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For people and country

BombingFightingMemory

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During the large-scale Allied offensive in February-March 1945, the British occupy Weeze. Many young German soldiers are killed during Operation Veritable. Many decades later, children and grandchildren want to find out about their fathers and grandfathers last days.

In February 1945, headed by Field Marshal Montgomery, the Allies launch a major offensive from the Netherlands under the name 'Operation Veritable. An unprecedented huge force has been assembled around Nijmegen and Groesbeek. Its mission is to try and capture the northern half of the area
between the Maas and the Rhine.

From the 8th of February until the 11th of March, merciless fighting takes place in the Lower Rhine area. German troops, including many poorly armed and untrained men, literally defend themselves to the last. After all, Hitler had ordered every deserter would be shot at the spot. Despite flooding, bad weather and German troop resistance, the Allies are slowly gaining more and more ground. But this is at the expense of many young lives. At the British war cemetery in the Reichswald alone, 7654 are buried. Young men from England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Far from hearth and home. In the cold earth.

But the losses on the German side are also huge. During the last weeks of World War II, over 10,000 young men from all over Germany have lost their precious lives here in the Goch-Weeze-Uedem triangle.Many of them already know the war is lost and the 1.000-year Reich, Aldolf Hitler dreamed of will never exist. It must have been unbelievably difficult to remain at their posts in spite of inevitable defeat and to fulfil their duty to ‘people and country’ to their last breath.

Tourist information

Uedemer Straße, Weeze