St. Oedenrode

Jan Koolen drives us down "the Corridor" the area where the invasion route was taking place, (the Americans called it "Hell's Highway") to the small city of St. Oedenrode. Here we visited more memorials given to the Americans of the 101st Airborne Division. Also in the city is a very unique monument, as far as we known the only one in the world. It is a memorial paid for by veterans of the 10Ist Airborne Division thanking the Dutch people for aiding them as they fought in Holland to drive the Germans out of their country. The neutral Dutch were invaded on May 10, 1940 by Hitler's Germany and fought gallantly until the Germans destroyed the heart of the city of Rotterdam. If they continued to resist all of their cities would meet a similar fate thus causing the Dutch to surrender. When the Americans landed the grateful Dutch gave them fruit, milk and beer to their liberators. They also aided them with intelligence, translators and even help dig foxholes or share their homes to the angels that landed from the sky to give them freedom.