Traces of War Overloon: 15. Schools

In the village of Overloon, a route has been set out with fifteen signs. It provides a picture of what happened in the village at fifteen different locations in the village. The route is called: "Traces of the war" and was made possible by the War Museum Overloon.

The Battle of Overloon from September 26 to October 14, 1944

For more than four years, the Second World War had more or less passed Overloon. But on September 26, 1944, the front reached this village in De Peel. The narrow strip of land liberated between Eindhoven and Arnhem during Operation Market Garden was slowly but surely widened. The advance of the Allied army went well up to Overloon. There the Germans had dug in to stop the enemy. On September 30, the Allies launched the attack with the US 7th Armored Division. After 9 days of very fierce fighting, the exhausted Americans withdrew and were relieved by British army units commanded by Major General L.C. Whistler. After a few days of relative rest, in which heavy rainfall had turned Overloon into one big mud pool, all hell broke loose on October 12 at 11 a.m. For an hour and a half the Allies bombarded the German positions with heavy artillery and air raids. More than 100,000 grenades flew around the Germans. When the village was completely in ruins, the advance of the British began. House by house was taken at the cost of huge losses. Fierce man-to-man fights also took place in the woods. On October 14, at four in the afternoon, the last stronghold, the church, fell in the village of Overloon. The Germans still present were taken prisoner. Overloon was left as a completely destroyed village.

15. Schools

Right in front of you, across the street, stood the Overloonse schools before the destruction. It would take five years for the youth to be taught in new school buildings. For years, pupils and teachers had to make do with emergency quarters and barracks, where it was barely warm in winter and sometimes tar dripped from the roof covering on "the school desks" in the summer.

Here we see girls on the ruins of what used to be their school, with the text on the sign "Thanks to our benefactors girls school Overloon".

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar.nl
• Photos: TracesOfWar.nl
• Oorlogsmuseum Overloon