The route starts at the museum ‘somewhere in the Netherlands’ in Emmen, this museum tells the story of World War II through a vast collection of items. From here you can continue on to the Oosterhesseler Bridge, which was captured by the Belgian SAS with help of Polish soldiers. Following the route, you will encounter the village of Westerbork, where the former transit camp was situated, here you can read about and listen to the story of liberation of the village. From here there are many more intriguing stories to discover, follow the route and learn more.

The Netherlands

Civilians at Polish tanks in Noordbarge

Wellington 301 Squadron

Polish Cycling Route Drenthe

On the night of 3 to 4 July 1941, seven aircraft and crews of the Polish 301 Squadron took part in an attack on targets in Bremen. Vickers Wellington R1492 took off with a crew of six from Syerston air base (England) at 22:53. The 44-year-old Group Captain Boleslaw Feliks Stachoń was the special co-pilot of the aircraft. In the First World War and the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Bolshevik wars that followed, he served in the Polish army. In the 1920s he learned to fly and functions in that field followed. At the outbreak of the Second World War he commanded the air defence and air component of the Pomeranian army of the Polish armed forces. He fled to England via Romania and France, where he fulfilled various functions and in July 1941 commanded both the Polish 300 and 301 Squadrons. Indications from a radar position led the German Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter, flown by the experienced Oberleutnant Helmut Lent, through the dark night to the Wellington. Around 00:30 Lent got the aircraft in his sights and managed to shoot the left wing on fire with one salvo. Stachoń was most likely also hit by this salvo. The five other crew members managed to get out of the stricken aircraft and descended with their parachutes and landed at Vlagtwedde and 2e Exloërmond.Flying Officer Wacław Butkiewicz, Flying Officer Julian Stefan Palka, and Sergeants Antoni Kazimierz Dydo, Zbigniew Idzikowski and Zdzisław Dzięgiel were immediately taken prisoner.The Wellington crashed in flames in 1e Exloërmond. Stachoń's body was recovered from the wreck and subsequently buried in 2e Exloërmond. In 1962 he was reburied in the Polish military cemetery in Breda. The stone that had covered his grave is now left as a monument in the former mortuary at the cemetery.The remaining five crew members survived almost four years in German captivity and returned to England in 1945, where they stayed and built their lives. None of them returned to their homeland, where the communists had come to power.

Crashed after one salvo

During the night of 2 to 3 July 1942, the Royal Air Force attacked the German port of Bremen with 325 bombers. The attack was not a success and twelve aircraft did not return to England. One of the twelve was a twin-engine Vickers Wellington.The aircraft and crew belonged to the Polish 301 Squadron, which consisted of Polish soldiers who had fled their homeland in 1939 after the German occupation. The Wellington with number Z1314 had taken off from its English home base Hemswell at 23:12 and was intercepted on the outward flight to its target by the German night fighter pilot Hauptmann Helmut Lent, who was operating from Leeuwarden (Friesland, Netherlands).The attack resulted in the death of tail gunner Sergeant Stanisław Kędzierski and navigator Flying Officer Stanisław Ateński was wounded in both legs. Pilot Wing Commander Maksymilian Longin Brzozowski then gave orders to abandon the aircraft. Ateński, Pilot Officer Michal Benoit, Sergeant Stanyslaw Marek Kowalczyk, and finally Brzozowski did so. They landed safely on the ground, but the first three were immediately taken prisoner.Brzozowski likely landed near Schoonloo, as he was found in a forested area there by a Dutchman, Tuinis Bos. Tuinis provided him with civilian clothing and took him to his house. The pilot indicated that he wanted to go to Utrecht, but Bos came into contact with Durk Nijhof, who belonged to the resistance and indicated that he wanted to help the pilot. Bos then took Brzozowski to Nijhof's house in Assen.Following a betrayal by J. ten Brink, a Landwächter (the Nederlandse Landwacht was a Dutch paramilitary organisation founded by the occupiers), Brzozowski was arrested in his hiding place on 5 July 1942. Although there were suspicious of Nijhof and his house was searched, the occupiers took no measures against him. Brzozowski disappeared behind barbed wire in a POW camp, Stalag Luft III in Zagan, Poland. After the liberation, he returned to England and emigrated to Canada in 1948, where he died in 2001.

