Memorial Temporary Airstrip B-82

In the last century there was an airfield in the hamlet of Keent where military flying exercises regularly took place. This happened at the invitation of the then mayor Hans van der Vijver van Overasselt, which Keent was under at the time. In 1933 the Overasseltse flying week was held, which attracted 20,000 visitors. In 1938, the hamlet was isolated by a bend in the Meuse and the airfield fell into oblivion.

When the Second World War broke out, the Germans used the extended grass runway from 600 meters to 1200 meters only as a parking lot. The Allies let hundreds of fighter planes take off from the 'Airstrip B-82 Grave/Keent'. In 1944, the airfield played an important role in operation 'Market Garden', the liberation of Nijmegen.

On September 25, 1944, two American C-47s landed in Keent. This type of transport aircraft was called Skytrain by the Americans. A day later, 209 Skytrains landed at intervals of less than half a minute. They brought an anti-aircraft unit, 132 jeeps with 75 trailers, 31 motorcycles, 12,000 kilos of ammunition, 30,000 kilos of food packages, 882 soldiers and 5 war correspondents. That same evening, the 209 aircraft returned safely to their home base in England.

At the end of September and the beginning of October, the airstrip was defended by 1310 soldiers from the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade of General Stanislaw Sosabowski. Four of them met an unfortunate end in one week: Zdzislaw Jankiewicz (25) died while cleaning a gun. Three others (Boleslaw Mania, Stefan Plichta and Jòzef Skzwarek) were shot for saying the password used by the Allies to communicate with a heavy Polish accent. British Grenadiers did not trust it and shot the three.

On October 2, 1944 Canadian Flight Lieutenant Russel R. Bouskill (28) crashed in Keent after his aircraft was fired upon by the Germans. Farmer Thijs van de Berg cleaned up the scrap from an airplane in an old bomb crater. In 1996 the bell of the Spitfire was found by researcher Wim Boeijen. It stopped at a quarter past twelve.

Between 2 and 22 October, the airstrip was bombed several times by the Germans. 13 ground crew members were killed. In addition, Canadian Flight Officers A.J. Horrel and L.P.E Piché shot down by a German FLAK unit (Flug Abwehr Kanone) after taking off from Keent on a reconnaissance flight.

On the outskirts of Keent is a monument that commemorates the fallen soldiers.

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Source

• Text: Monique Verlind
• Photos: Monique Verlind
• Tekst bij het monument.
• GRIMM, P. e.a., Vliegvelden in oorlogstijd, Boom, Amsterdam, 2017.

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