Crash Site Henschel HS 126

At the initiative of the Patriotic Circle Groot-Haaltert, an information board was placed on the corner of Eigenstraat and Koekelberg that commemorates the crash of a German reconnaissance aircraft at the beginning of the Second World War.

"May 19, 1940, the crash of a German reconnaissance aircraft Hs-126, Eigenstraat in Denderhoutem.

On May 19, 1940 around 6:15 PM, a German reconnaissance aircraft HENSCHEL Hs-126, with pilot Unteroffizier Gerhard Meermann and Feldwebel Herbert Carl of the Heeresaufkläringsgruppe 41-2 Staffel, spotted in the vicinity of Aalst by British Hawker Hurricanes fighter aircraft of the 213th Squadron.
The British "B" flights were led by Flight Commander Ronald Derek Gordon Wight with the pilots Pilot Officer Wilfred Max Sizer, Pilot Officer Harold Derek Atkinson and Sergeant Samuel Leslie Butterfield. Their assignment was to carry out a reconnaissance flight over the Leie Canal. At an altitude of 4,000 feet, an attack was made on the German reconnaissance aircraft by Flight Commander Wight, followed by the other Hurricanes fighter aircraft. The engine of the German reconnaissance aircraft was hit by the attack and failed.
On an orchard opposite the former De Gendt sawmill in the Eigenstraat in Denderhoutem, the German pilot Meermann carried out a crash landing in which Feldwebel Carl was injured. Both were picked up after the crash landing by German troops who were in the area."

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