Wellington bomber crash site

Through thousands of items, the story of World War II is told. The stories range from special personal local stories through general war stories about specific items to fun stories about, how the museum came to get specific items. The collection was gathered together by Erik Zwiggelaar. His collecting passion began sometime in the 1980s. Behind his grandparents' house in Erica where in the war an American B17 bomber had crashed and here many Sundays were spent searching for these remains. First by eye, later with a metal detector. In the museum there is a section with all kinds of soil finds where the parts of this American bomber can be seen.

Museum Ergens in Nederland 

The liberation of Drenthe was a joint effort by Polish and Belgian forces, occasionally assisted by French paratroopers. The terrain was swampy and unfavourable for tanks, so the Belgian troops took the lead and acted as forward scouts. After all, with their heavy equipment the Polish troops could only advance via the main roads.On 10 April 1945, the route went first in the direction of Beilen. On the way, contact had to be made with a group of French paratroopers who had been dropped near the Oranje Canal north of the village of Westerbork. As contact was lost it was assumed they had perished, however early that afternoon some 60 paratroopers were nevertheless in contact, some of them having landed on the wrong side of a canal. A Polish battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel Complak, with support from Polish scouts and a Belgian SAS unit, moved further north towards the village of Westerbork.During the advance, Willem (Wim) van der Veer, a Dutch Sergeant dressed as a farmer, had mounted a bicycle to capture the Mayor and Aldermen as quickly as possible. Van der Veer had previously been dropped in the Netherlands to train the resistance and was well known in Westerbork, he had been in hiding there. He wanted to see the Dutch flag flying on the Town Hall when the tanks arrived.Upon their arrival, Mayor Pijbes and the Councillors were already ready to surrender. They knew it was a lost cause. Not much later, the first vehicles carrying Polish liberators drove into the village.When the Polish tanks rolled into the village, Camp Westerbork had not yet been liberated. With one phone call, Van der Veer managed to chase the staff away from the camp.When the phone rang, Van der Veer picked up. On the other end of the line, he heard 'This is Gemmeker, am I speaking to the Mayor?' Van der Veer replied 'Yes, you are speaking to him.' Camp Commander Gemmeker then said (in Dutch): 'How is the situation in Westerbork, Mayor?' Van der Veer replied 'Just listen' and held the phone outside the window as a tank passed by. Gemmeker called out 'Are you the Mayor though?' to which Van der Veer said 'Herr Gemmeker, can you speak English? It's time you learn it, because we are knocking at your door.' Gemmeker responded with 'Nein, nein, nein' and fled from Camp Westerbork in a hurry. A day later, the camp was also liberated by Canadian troops.

