Dutch War Graves Catholic Cemetery H. Lambertus

This cemetery contains seven Dutch war graves.

Jacobs was killed during the German invasion on May 10, 1940, he is also mentioned on a war memorial in Katwijk, near Cuijk.

Roelen died the next day, May 11, as a police officer in Helmond, he was shot at the age of 52. By whom exactly is unclear, one source blames the Germans, the other indicates that "when the announcement of the German occupation troops was made public [...] the 52-year-old agent Roelen [was] fatally wounded, probably by one of the Dutch soldiers who have not yet withdrawn. Roelen accompanied Jan de Belleman with a German soldier. Most likely the bullet was intended for the German soldier." The announcement concerned an order from the Germans that shooting in Helmond had to stop immediately, otherwise mayor Moons would be shot.

Donkers was killed in action on 16 May 1940 in Goes. Van Krugten died on April 2, 1945 in Bergen op Zoom.

De Bie, Kuijpers and Van Leuken were killed with three others while clearing ammunition at Eindhoven airport. We do not know where the other three are buried. The Nieuwsblad van het Zuid wrote the following about this:

Six killed in ammunition clearing
On Thursday, an explosion of ammunition, which was being cleared at Eindhoven airport under the municipality of Oirschot, killed six people. - The victims are: First Lieutenant C. J. Veldhuizen, Chief Warden W. F. van den Berg and the driver M. Waanders, all 3 members of the clearance and recovery service; further F.A. de Bee [sic], J. H. Kuijpers and a certain van Leuken. The latter member v.d. Air Defense Service Helmond.
The cause of the explosion is not yet known. Van den Berg, who was in charge of the command, was known to be very careful.

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Source

• Text: Jeroen Koppes
• Photos: Jeroen Koppes
• Koninklijke Bibliotheek - Historische Kranten
• Helmondse Heem, jaargang 1993, nummer 3.
• VONK, S., Onder bescherming van de engel Gabriël, Helmond, 1994.