Victims of Air Raid 1944 Assebroek

In the central cemetery there is a row of 7 graves with the same gravestone of civilian victims of "Operation Ramrod", the air raid on Sint-Michiels on May 28, 1944.

On that day, British and American planes bombed Ter Linden Castle Saint Michael.
The castle was then captured by German troops, who had built a large base there. There was, among other things, a radio transmitting station of the Deutsche Kriegsmarine, with which the German army could follow the entire coastline between the French Etretat and the Dutch Den Helder. The radio station was used to control all submarines in the North Sea.
That base posed a serious threat to the ships that would dock in Normandy. It was therefore decided to bomb the castle and eliminate the German base.
The bombing happened in two raids. The first put the base out of action.
In the second, the castle was bombed again, causing many casualties among the inhabitants.
40 Bruges residents and 19 Germans died, 38 people were seriously injured.
Seven victims lie together in the central cemetery.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck