Wim van den Bosch House

The Wim van den Bosch house in 1945 after the war and on October 4, 2004. In the 1945 picture you can see the field where my father was wounded and Captain Froemke was killed coming to his aid. Note that to the right the houses have been cleared that were destroyed in the October 1944 battle. The people of Opheusden built a railroad track up Dalwagensweg to the center of the village to cart away the rubble caused by the battle. Over 60% of the buildings in the village were destroyed in Hitler's attempt to drive the Allies off the Island. Almost all of the other homes suffered some kind of damage. Ironically, my father was from Schenectady, New York which had a battle on February 8 & 9, 1690 which saw all but four of the 80 dwellings in the Stockade area burned to the ground. Schenectady, NY was founded by the Dutch in 1661 which was the frontier in the New World at that time.