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A few years ago I noticed a great uncle in our family tree that no one has ever talked about and the author of our family tree didn't know much about. All he knew was that he died at the age of 20 in a village south of Amsterdam. That was strange because my family comes from a different part of the country, and he died on May 14th, 1940, the day Rotterdam was bombed.. So i decided to investigate.

I soon found out that my great uncle served in the Royal Dutch Army as a conscripted soldier. He served in the 8e Batterij Luchtdoel Artillerie / XIVe Afdeeling Luchtdoelartillerie (8 Bt. Lu.A. / XIV Afd. Lu.A.) (8th Battery Anti-Air Artillery / 14th Division(?) AAA) in the Stelling of Amsterdam, where he served as a loader of a 7,5 cm tl. nr. 1 (the Dutch designation for a Vickers Model 1931: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Model_1931) Vickers AA gun, coupled to either a Vickers or a Hazemeyer fire control unit.

After some searching on the Internet i found a single post from a person who said he had copies of military maps from the XIV Afd. Lu.A. As a long shot, i emailed that person to ask for a copy of those maps. His reply floored me:

His father was the Sergeant in charge of the battery and his father saw everything. Sadly he passed away years ago, and never talked much about those days in May 1940. What he did say was that they were engaging some German planes that day when a number of planes bombed them. The gun my great uncle served on suffered a direct hit, leaving two dead and a number of injured and the nearby buildings were also hit, causing a fire in the kitchen and a shed that housed some of the ammunition.

https://nl.findagrave.com/memorial/2072 ... no-meester
https://nl.findagrave.com/memorial/2072 ... n_wolferen

It is truly a small world!

Mike.

Terrific story, and a fortunate find!

It is good that you have learned about this relative. My own father's WWII service records were burned up fifty years ago in a fire in St. Louis, Missouri depository, and my father only survived to age 64 without having spoken much about his service from 1942 to late 1946. So I find these family discoveries important. I am sorry, however, at the sad loss of your great uncle among so many thousands upon thousands of sad losses.

Herr Dr. Professor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 19, 2024 2:37 am It is good that you have learned about this relative. My own father's WWII service records were burned up fifty years ago in a fire in St. Louis, Missouri depository, and my father only survived to age 64 without having spoken much about his service from 1942 to late 1946. So I find these family discoveries important. I am sorry, however, at the sad loss of your great uncle among so many thousands upon thousands of sad losses.

I'm sorry to hear that your father passed away at that age.

It's understandable that people of that generation never talk about their experiences, the things they must have been through... My grandfather was a forced labourer for the Germans, and he worked in Zeeland at the end of the war, right when the Battle of the Scheldt kicked off. All he ever told about that period was "it was bad", which, based on what i've read about that battle, was an understatement.

Here's a bit about the Battle of the Scheldt for those unfamiliar with this part of WWII history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Scheldt