Neerpelt - Belgium

 
 
Irish Guards
World War II Battle Honours
Pothus, Norway 1940, Boulogne 1940, Cagny, Neerpelt, Mount Pincon, Aarn, Rhineland, Hochwald, Rhine, Bentheim, North West Europe 1944-1945, Nijmegen, Meduez Plair, Djebel Bou Aoukaz 1943, North Africa 1943, Anzio, Aprilia, Carroceto, Italy 1943-1944.

Operation Market Garden
Conditions on the morning of 17th September were ideal and by midday the Guards knew that Operation
 “Market Garden” was “on” and that the airborne fleet was on its way to Europe from its bases in Britain.

The 5th Guards Brigade was given the honour of leading the advance and the Irish Guards were to break out from the bridge-head which had been established across the Escaut Canal in the area of Overpelt and Neerpelt.The advance was down the main road which led through Valkenswaarden to Eindhoved. The road was dead straight for most of the way, and the Germans, sensing that an attack must come soon, were sitting waiting, with their anti-tank guns already sited for the tanks to come up the Eindhoven road.

The Corps Commander, General Horrocks, and the Commander of the Guards Armoured Division, Major General Adair, climbed to the roof of a nearby factory, from which they could command a grandstand view of the road and the tanks.

At a quarter to two the leading squadron of the Irish Guards moved up to a position of readiness across the bridge-called “Joe's Bridge” after Lieutenant-Colonel J.O.E.Vandaleur Commanding Officer of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Irish Guards, who had captured it.

At two o'clock the “softening up” bombardment came down on the Germans. At that moment the huge airborne armada was streaming across the sky above the expectant tank crews.Twenty-five minutes later, more artillery opened up; and within five minutes the heavy mortars joined in. At 2.32, 240 field guns began firing their first shells over the tank crews. At 2.35, Lieutenant Keith Heathcote, commanding the leading tank of the Irish Guards, gave the order: “Driver, advance”.  The great operation had begun which might end the war by Christmas.

But, there was worse to come . . . .

Excerpt from Keith Briant's book  “Fighting with the Guards” published by Evans Brothers Limited

The 2nd and 3rd Battalions Irish Guards landed with the Guards Armoured Division in Normandy in June 1944, and fought with the Division until the end of the war, taking part in the advance from Seine to Nijmegen. It was during this time the celebrated Lt. Col. J.O.E. Vandeleur, Commander of the Irish Guards Group led an attack on the bridge over the Meuse-Escaut Canal at De Groote Barrier (which is forever immortalised by the film "A Bridge Too Far'.) This bridge is now known as 'Joe's Bridge' in Honour of his exploits.

Return to Neerpelt
1944 Following close in the footsteps of the Guards Armoured Division, Private Norman Redford, a driver with the 2nd Army Headquarters, reached Neerpelt a few days after the Irish Guards had left the area on their way to the Rhine.  His unit set up a temporary Defence Company Transport headquarters in the local Bank, where they remained for several weeks as Winter approached in 1944. The Bank was already occupied by a Belgian family named Verspeek, where the head of the family, Mr.Verspeek was a bank official. During the weeks which followed Norman formed a friendship which still lasts today.
 

Private Norman Redford 1944
Norman's trip down memory lane
 1989 Norman and I set off in his Volvo saloon bound for Southampton and the Normandy Beaches.
The plan was to retrace his journey from "D-Day" to "Victory Day" starting on the beaches near Arromanches (Port Winston) and ending on Luneburg Heath in Northern Germany.
Following a Map which Norman had drawn up for the journey, he navigated, and I drove, through France bound for Luneburg where Norman's unit found themselves in May 1945. We planned to stay for a couple of days in Neerpelt, Belgium to visit the Verspeek family. The four surviving Verspeek sisters welcomed us in true Belgian style and were happy to pose for photographs with Norman for the second time in 45 years. They remember clearly the British soldiers who chased the enemy from their little town so many years ago, and were eager to discuss with us the events of those days when our tanks rolled through the streets on their way to the Rhine.

Neerpelt,  is situated in the open and flat landscape of the Limburg Campines.  It surfaces approximately 10,378 acres and is inhabited by nearly 15,500 people. Since 1977 Neerpelt  has been amalgamated  with the village St-Huibrechts-Lille.  The Netherlands and Lommel borders Neerpelt on the north, Hamont-Achel  on the  east, Bocholt and Peer on the south and on the west Overpelt  and Lommel encloses  our municipality.
Some expressways, the Bocholt-Herentals channel and the Antwerp-Mönchen-Gladbach railroad connect Neerpelt with her neighbours and  the rest of Europe. 

It is my intention to tell the rest of the story of Norman's trip down memory lane. Keep in touch !