Bert, the husband of my sister Ger for 55 years, recently turned 80 (see earlier post in September). He is still in great shape and has always loved having dogs, most of the years two of them. He still every now and then "walks" them on his bicycle (an action which would cause an accident for most people). But today he walked the dog of their son Berry, who is visiting for a week (Berry and family are a week in Switzerland during the Dutch autumn school vacation). And I accompanied him today during the walk in a small forest area near their home. The building in the back was the old municipal administration building, but now is the house of a local farmer.
The trees along this road to the old town hall were planted many years ago during a time most transport were carriages and horses. More recently a plaque was made along the side of the forest area as a memorial for five young Canadian airmen, whose bomber plane was shot down by a German fighter plane. This happened in 1943 during a period that allied troops carpet-bombed cities in Germany every day. The 1940-1945 Second World War period stays memorized with plaques like this around the world and last year this one was made for these brave five young Canadians. The plaque explains that on the day of this tragic event, 738 allied planes left the airfields in England of which 38 did not return to their bases. It is hard to imagine for us post-war generations, what a true human horror those years were. And unfortunately - in too many places around the world - humans continue warfare...
No comments:
Post a Comment