Liberation of the village of Westerbork

On 8 April 1945, having arrived in Coevorden, Belgian SAS scouts immediately started reconnaissance in the direction of Hoogeveen and Emmen. While doing so, they came across the bridge over the Verlengde Hoogeveense Vaart, just south of Oosterhesselen, which was still intact. The patrol, led by Belgian Sergeant Jacques Krolikowski, moved cautiously towards the bridge, but was ambushed. They reported this to headquarters and a mortar section was ordered to fire upon and drive out the German defenders, who had settled about a kilometre from the bridge.Arriving in Coevorden, the first Polish troops heard that the Oosterhesseler bridge was still intact and a made a plan for the next day. However, the big question was whether the bridge had sufficient carrying capacity for their 30-tonne Sherman tanks. The commander of the Internal Armed Forces from Coevorden, Piet Tijsma, was asked for advice. He brought an engineer from the Department of Public Works, who suggested reinforcing the bridge with tram rails once it was captured. Polish captain Charles Radino accepted this plan: he arranged to load a flatcar and ordered a locomotive of the Eerste Drentsche Stoomtramweg-Maatschappij (EDS), the First Drenthe Steam Tramway Company, to be prepared for the next day. However, the German troops did not linger and they partially blew up the bridge.The next morning, 9 April 1945, Krolikowski was ordered to conduct another reconnaissance of the Oosterhesseler bridge and occupy it if possible. Jeeps drove to a farm about five hundred metres from the bridge. As the terrain offered insufficient protection for vehicles, the Belgian troops continued on foot. Under fire from German machine guns, they reached a forest wall three hundred metres from the bridge. At 10.30, the newly arrived Polish troops came to support them with armoured vehicles and fired with everything they had. This had dire consequences for the surrounding area: five farms and houses caught fire.The German defenders abandoned their positions and with a storm attack the Polish forces captured the Oosterhesseler bridge. The Belgian forces immediately crossed the bridge, which remained almost undamaged, and took up positions to defend it. Polish engineers arrived with the EDS tram convoy and in an hour and a half the bridge was reinforced. A Belgian jeep section advanced across the captured bridge to Oosterhesselen and occupied the village. Three jeeps and a motorbike continued a reconnaissance towards Emmen, and that evening the first Polish Sherman tank drove over the bridge. Polish engineer troops reinforced the bridge with an emergency bridge the next day. On 10 April, the advance of the 1st Polish Armoured Division to the north began. A large stream of tanks, small armoured vehicles, trucks and jeeps moved north across the bridge.Belgians under Polish commandBy the evening of 9 April, several elements of the 1st Polish Armoured Division had arrived in Coevorden. The Polish forces, led by Lieutenant Colonel Zgorzelski, took over the tasks of the Belgian SAS unit. The latter was placed under the command of Polish General Maczek. The Belgian troops became 'the eyes and ears' of the 1st Polish Armoured Division. They made a name for themselves with their action at the Oosterhessel Bridge, which meant a tremendous gain in time for Maczek's division.

The conquest of the Oosterhesseler bridge

On the road from Klijndijk to Odoorn, Chief Gendarme Bolesław Laskowski, commander of a Polish tank platoon, was fatally wounded. Just before Odoorn, he stopped his tank to run reconnaissance of the area, as he suspected that German soldiers had taken position there. While sitting on his Cromwell tank scouting with his binoculars, he was hit by a bullet in the head. The impact caused him to fall off the tank and he was badly injured. The tank crew immediately fired with all the weapons they had towards the German position. The windows of the farmhouse they were standing next to flew out of their frames. Laskowski was transported to the hospital in Emmen, but he died of his wounds on the way, aged just 30. Stuck in the peat bog Incidentally, on 11 April 1944 between Valthermond and Nieuw-Weerdinge, not far from Odoorn, three Polish tanks got stuck on a dirt road . Under the sand the surface was peat and it was so soft that one of the tanks sank as far as the barrel. The three tanks ended up being stuck for three weeks before they could be pulled out of the peat.

Tragic death of a tank commander 

On 10 April 1945, the Polish 10th Regiment Dragoons led by Lieutenant-Colonel Zgorzelski moved from Coevorden towards Emmen, encountering the Oranje Canal along the way. At Noordbarge, southwest of Emmen, the German troops had set up a defence near the Emmerbrug (Emmerbridge) that was reinforced with bunkers, and they blew up the bridge with a big explosion. Sixteen Polish tanks and some 80 men engaged the German occupiers, who had entrenched themselves in bunkers, foxholes and positions in and near the farms, dairy and houses of Noordbarge. The Polish forces had to cross the Orange Canal under cover of tank fire. Once a bridgehead had been established on the other side of the canal, it was up to the engineers to build a bridge. Depite being liberated, the village of Noordbarge also mourned deeply: seventeen farms and barns were either destroyed or set on fire during the battle for its liberation.The 1st Armoured Regiment led by Lieutenant-Colonel Stefanowicz was the first to reach Emmen on 10 April, and by around 17:00 the whole of Emmen was in the hands of the Polish liberators. Other places like Nieuw-Weerdinge and Emmer-Compascuum were liberated shortly afterwards without much struggle.In Noordbarge, freedom was celebrated so exuberantly that the Marechaussee and Ordedienst (Dutch Royal Military Constabulary and the Order Service) had to send the party-goers home in the evening. The next day, the celebration continued. Polish soldiers passed by in decorated wagons, the Wilhelmus (Dutch national anthem) was sung and the Dutch flag was solemnly raised. Despite the mourning, the joy of liberation was great.

