Monday, September 29, 2014

Heesbeen, Netherlands

Flying Officer R.O Brigden, Pilot, Royal Airforce. 1st September 1944, Age 21 are the words inscribed on the only Commonwealth War grave in the churchyard of sleepy hamlet of Heesbeen, close by to Heusden. One of 18,265 identified Commonwealth war graves in the Netherlands.


Bob was only 16 when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, and an 18 year old married man when he joined the Royal Airforce as a pilot in 1940. For awhile he was flying a  Douglas A-20 Havoc or "Boston bomber" over France dropping leaflets but in 1942 he was transferred to Malta, flying a De Havilland Mosquito for eight months protecting the convoys and the island.

F/O Brigden

As his navigator, Tom Harris, wrote, "Bob and I completed 50 sorties. Closing down Italian/German Aerodromes to help the RAF Wellington bomber squadrons, canon fire into west coast electrical railway 
transformers, bombing or strafing fuel depots, army bases, etc. Eight hectic
months - we lost several good mates." 

In 1944 he returned to England as a flying instructor but, after D-Day, returned with his navigator, Tom Harris, to 605 (Intruder) Squadron in Manston, Kent flying a "Mosquito"over Luftwaffe bases in the Netherlands, destroying aircraft on the ground. It was on one of these operations that their plane was hit by anti-aircraft guns at Gilze-Rijen, near Breda. Warrant officer Tom Harris was able to parachute to safety but F/O Bob Brigden, 21, was unable to eject safely from the plane, as it was flying too low, and he died when the plane crashed near Heesbeen, leaving behind a wife and two young sons. Tom Harris was captured and taken to Poland as a prisoner-of-war and young Bob Brigden's body was buried by the local people in the churchyard of Heesbeen.
F/O Brigden
A sad story heard only to often when learning about WW2. What makes this story more personal is that Martin "googled" F/O Robert Brigden after visiting the grave recently and discovered, in all the information, an email address to a person he could only assume was a grandson of this fallen pilot. Taking a chance he made contact, just to say he had paid his respects to the F/O Brigden and back "pinged" an email saying that he was indeed the grandson and that he had been very touched that someone British had visited his grandfather's grave....something he, until now, had never had a chance to do. But, he was coming over this summer, with his son, to see the grave and meet with the son of the people who had found his grandfather's body, as it was 70 years on September 1st that his grandfather had crashed...would we like to meet up sometime?

So that is how we came to be spending the evening with Tony Brigden and his 12 year old son, Harry in the pub in Heusden. A lovely evening spent with two interesting people whom we had only connected with through the magic of the internet. Tony and Harry had spent a week's vacation together touring some historic sites, both WW1 and WW2, such as Arnhem, Dunkirk and Ieper, before coming here to Heusden. The following day they attended a two hour Dutch service at the tiny church where Tony's granddad and Harry's great granddad is buried, quite a challenge for any Brit, let alone a 12 year old! Then Kees van Everdingen, son of the local Dutch people who witnessed the crash, took them to the crash site, where they scattered poppy seeds in remembrance. Tony said that his grandmother had visited in the late1940's but had never really discussed her deceased husband's history, and it was only when Harry was born that he decided to find out more about his grandfather. As we chatted I couldn't help but think what a powerful history lesson Harry was getting. Not only had he visited places many kids only read about in history books, but he had made a connection with a great grandfather who had died to keep safe the Europe he was now growing up in. As Theodore Roosevelt said, "The more you know about the past, the better you are prepared for the future."
Heesbeen, Netherlands.

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