The Netherlands cheers – Lookout post

Sat May 4, 8:13 PM

News

HEILOO – Meike ten Cate and her family found the story below about the liberation of Heiloo after the death of their grandfather in 2014.

End of April… Still no change at the front in the Netherlands. The Canadians are busy ‘scanning’ the Grebbe line, but we hear nothing further. The food shortage in the west of our country has reached extreme levels, the Wieringermeer has drowned, and all bridges and dikes have been undermined. “Where should that go?” many people wonder concerned. Then suddenly the message comes: food will be delivered by air! Many pessimists shrug their shoulders and the occupiers do their utmost to ridicule this plan. But when the news arrives that the first food has been dropped off Rotterdam and that the occupying authorities are cooperating (impossible, they thought a few days before), the west of the Netherlands gets into an excited mood.

And yes! On May 1, it is announced that the next day it will also be Alkmaar’s turn, and that the former Bergen airfield has been designated as a dropping site. We agree to go into the Egmondermeer to watch the spectacle.

It is busy early on the old bicycle path to Egmond. Young and old enter the polder. At the pumping station we turn right into the country. Scattered in the meadows, groups of people are waiting anxiously. The meadow birds fly around in alarm: they are not used to so much hustle and bustle… Then there is excitement among the people, they point in the direction of Alkmaar and indeed, a large bomber flies stately over the water tower. He heads for the airport, but no matter how hard I squint, I don’t see anything happening. However, one of the boys, who is armed with a good ‘long distance’ binoculars, saw something fall. The plane disappears over the sea and we wait anxiously to see if more will happen. In the meantime we have strolled deep into the country and now come to a group of farms, picturesquely situated along a canal. It’s extremely busy here.

Then there is movement again among the people, now everyone looks to the east and there the first group appears low above the trees of the road. Here they come, the mighty Forts, which we so often saw moving eastwards by the hundreds at great heights. They come almost right over the spot where we are standing. People cheer, wave handkerchiefs, ties, anything that wants to flutter in the wind, shout something in each other’s ears under the roar of the engines about the beautifully painted tail surfaces, the numerous domes, the letters, numbers and stars on the fuselage and wings, and so on. This group also drops nothing, so it is assumed that they have already cast their precious and welcome burden over Amsterdam, which later turned out to be the case.

This goes on for a while; New groups keep appearing and every time people cheer and wave at the shining birds that are admired again and again.

When we return to the village around noon, everyone seems out of sorts. There are rows of boys sitting on top of the railway poles (that is now possible, since the Krauts have stolen all the electrical wires). Many people sit on their roofs armed with binoculars; watching this rare spectacle bores no one. At the school, Karl, Heinrich and Fritz, or whatever else they are called, are also standing there with their mouths open, staring after the destroyers of their beloved Heimat…

Finally, in the afternoon, about fifteen Forts, after first flying around with their landing gear extended, dropped their load on Bergen. Amid loud cheers from the large crowd, the packages fell like a black cloud, where the necessary staff took care of further transport.

The next few days the weather will be cloudy, so the air remains fairly quiet. Also few messages get through. Rumors about the soon end of the war are doing the rounds… And then…

It is May 4, half past nine in the evening. Despite the long summer evenings, the hateful ‘nine o’clock inside!’ still applies, but despite this ban it is becoming increasingly busy outside and soon we will hear the big news: “The occupation of the West Netherlands has capitulated unconditionally!” I go outside, where the news is being discussed excitedly; further in the village I hear people shouting with joy. Then a few shots ring out somewhere, and everyone quickly disappears indoors. You can hardly imagine what all this will mean: rapid improvement of the food situation, no more hunts, no overbearing shouting (they called it singing), no stupid barbed wire barriers, no anti-tank walls, which can be dangerous for young men, no bicycle robberies, It’s almost unbelievable that this is all over for good…

The next morning the weather is glorious, and the food-delivering planes promptly appear again. They no longer care about the special routes and drop-off areas designated by the Germans. In all directions, alone and in groups, some frighteningly low, they roar across the jubilant Netherlands. The flags go up everywhere after the White Church has set the example as the first official building, and the clock on the foundation starts to dangle happily after four years of silence. Everyone heads to the road, hoping that our liberators will come soon. Young and old are adorned with the national colors. Nobody cares anymore about the (still armed) Krauts, who walk around with grim and grim faces. And the planes keep coming and going, shooting off hissing flares and dropping their loads in all places. A Mosquito, the terror of Berliners on so many nights, also comes to take a look. With lightning-quick turns he darts between his large American colleagues, leaning to the left and right, so that I can clearly see the pilot’s silhouette against the clear sky, and conversely he perhaps looks down, at

Cheering Netherlands.

Extra information
Meike sent an email to the Heiloo Historical Association with the above story. They had one comment about the story. ‘There are question marks on one point. It has been described that the bells of the Willibrordus sounded cheerfully. That seems unlikely because the Willibrordus was still equipped as a Marine Lazaret by the Germans at the time. Moreover, all the bells in Heiloo had been taken to Germany. Only in the Willibrordus Church there was an emergency bell (which can now be admired in the Historical Museum).