Liberation Route Marker 218: A cross in the Peel

A cross in the Peel
A tall Cross of Honour once stood on the deserted Peel. It marked the spot where a bomber crashed on the 7th of February 1945. It was hit by German night fighters equipped with a new radar system. Allied bombers that were hit often tried to land in liberated territory including the Peel Region, just like the Halifax NA-197 and Halifax NA-260 with a French crew. Two of them are buried where it crashed.

In WW2, dozens military aircraft crashed in the Peel. The Peel Marsh was an uninhabited area. In January-March 1945, the Allies conducted many bombing raids on the Ruhr Area and Lower Rhine. On the 7th of February 1945, the eve of the Rhineland Offensive, Kleve and Goch were targeted, among others.

On the 7th of February 1945, when the Peel was already liberated, two Halifax bombers with French crews crashed close together a few minutes after each other. One plane exploded in the air, the other one crashed.

The remains of two crewmembers of the last plane still rest in the Peel at the site of the crash.
In 1946, a memorial cross of bogwood from the Peel was erected at the site. Over fifty years, the cross disappeared after land clearance in the area. In 2002, a memorial was erected in De Groote Peel National Park for all the flight crews of WW2 who lost their lives in the Peel. The crashes of both Halifax bombers on the 7th of February 1945 are symbolic of all the plane crashes in the Peel during WW2.

Audiospot - A cross in the Peel

Liberation Route Europe is a certified Cultural Route of the Council of Europe. With hundreds of sites and stories in nine European countries, the route links the main regions along the advance of the Allied Forces in 1943-1945.
The entire route consists of themed routes that can be travelled by by hiking, walking, cycling and car. These routes pass numerous historical and interesting sites and tell stories from a multitude of perspectives that were important in the final phase of World War II.
Many routes feature listening spots, offering the opportunity to listen to a historical story at a location. In addition, many ‘Vectors of Memory’ have been placed, indicating that the passer-by is on one of the Liberation Routes.
The routes can be found on the Liberation Route Europe website or in the app through which many stories can also be listened to.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar & Liberation Route Europe
• Photos: Jeroen Koppes