Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - The ruins of Meijel (#18)

The ruins of Meijel

How do you measure war misery? Through fatalities. Meijel counted hundreds. Soldiers and civilians. Injured: ditto. Material losses: in the peaceful rural area where you are now standing, the Americans lost 49 tanks in the fighting on October 27 and 28, 1944. That is more than the Allies lost together during the ten-day tank battle for Overloon! In Meijel the Scottish losses had to be added. When they started their 'Battle of Meijel' on November 2, their tanks also flew into the air 'one after the other'.
Heaps of rubble? In Meijel, more than half of the farms were destroyed; of the 480 buildings, 75 were completely destroyed; 46 irreparable; 95 were severely damaged; 194 slightly damaged; 69 buildings suffered glass and tile damage. Completely flat: the 'cathedral of Peel', the pride of the village. So are the mills.
Then the looting: 72 of the 178 horses stolen, 319 of the 607 cows, 793 of the 1156 pigs. Dozens of men were also taken to Germany as forced laborers just before the liberation.
Perhaps this appeals to the imagination: on November 14, Meijel was under drum fire for three hours. All the while, 400 guns fired 2,000 shots per minute at the village. The BBC reported that 'the battle of Meijel is the fiercest since the battle in Normandy'. The reconstruction - mainly under our own steam - would take years.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen (1, 3), G.J. Wouters (2)