Wilnis, monument for Canadian militaries

Location
Wilnis, Utrecht

Year of unveiling
2003

Designer
Edwin Merks

Description
The ‘Monument for Canadian Military' in Wilnis (Municipality of De Ronde Venen) is a black hard stone commemorative monument with three golden maple leafs on a mirror.

Text on the monument
FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM - POUR LA PAIX ET LA LIBERTE - VOOR VREDE EN VRIJHEID - PRO PACE ET LIBERTATE

JOSEPH WHITE ROBERT MOULTON ADRIEN THIBAUDEAU
ROYAL CANADIAN AIRFORCE

5 MEI 1945
VICKERS WELLINGTON HE727 NA-K

In the night of May 4th to May 5th 1943, a British bomber was shot down by a German fighter plane. The Vickers Wellington was on its return trip to Britain from a bombing raid on the city of Dortmund in Germany. Two allied military escaped the crash timely (English radio telegraphist Sergeant Harvey Hoddinot and Canadian navigator Sergeant Gordon Charles Carter) by using their parachutes. They were handed to the occupier and made prisoners of war. They have survived the war.

The plane crashed near the farm of the Van Selm family at the Mijdrechtse Dwarsstraat. Pilot Molton, who had tried in vain to land the plane, was killed when the aeroplane hit the ground. The other two crew members had already died as a result of the gunfire of the German fighter pilot. The airmen were re-buried with military honour in the cemetery behind the Netherlands Reformed Church in Wilnis in Fall of 2002.

The monument was unveiled on 30 March 2003 by Canadian Ambassador Serge April and Mayor of De Ronde Venen Marianne Burgman. Prior to this ceremony, wreaths were laid on the graves of the deceased men in the graveyard behind the Netherlands Reformed Church.

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