Cycling route Death Valley de Peel - Field Marshal Montgomery (Ostade) (#1)

Field Marshal Montgomery

The museum on Ostadestraat is located in the former Leenders farm, a building whose history dates back to at least 1688.

In February 1945, when Asten had already been liberated for four months (22-09-1944), the then residents Johannes Leenders and Johanna v.d. Eijnden provided temporary shelter to British Field Marshal Montgomery, one of the highest military leaders of the Allies during the Second World War. It is not known why they were given this honor.

In the autumn of 1944, the field marshal temporarily had a secret headquarters in villa Nieuwendijk 52 in Geldrop, where he and his generals set up the Rhineland offensive. Top strategists such as Churchill and Eisenhower were also guests there. The Germans managed to find out Montgomery's secret address in Geldrop and carried out a machine gun attack on the villa from the air on January 1, 1945 during the Aktion Bodenplatte.
Possibly Montgomery found it safer afterwards to stay here and then there. Asten was important to the field marshal because it was the headquarters of the British 11th Armored Division and later the 7th US Armored Division.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen