Information Board Dropping zone "Perdreau" Heldergem

In February 2024, a heritage information board was placed in Heldergem 150 meters from the WWII dropping zone "Perdreau".

Le Perdreau (The Partridge) was the name of the hideout of Alfred Noteboom, a
war veteran and tax collector. He had gathered a Haaltert resistance group of about eighty people around him who offered safe shelter to crew members and pilots of crashed Allied bombers, especially in 1944. Noteboom captured them and housed them in hiding places.
In his war memoirs it was mentioned that during the Second World War there was an SOE (Special Operations Executive) dropping zone in the extensive fields adjacent to the Hoomweg in Heldergem. Until 1998, this "secret war information" was unknown locally.

An information board with the following text was placed at the edge of the field as a reminder.

"History: On May 23, 1944, Alfred Noteboom, founder of the Haaltert shelter "Le Perdreau", received a visit from secret agent "Tilly" (Fernand Thielemans), accompanied by "Josse" Adolf Coppens (La Dinde shelter – Denderleeuw/Liedekerke) , to come and explore the parachute square for dropping weapons and ammunition for the resistance. This was followed by a reconnaissance by secret agent "Maurice". On the night of May 28/29, 1944, the American B-24 Liberator Carpetbagger crashed in Aaigem-Ashage.
"C for Charlie", after which a parachute at the Hoomweg in Heldergem was suspended, after a message to London by secret agent "Tiepin" (Albert Wouters).
On June 21, 1944, Alfred Noteboom received the following message from secret agent "Jean Leduc" (Jean de Cazes) who came to announce a parachuting on the dropping square "Perdreau" here in Hoom. In view of the arrest of secret agent "Martin" (Albert Mélot) on June 14, 1944 and the crash of the American bomber "To Hell or Glory" in Outer-Ninove on June 23, 1944, the dropping zone "Perdreau" in Hoom-Heldergem was permanently closed. written off by London, with the message "too dangerous" due to the presence of too many German soldiers in the vicinity of plane crash sites in Aaigem and Outer."

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck