EN 
NL 
From 'Threatened, Occupied, Liberated. Bosschenhoofd and Hoeven in the Second World War'
Whit Monday, 13 May 1940, was a bright, sunny day. That morning, at about 9.30am, a French fighter pilot took off from an airfield in Paris, with orders to make a reconnaissance flight over the Moerdijk bridges, which were already in the hands of the German paratroopers. It was capitain pilot Roger Trouillard (24), father of a three-month-old baby. At the same time, a division of Messerschmitts Bf-109 took off in the small town of Boninghardt near Cologne. They included Hermann Speck (20) and the pilot Frank (24). A confrontation took place at about 10.00 over hamlet Laak, just north-east of Hoeven. This air battle lasted only a few minutes and, according to eyewitnesses, was a swirl of three heavily machine-gunning aircraft. Those eyewitnesses included A. Roels (aged 10) and brothers J. and M. van Caam (aged 13 and 14).
From the north, from the direction of Moerdijk, a plane approached at a fairly high altitude. At the same time, from Breda, a sweep of German Jagers approached low over the trees. The fight only lasted a moment. Then the aircraft blew away and a deathly silence followed. Then there was an explosion near the Oude Dijk, where Hermann Speck's Messerschmitt had crashed in a column of high spraying sand and smoke. The Messerschmitt came down a few hundred metres beyond the former sewage treatment plant. What remained was only a large hole full of water and some aluminium debris.
Almost at the same time, the van Caam brothers saw closer, to the left of the Laakse Vaart, a huge blaze, later found to have been caused by the French plane. Father van Caam and his sons ran towards the burning Morane. The French Morane-Saulnier had come down on a meadow just east of the Hillekens Bridge and had partially penetrated the ground. The aircraft burned out completely. The French pilot capitain Roger Trouillard was killed.
A second Messerschmitt had come down on the Rechte Laak, not far from Lambregts' house. Roels remembered hearing cries for help on the other side of the Laak after the silence had fallen. Lambregts then crossed the Laak in his rowboat and found the German pilot Frank there. He had managed to pull himself to safety by parachute, but had been injured on one leg and could not get up by himself. Some time later, Dutch soldiers came to pick up the wounded German pilot. He was later returned to his homeland by the Germans.
 
