In my
correspondence with Jacques Boone, he suggested that I make contact with his
friend John Peters of Sint Niklaas (a town approximately 66 kilometers to the
south west of Turnhout.
John was
a teenager of fifteen at the time of the liberation. Since his father, Hendrik
Peters, was the manager of the power plant that served Turnhout and several
other local settlements, it is fair to say that the Peters family held some
standing within the town.
The
power plant was located on the Koningin Elisabethlei part of which also served
as the family home. The Koningin Elisabethlei, heading across the
Antwerp-Turnhout Canal in the direction of Breda, is one of two routes by which
to leave the town. The other route out of town is via Steenweg op Oosthoven in
the direction of Tilburg. The Peters family were on the front line in late
September 1944.
Map of central Turnhout showing the key locations in John's account of the town's liberation
(many thanks to John Peters!)
It was
on 19th September that the Germans ordered the civilian population to
evacuate their homes and to seek alternative accommodation. The street in which
the Peters family lived fell within this area and so they moved in with family
to Oude Vaartstraat some 250 meters from home. Since the plant provided both
electricity and gas, commodities vital to the capacity for the Germans to
maintain control over the town, it was considered to be essential that the
plant manager to located at the plant. For this region, the Ortskommandant (the
appointed administrator of the town) ordered Hendrik to return home to ensure
the continuation of supply. For a time John, along with his mother, father and
sister lived in the cellar of the house, from where John recalls hearing the
steel-shod boots of German patrols regularly passing overhead.
On the
eve of the liberation (23rd September), Hendrik Peters was summoned
to the Kasteel, a grand moated building in which the Kommandatur of the town
had taken up. Whilst there the Ortskommandant was called into the Kommandatur’s office to take a telephone call.
The conversation that followed was at volume and the door to the office was
left ajar, such that Hendrik was able to deduce the flow of conversation with
ease. The capability of the German forces in the town to put up a serious
defence was the topic.
German troops in Grote Markt in the centre of town (St Peters Church is visible on the right). This picture was taken on the eve of liberation (23rd September 1944) when the Germans elected to leave the town for positions to the north over the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal.
At the
conclusion of the call the Kommandatur informed Hendrik Peters that as the town
could not be effectively defended the decision had been taken that all German
forces were to withdraw to a position behind the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal in the
area of Koningin Elisabethlei. No. 1 Bridge was to be accessible until 21.00
hours to allow the withdrawal. At 21.00 hours sharp, the bridge would be blown.
The
Kommandatur added that since the townspeople of Turnhout had caused the
occupiers little trouble over the years, the withdrawal would be effected
‘without firing a single shot.
Shortly
after 20.30 hours, Hendrik, accompanied by John stepped out into the deserted
street in time to see the Ortskommandant and his deputy pass by on bikes
heading towards the bridge some 400 metres distant. As they rode past both men
raised an arm in salutation and called ‘Guten Abend Herr Peters!’
The
street returned to silence. Turnhout was free from soldiers for now and the
Polar Bears were on their way.
Early on
the morning of 24th, Hendrik Peters set to work to ensure that the
low voltage aerial network was intact and undamaged by the blast from the
destruction of the bridge. He and two volunteers inspected the integrity of the
network pole by pole. When working up the ladder the workmen were in full view
of the Germans positioned over the Canal, but no shots were fired. On
approaching the Canal, it was observed that the door to a stone/brick built
substation located just on the north bank of the Canal had been blown open when
the bridge was destroyed. This presented a great danger to any unsuspecting
person were they to venture inside. Hendrik Peters therefore negotiated with a
German officer who was overseeing the preparation of the new German defensive
positions to get the door closed. The
substation key was secured to a rock which was thrown over the Canal
(presumably taking sufficient care that it did not hit the officer!). The
officer duly shut and locked the door and threw the key back over the water.
Both men exchanged a ‘Guten Tag’ and continued with their own tasks, Mr Peters
and his volunteers returned to the Company office.
The electricity
substation viewed from the north bank of the Canal with the rebuilt Bridge No.
1 on the right.
Elements
of the 49th Division Recce Regiment entered the town shortly after
lunchtime. Initially two armoured vehicles parked up close to the St Theobaldus
Chapel at the junction of Koningin Elisabethlei and Steenweg op Oosthoven. Not
much further happened until about 15.30 hours when a vehicle moved up Koningin
Elisabethlei stopping very close to the Peters house and the power plant. Four
soldiers emerged from their Bren gun carrier, one of whom enquired where the
lavatory was (how very British one could say!). Shortly after incoming gunfire
from over the canal prompted the Fusiliers to order the gathered, curious
civilians back into their homes for their own safety.
