Blowing up Lamgat bridge

From 'Threatened, Occupied, Liberated. Bosschenhoofd and Hoeven in the Second World War'

On 13 May 1940, the fourth day of the war, the situation at the Moerdijk bridges was critical. Due to the rapid advance of the German 9th Armoured Division, the first tanks of that division crossed the bridges in the early morning. The road to Rotterdam lay open. With the front getting closer and closer, everything was done to slow down the Germans' advance. Therefore, Dutch soldiers blew up the Lamgatsebrug. The explosion also damaged the bridge keeper's house on De Hoop, which was inhabited by P. de Graauw.

His daughter, C. Dielemans-de Graauw, recalled that event as follows:

"In 1940, the bridge burst. On 10 or 11 May, our house was full of cracks and the windows were broken. A bomb had fallen in the garden. Luckily it didn't explode, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to write it down. We then stayed in Mrs Luijkx's shelter. Then we went to Geert Thijs' and to Meintje and Keeke Jansen's at the water machine."

Yet such actions had little effect. The German 9th Armoured Division advanced rapidly. The French then tried to blow up the bridge over the river Mark between Standdaarbuiten and Oudenbosch, but failed. In a subsequent encounter the German soldier Johann Heimberger was wounded in the St. Annastraatje in Oudenbosch. He died the same day in the St. Maartenspolder and was buried there."

A. van de Noort was told the following by his father:

"In a sidecar, German Heimberger arrived at our farm on Goudbloemsedijk. He had been hit in his ankle. The Germans ordered my father to go with them on the back of the motorbike to the doctor in Zevenbergen. Because the Lamgatse bridge had been blown up, they would drive past Zwartenberg. Halfway through the Hoevense Beemden, my father was allowed off, as they knew the way alone. My father turned back and hid in the straw. But the German soldiers returned with their wounded comrade. As medical help was lacking, the wounded German soldier bled to death in our farmhouse. On the Goudbloemsedijk he was buried, wrapped in sheets belonging to us. A cross was made from our toy wheelbarrow and placed on the grave. Tulips were also cut from our garden and placed at the grave."