The battle for Noordbarge

The first Polish units approached the village of Buinen from the direction of Exloo, remaining unseen in the woods for a long time. However, the three Cromwell tanks and the vehicles that were located on the upper Zuider-Esch were spotted by the German troops, who had set up heavy machine guns in Buinen and who opened fire on the Polish tanks from a great distance. On entering Buinen, 23-year-old corporal Stanisław Bieliniec was fatally hit and left laying in the meadow near the house of a local family, the Dieters. As the fighting continued, the Dieters family retrieved Bieliniec's lifeless body from the meadow and took him home, however their 8-year-old son Jacob was tragically killed by a stray bullet during the process.Bieliniec's death is commemorated annually at the monument on Osdijk in Buinen.

Corporal and boy killed in liberation  

On 12 April 1945, the Polish 3rd Infantry Brigade, led by Colonel Skibinski, marched north along several roads with the mission to capture the towns of Westdorp, Borger, Buinen and a crossing over the Buinen-Schoonoord canal. At 10:00 the advance started: the western route led north from Odoorn, the central route from Odoorn to Borger, and the eastern route along the railway from Exloo to Buinen. The three units ran into German opposition, but the short battles and detours were too much for the opposing forces. The German troops retreated behind the Buinen-Schoonoord Canal south of Borger and blew up the bridges that were still passable.One canal bridge was bravely secured by Canadian lieutenant Chadwick. He was platoon commander of a reconnaissance squadron tasked with providing flank protection and linking up with the Polish forces on the eastern flank of the Canadian advance. Chadwick personally dismantled explosives on and under the bridge and then moved across it with his section. He later received a Bronze Lion, a high Dutch decoration, for his actions.Additionally, Polish scouts from the 2nd Polish Squadron of Rifleman Jan Salwa managed to cross the canal near Borger, however they could not retain the bridgehead and at the end of the day they had to withdraw from the north bank. At the same time, another Polish squadron was surprised by heavy enemy fire between Ees and Borger. The German troops wanted to retreat north of Eeserburg. The last Germans had only just run across when the bridge blew up.The Polish forces drew up a new plan and motorcyclist Podgórski conveyed the information to the 10th Cavalry Regiment. The latter attacked again, but this time with support from three Cromwell tanks. In the process, Corporal Kowalczyk was killed when his Vickers Carden Loyd tank came under fire from the other canal side.Despite this, Polish Dragoons managed to form a weak bridgehead on the opposite side near the remains of Eser Bridge. The German artillery in Borger kept firing at the small assault group without ceasing, and the latter could not possibly hold out, However, they received support from the three Cromwells who fired their shells in rapid succession. The German troops heard the Polish forces approaching from all sides and decided to withdraw slowly to the north. Finally, despite the delay, Borger was liberated and the Polish advance northwards could continue.

Borger liberated after delay

In the years that follow, all kinds of people join the 2nd and 3rd Regiment de Chasseurs Parachutisten. Veterans from Libya, De Gaulle supporters, refugees from France, and volunteers from all over the world receive intensive training in England or Scotland to be deployed at any time. Their task is to obstruct or disrupt the German occupiers as much as possible, which they successfully do in Normandy, Burgundy, at the Battle of the Bulge, and ultimately in the Netherlands.In the night of 7/8 April 1945, the two French regiments are dropped with about 700 people above Drenthe and Southeast Friesland. Operation Amherst has started. They must conquer bridges, secure airports, stimulate local resistance, and cause as much confusion as possible. Bad weather hugely influences the drops and once on the ground, the French paratroopers have to improvise. They quickly seek contact with the locals in order to find their bearings. Major Puech-Samson and Captain Betbèze are in luck when they meet Mr Van Lohuizen, director of the KNMI’s geomagnetic station in Witteveen, who speaks French.