Memorial Death Wire De Klinge

In De Klinge, next to a Belgium-Netherlands border post, runs the Klingspoor, a former smuggling route. Smuggling was rampant in De Klinge and its surroundings. This illegal border trade went both ways, all kinds of products were smuggled into the Netherlands or Belgium.

In the spring of 1915, the Germans tried to put a stop to smuggling by constructing the death wire. An electric wire under high voltage was supposed to deter smugglers. The high voltage on the Death Wire caused people to be electrocuted at the slightest contact. At this time, residents did not yet know the dangers of electricity. For this reason, protective wires were placed left and right in barbed wire or chicken wire. With the border fence, the German occupiers wanted to prevent war volunteers, spy messages or smugglers from crossing the border.
Inventive smugglers soon found numerous ways to overcome the wire, yet hundreds of daredevils lost their lives crossing along the Belgian-Dutch border. There were at least three casualties in this process in De Klinge and Meerdonk.

After World War II, the eternal game of cat and mouse between customs officials and smugglers became grimmer. Butter smuggling became a capital business, and armored wagons, crow's feet and firearms made their appearance.
The crow's foot was made of metal and had four points. One sharp point was always pointing upward to puncture the tires of customs service vehicles.

On the Klingspoor lies a crow's foot.
The death wire was constructed in the summer of 1915, in November 2015 a piece was reconstructed at the boundary post.
On the site, in 2015, to mark the 100th anniversary of the installation of the death wire, a lime tree was planted, offered by the Royal Archaeological Circle of the Land of Waas.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck