16 and 17 April 1945 Liberation of Zeumeren
Following my report on the liberation of Wessel, Het Garderbroek and Wencop on 16 April 1945, published in Oud Barneveld no. 85 of May 2008, I decided together with Hennie and Kees Mulderij in Zeumeren to also document the liberation of Zeumeren. Hennie and Kees invited a few eye witnesses, who had all been born and raised in Zeumeren and who are now all over 75 years old. On 24 February 2009 we met at “Maasjesland” the residence of the Mulderij family on the Zeumerseweg, indicated (2) on the map.
Interviews on Maasjesland:
In order not to disturb their eye witness reports, I had brought my handycam.
Henk van Drie (5) explained what he had seen on Monday 16 April of the battles and the explorations of the Canadians in the neighborhood. He recalled that one of his schoolmates in Nijkerk had been killed when the Canadians had fired canons at intervals towards Nijkerk during the night. Then the next day on Tuesday 17th he had watched the tanks move from area’s (1) and (2) to (8).
Jan Donkersgoed, who was born on Maasjesland, recalls that he slept quite easily in the underground shelter that night of the 16th, even with the nearby gunshots and bombing, while the Canadians had to curl up in their small seats in their tanks. He particularly remembers how relaxed the Canadian soldiers had acted whenever they left their tanks and moved around the farm (2), calmly shaving, making eggs, eating and resting during periods when there were no attacks. He even saw some people of the resistance sitting on top of the tanks, guiding them through the area. One of them, a Mr. De Vries, who was in hiding at Hammer’s on the Wencopperweg, had been killed.
Hennie, Maartje and Heimen Versteeg had seen groups of German soldiers walking from Garderbroek on Monday night, following the Schoonengweg (10) and the former Zeumerse Voetpad passing the site where now the old people’s home Nieuw Avondrust is, and retreating to Voorthuizen. They saw an older German fall down to the ground, presumably to desert and later surrender to the Canadians, but some fanatical young SS-men, or maybe Hitler Jugend, couldn’t allow that to happen.
Kees Mulderij, who lived in the Kerkstraat in Voorthuizen at the time, talks about the shooting at Voorthuizen by the Canadians during the night and till Tuesday afternoon during which time the family had sheltered in the basement. Later in the afternoon the street had been cleared of German soldiers by Canadians who had jumped off the carriers while pointing their guns at the houses, sometimes shooting. The Canadians also entered the houses searching for Germans. On that day no large tanks had moved in, but these came on Wednesday. Both Voorthuizen and Prinsenkamp suffered severely from the fighting and shelling, but that is a different story.
From left to right:Jannie van de Broek-Broekhuis, Henk van Drie, Maartje de Wit-Versteeg,
Heimen Versteeg, Hennie Versteeg, Hennie Mulderij-van Puurveen, Jan Donkersgoed and Gert Jan van Elten. Picture: Kees Mulderij.
Video recordings on site:
The eye witness reports of Henk van Drie and Heimen Versteeg motivated me to film the corresponding sites at the farms on the Baron van Nagellstraat (5) and the Schoonengweg (10). These video’s, together with the video of the interviews at Maasjesland, I have shown during the annual meeting of Oud Barneveld in Barneveld and also during the commemoration of the dead on May 4th this year in the hall of Kerkheem on the Kerkstraat in Voorthuizen. Both times there was a large crowd of interested people and since one thing leads to another, showing these video’s has concluded in new eye witness reports. The three reports of Corrie Schouten at (7), Gert Koudijs at (3) and Cees Brons from the cattle food company Brons (12) on the Molenweg gave interesting additions concerning the route of the tanks as well as other events during the release of Zeumeren and the battle between the Germans in Voorthuizen and the Canadians in the forest Johannabos (11). Through these stories of their experiences it has become clear to me that it took the convoy of Canadian tanks just about the same amount of time to move just one kilometer through Zeumeren from (1) and (2) towards (8) on Tuesday April 17 as it had moved the many kilometers between Otterlo and Zeumeren the day before .Het is obvious now that this had its reasons. On the road from Otterlo to Zeumeren there had been hardly any resistance from the Germans and the German formation at Gelkenhorst in front of Barneveld could be evaded by turning right in the direction of Het Garderbroek. I refer to Oud Barneveld nr. 85, May 2008. Close to Voorthuizen the situation altered completely since the Germans had to defend the crucial intersection of roads in Voorthuizen, to allow their troops on the Veluwe to retreat behind the waterline in the Gelderse Vallei when required. The Canadians on the other hand had special orders to cut off this escape route by moving from Arnhem to the Ijsselmeer as soon as possible.
Using the interviews and in particular the eye witness reports by Henk van Drie, Jan Donkersgoed and Corrie Schouten, I was able to draw a map of the route of the column of tanks and the cites of the events described below along that route on Tuesday April 17, 1945. From to the report of Cees Brons from the Molenweg we also learn more about the shooting both with machine guns and canons on Monday night till Tuesday afternoon, with the Canadians in the Johannabos and the German troops in Voorthuizen. The Canadians must have reached Voorthuizen using the Garderbroekerweg. We now also know about the time and probable cause of the fire at the mill in the north of Zeumeren, which was at that time still the border of the village.
Route of the column of tanks through Zeumeren in the direction Voorthuizen:
Gert Koudijs at the spot where he stood with his father. The tank was located on the foreground to the right.
Henk van Drie, his brother Joh. and an American born man from Amsterdam, were at the farmyard (15) on Monday afternoon April 16, when at about 4 o’clock they heard a loud buzz in the distance, coming from the approaching Canadian tanks in Het Garderbroek. The highway A1 and its by-lanes was not yet constructed at that time and the Oude Zeumerseweg still ran over the railway track, where it is now called Mercuriusweg. On Monday they had seen the Germans build a formation of artillery close to the farm of Evert Burgers (4) on the Baron van Nagellstraat, pointing their canons in the direction of Zeumeren. These canons had been camouflaged. This farm was still located there for some time after the construction of the A1, inside the loop of the access road to Apeldoorn. Also during that day there had been a lot of traffic from the German military over the Baron van Nagellstraat. At about 6 o’clock the first tank arrived at the junction of the Zeumerseweg and the Oude Zeumerseweg at (2) and it continued on the Oude Zeumerseweg upto the farm of Jan Koudijs (3). At that moment the Germans fired their canon at (4) but the shell rebound from its target and hit the roof of the house of Koudijs at the back of the farm. Gert Koudijs recalls that he was at that time a boy at the age of six, and while he stood behind the house with his father, quite close to the tank, he saw how only the wall and the edge of the roof were damaged and luckily there was no fire.
Corrie Schouten points out one of the bullet holes in the wall of the kitchen.
Henk van Drie with the cartridge cage of the grenade. At the background the meadow where one of the Canadian scouts was killed.
Also Henk van Drie watched this happen from his yard at home. He watched the Germans fire the canon, he followed the grenade with his eyes and saw it rebound from the tank, followed by the explosion on the roof of the house. Then he noticed that the gunman in the tank responded immediately and by firing just one shot disabled the German canon at (4). This shot also damaged the side elevation of the Burgers’ farm . Van Drie had also been able to follow this grenade and see it explode. The Germans immediately set a smoke-screen and they left their formation fleeing to the west. Later Henk found the cartridge cage of the grenade near (3) in the ditch and he has kept it as a souvenir. A little while later a ten Canadian scouts , covered by the covering fire of the tanks, had sneaked past the still existing hedge of thicket parallel to the Zeumerseweg, which road was later extended along the A1. The soldiers had crawled through the meadow, presumably to see how the land lies at Burgers’. Just before, Henk and some other onwatchers had seen Germans walking round the white house of Jan Niemeier (6). This white house was situated at the spot where we now find De Locomotief, and the house has been pulled down t o make place for an access to the by-lanes in the direction of Zeumeren and Harselaar Oost. The English speaking man from Amsterdam yelled to the crawling Canadians to warn them. Since also the Germans must have heard this warning, Henk realizes now at what risks they had put themselves and the Canadians. When the Canadians had made headway to the farm of Van Drie, suddenly several shells fell in the meadow, killing one of the Canadians, after which the others retreated. When also closer to the farm some shells exploded, the spectators themselves also dropped to their hands and knees and crawled back to the underground shelter. The shells seem to have been fired from canons of German troops in Boeschoten. Only later that night someone of the Canadian Red Cross recovered the body of the scout killed in action. Corrie Schouten, daughter of Rijer Schouten, lived just on the other side of the Baron van Nagellstraat at (7). Since she had been hiding in the underground shelter together with her family and some evacuees, none of them had seen anything of these tragic events at Van Drie. When later at night they heard something on the yard and they decided to check it out, it was for the first time that they encountered Canadian soldiers. Such joy! Also the Schouten family had an English speaking person in their house, an evacuee from Oosterbeek. They offered the Canadians lemonade and even cigars made from homegrown tobacco. Out of pure happiness they wanted to shout out to the neighbors, but the Canadians stopped them since they believed there were still Germans around and they needed to track them. The nearest neighbors, family Dusschoten, lived in a house on the Baron van Nagellstraat which was too close to the railway so they stayed in a henhouse across the road. These neighbors had seen the two German soldiers who had been hiding behind the trees keeping their guns ready and who had walked in the direction of Schouten. When the Schouten family had said goodbye to the Canadians and was returning to their shelter, they heard gun fire nearby. Later, when father Schouten wanted to close the window shutters before turning to bed, he found a dead Canadian soldier lying in front of the kitchen door. The dead body remained there all night. Corrie is clearly affected when she tells the story, in particular the detail that the soldier had still carried the homemade cigar behind his ear. And it was a handsome boy! It had been very emotional for the young girl. The victim had only been found by the Canadian Red Cross in the morning and they covered the body with a sheet and on top the helmet, and they had put the corpse on the shoulder of the Baron van Nagellstraat. The passing Canadian troops on the Baron van Nagellstraat had saluted respectfully. They had advanced on Tuesday early afternoon, crossing the field from (1) and (2) to (4) and further on following the Baron van Nagellstraat passing their house to (8), and then a Red Cross Brigade had come to remove the corpse. It took the affected Corrie quite some effort to tell all the details of this emotional story but she obviously wanted to narrate and she also showed me the German bullets in the wall outside, close to the kitchen door. The bullet holes in the front façade indicate that the other Canadian soldier had been able to escape the bullets of the two Germans by running past the front of the house. The tanks positioned themselves across the Baron van Nagellstraat, pointing the canons westward. It got rather crowded on the streets and even the farmyard of Schouten was filled with military vehicles. Several German prisoners came walking from Barneveld on Tuesday, holding their hands in their necks, and here at Schouten they were picked up by the Canadians. Corrie had been at the side of the road, watching all this respectfully and impressed. Her father had expressed his worries about the expected shelling from either camp but fortunately nothing happened. Henk van Drie recalls that the tanks left later that afternoon at about four o’clock, in the direction of Voorthuizen. But at that time he still hadn’t heard of the drama that had occurred at his neighbors Schouten. Corrie said that the at that time well-known mister Gerritsen, teacher at the Reformed School in the Kerkstraat in Voorthuizen and a member of a resistance group, had been very active in informing the Canadians on the formations and other positions of the Germans in and about Voorthuizen. His school completely burned down during the shelling of the so-called Ring in the northern part of the Kerkstraat in Voorthuizen.
The retreat of German troops from Het Garderbroek into Voorthuizen.
Heimen pointing at the ditch where they wanted to hide.
On Monday 16 april, Kees Versteeg living on the Schoonengweg (10) had been working on the roads in front of his farm with his two eldest sons, one of which Heimen, when a passerby told them that the Canadians were on their way and had already arrived in Het Garderbroek. Soon after that a group of German soldiers walked past on their way to the village and Kees Versteeg had said: “Just surrender because you’re already done with, the Canadians have arrived and are in Het Garderbroek.” It seems that they understood, because some of the young soldiers, possibly Hitler Jugend, had responded with a loud “Heil Hitler”. They marched on and turned right onto the former Zeumerse Voetpad towards the present site of Nieuw Avondrust. Presumably they felt a bit offended because from the Zeumerse Voetpad they fired and hit the wheelbarrow so that wood chips came flying off. This quite shook Heimen and his brother, since the wheelbarrow had been just between the two boys. Versteeg and sons had found a hiding place in the ditch alongside the road but also there the bullets had come very close, hitting the shoulder of the ditch. They had run home but even then the Germans fired a few times, hitting the trenches of the hedge they had followed. Heimen is convinced that the Germans were aiming at them and shooting sharp. They decided to stay inside for the rest of the day. Later in the evening they heard more groups of German soldiers marching past. The whole night the Versteeg family stayed up, because of the shooting by the Canadians at Voorthuizen, among others from Gelkenhorst on the Valkseweg, and they resided on the floor with the cows.
They didn’t see any of the Canadian tanks in that part of Zeumeren but Heimen did visit the Canadian camp with the tanks lined up on the farmland and farmyards of Elbert Donkersgoed (1) and Klaas Donkersgoed (3).
The Johannabos and the Brons’ windmill at the Molenweg.
Cees Brons saw from the yard of the milling business at the Molenweg (12) that on Monday early afternoon numerous German reinforcement troops had marched by foot over the Molenweg and the Garderbroekerweg, in the direction of Het Garderbroek. Furthermore they had placed a canon at the yard, pointing at the fork Molenweg – Garderbroekerweg – Brugveenseweg. In the late afternoon the German troops returned, “and now they walked a lot faster!” But the Canadians weren’t in sight and the Germans had time to move the canon the elsewhere. That Monday night there had been repeated machinegun fires between the Germans at Brons and the Canadians in the Johannabos. Family Brons had stayed in the large and deep cellar below the house, together with the evacuees, in total about 20 people, throughout that night and Tuesday during the battle in and the shooting at Voorthuizen. In the kitchen they had built a shoulder-high reinforcement made of sandbags at about one meter from the basement door, so that they could watch the fork peaking over the reinforcement. In this way they could see the fire on Monday evening at the carpenter’s workshop of Van Renselaar just further on the road on the Molenweg, at the corner with the Harremaatweg. In that fire one of the evacuees from the west , who had left the underground shelter, had been killed. When a few people at Brons were still watching the fire over the partition of sandbags, all of a sudden a grenade fell just outside the kitchen and as it exploded it completely hit away the corner of the kitchen but due to the protection of the sandbags nobody got hurt. Later it turned out that their protection wall had been hit by shell splinters and that also another German grenade had exploded and hit the mill close to the kitchen. This came from the north, but it is not clear if this was before or after the other shell. The grenade had gone through a heavy steel beam and had only exploded afterwards in the midst of the machines. But because of all the noise outside, nobody in the basement had noticed this explosion in the mill. The high windmill with thatched roof was located a twenty meters further towards the village center, on the other side of the house. The big worry was that in case of fire the mill would fall on the house. The chance of fire in the mill was large because it could serve very well for military scouting purposes. Tuesday afternoon, when the Germans had already retreated from the mill and the Canadians had approached rather close, the mill was indeed set on fire. At the mill they thought the Germans had fired, but the late Dirk Broekhuis in Zeumeren (13) later informed them that he was able to take the cartridge cage of the respective Canadian grenade back home. The Canadian gunman had pointed at the mill and had asked Dirk “Do you see that mill?” Then he said: “You won’t see it again.”
When father Brons noticed the mill was on fire, everyone escaped from the shelter and ran through the garden at the back of house to the underground shelter at the Elbers family near the Johannabos. This way all members of the Brons family and their evacuees have survived, and only one hour later all of Voorthuizen was liberated.
Gert-Jan van Elten, Voorthuizen