilze en Rijen)

Netherlands, the North Brabant Rijen (Gilze en Rijen)

Memory Route World War ll Ammunition Train Exploded in Rijen #1

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In the Municipality of Gilze and Rijen is a memory route created in memory of the Second World War.
In a number of places there is a sign with a description of what happened at that place in the Second World War.

AMMUNITION TRAIN EXPLODED AT THE FIVE OAKS IN RIJEN

On 30 July 1943, an ammunition train with aircraft bombs exploded at level crossing Vijf Eiken in Rijen, probably as a result of sabotage. Several people were injured and a casual passer-by, Nol Heerkens, was killed.
The explosion did a lot of damage far into the circumference. Café farm Vijf Eiken and several other houses were found to be destroyed or uninhabitable.

Twenty wagons were completely destroyed, five partially. The locomotive and the four rear wagons were spared and as a result also the driver, the auxiliary operator and the conductor.

The railway itself was completely destroyed over a distance of about 250 meters. After the explosion, a fire started immediately in the woods on the south side of the railway Breda - Gilze-Rijen. The voluntary fire brigade of Rijen pulled out with thirteen men and a motorbike syringe, but did not have to take action. The ranger of Staatsbosbeheer had already extinguished the flames with a fire crew.

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