With the
liberators deep inside the town and the Germans over the Canal, armed civilians
bearing the armband of the Belgian Resistance on Elisabethlei, but on turning
the gentle curve in the road, they found themselves in the line of fire from
the other side of the Canal and so were forced to divert down
Beirenmolenstraat.
As
evening fell, the weather turned for the worse and a heavy rain fell. At 7.30
two soldiers knocked on the door of the Peters household looking for
information and places for the men of ‘C’ Company 11th R.S.F. to bed
down. Six to eight men with their officer, Lieutenant Robert Galloway entered
the property. The men took advantage of the stove and sought to dry their
sodden battledress.
The
stove was a central feature of most households and in Belgium (as no doubt
almost everywhere else in Europe) wartime fuel shortages were a driving force for
innovation. This was the case in the Peters house where a tank had been welded
around the stove pipe that enabled the heat produced by the stove to utilised
in the most efficient way possible, from heating food through to plate warming.
On the night of 24th September, several Fusilers used this heated
metal surface for the purpose of drying out many soaked French bank notes!
After the war and on a return to Turnhout, LT Galloway spilled the beans. Fighting
in the Le Havre area has seen the destruction of a bank to the extent that the
safe was blown. Legitimately, these spoils (an estimated 4.5 million French
Francs) had been distributed amongst the troops who captured the town. Eventually,
the soldiers were able to send the money back to the UK where these sums of
French Francs were exchanged for sterling. One dried, troops and banknotes
alike, the soldiers left the kitchen of Hendrik Peters to bivouac with their
fellows.
On
Monday 25th September, with the town free of Germans, the
townspeople of Turnhout returned from further afield and started the process of
getting things back to a normal pre-war state. Ever keen to assist their
liberators, the workshops within the confines of the power plant in which they
were billeted, were put to good use and the Fusiliers and plant engineers
worked together to repair damaged radio antennae
As a
teenager with an interest in the equipment and trappings of a modern army
befriended one Frederick Gilby of ‘C’ Company who took it upon himself to
assist the student John in his English language tuition, starting with ‘It’s a
Long Way to Tipperary’! Frederick was perhaps more useful to young John when he
dragged him under safe cover when a German fired grenade narrowly missed the
workshop that they were in.
In the
week commencing 24th September rumours of a German counter attack
caused some panic within the town. John’s family home on Koningin Elisabethlei
was once again potentially on the front line and the house was became a key
defensive position for the 11th R.S.F.
John
recalls one character of the Company who went by the name of ‘Rusty Knob’, a
small chap, an experienced soldier, and maybe by virtue of his colouring one of
the original Scotsmen of the Battalion. He was positioned in an upstairs room
of the house next to John’s parent’s bedroom awaiting the anticipated German
counterattack. This soldier clearly made an impression upon John Peters,
firstly he recalls that Rusty kissed the last round that he placed in the
magazine of his Lee Enfield promising it for the first German to appear within
his range. Secondly, he recalls the same soldier stating that he had swum over
the Canal on a patrol, armed with a knife, in pursuit of ‘a couple of Germans
who had disturbed him’. The outcome of this particular patrol is not recorded.
However, on the basis of John’s account, far from being the ‘Nijmegen Home
Guard’, an opinion held by some of the Division’s role in Holland, Rusty’s
actions and attitude were indicative of a body of men that were tried, tested
and proven in battle.
The
anticipated counter attack failed to materialise and calm descended once again
on the town. The tension in the town subsided and some of the men of the
battalion could spend some off-duty hours in the company of the people of the
town, the young ladies in particular!
Word
reached the town that the Polish Armoured Division had successfully crossed the
Canal at Rijkevorsal and the German forces had fled for fear of being
surrounded. On Sunday 1st October the men of the 11th
R.S.F. packed up and cautious approached the Canal. Once across they fanned out
into the fields and disappeared from view heading in the direction of the Dutch
border. Behind then they left a grateful town and many memories that remain
vivid in the minds of the inhabitants even after the passage of more than
seventy years.
With John Peters in Turnhout
24th September 2016
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