Sint-Oedenrode, airplane propeller

Location
Oirschotseweg, Sint-Oedenrode, Noord-Brabant

Year of unveiling
N/A

Commemorated group(s)
Allied Forces

Description
The airplane propeller in Sint-Oedenrode belonged to the C-47 Dakota KG-498 which was part of the 437th squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The propeller lies on the ground in a garden.

Background
The airplane propeller reminds the inhabitants of Sint-Oedenrode of the British and Canadian crew members of the C-47 Dakota KG-498 who were killed when their aircraft was shot down near the village on 21 September 1944 by anti-aircraft guns.

Sint-Oedenrode was liberated during Operation Market Garden, the allied liberation offensive (17-26 September 1944) through which the Allied Forces tried to force ahead from Belgium to Germany by securing bridges in the Dutch provinces of Noord-Brabant and Gelderland with the aid of paratroopers.

On Thursday 21 September 1944, fifty-three Dakota airplanes took off form the Blake Hill Farm and Down Ampney air fields in the south of England with the assignment to drop supplies near Arnhem for the First British Airborne Division, which was then in Oosterbeek. Of the fifty-three Dakotas, eighteen belonged to the 233rd Squadron, thirteen belonged to the 48th Squadron and twelve belonged to the 271st Squadron of the RAF. Ten airplanes belonged to the 437th Squadron of the RCAF. The flight path took them over Ghent, Leopoldsburg, Eindhoven and through the ‘Corridor’ (Son / Sint-Oedenrode / Gedemode / Veghel / Uden / Zeeland / Grave / Wijchen / Arnhem / Oosterbeek). The airplanes would drop their supplies and fly back.

Around 6.15 pm the column was attacked above the province of Zeeland by at least nine German Focke Wulf 190’s. The slow Dakotas were flying at an altitude of approximately 7,000 feet and were unable to defend themselves. The enemy’s fighter planes first attacked the airplane at the rear of the column and then worked their way toward the front. Nine Dakotas were shot down between Uden and Turnhout. Five of the ten airplanes of the RCAF’s 437th Squadron did not return to their base in England. Three of these were shot down in the area north of the city of Eindhoven.

The Dakota KG-489 crashed some hundred metres East of the Veghelseweg in Sint-Oedenrode. The diary of George Koskimaki, an American liaison officer who belonged to the 101st Airborne Division, tells us that the plane crashed only moments after being attacked by the enemy. According to Mr. Koskimaki the crew had no time to parachute from the plane. The crew consisted of four Canadians: Captain Charles Cressman, pilot John Blair, navigator Paul Steffman and radio operator Thomas Brennan. Four British soldiers of the Royal Army Service Corps were also aboard: Donald Tite, Reginald Adams, Rowland Claxton and George Rhodes, who served as so-called ‘air-despatchers’ who were responsible for dropping the supplies in the right location.

Three Canadian crew members lie buried on the Canadian field of honor in Groesbeek. Captain Cressman is buried in Uden. The four British soldiers are buried on the Sint-Martinus Cemetery in Sint-Oedenrode.

Memorial services
None known.

More information
The monument is situated in a flower bed by the road near the Oirschotseweg / Veghelseweg crossing, opposite the entrance to garden center ‘De Bever’ in Sint-Oedenrode. The propeller is located on private ground.

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