Dear all, I live in the small village of Beers. Somewhere on the internet I read that the 153rd brigade of the 51st Highland Division stayed here on the 7th of February. From an elderly gentleman I heared that there were troops stationed on/near his farm. They also brought artillery with them. I do not know if these troops were part of the 153rd brigade. He thought that these troops were marching to Overloon. It might be a long shot, but could anyone provide me with some more information? Best wishes, Jan
Jan, Good puzzle this, unless our experts can help. So to help I had to place the village of Beers and Wiki says it is North Brabant Province, Holland and the map might help. Yes the red marker denotes the location, not the museum and it is the German border to the east. Looking around this website there is no mention of Beers.
There is a clue here and my bold: From: 152 Brigade Operation Order No. 12 - OPERATION 'VERITABLE' | Account | 51st Highland Division Website This is an Operational Order for 4/2/1945 and there are other thread(s) Op Veritable. The snag is it is for 152nd Brigade. There a mention of Beers available via Google books: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Army_Medical_Services/k55QAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="51st+highland+division"+++"beers"&pg=PA440&printsec=frontcover Again a mention: Full text of "So Few Got Through" On skimming it for 7/2/1945 I cannot see anything, but have not looked at the earlier pgs. Using the 51st (Highland) Division - Wikipedia for individual units might help, but the village name is a hinderance as soldiers like drinking beers!
The concentration areas for 51st Highland Division were in the area of MOOK on 8th February and Beers was on the route to the Concentration and assembly areas. It is possible that the concentration areas were around BEERS through to Mook.. 5th Camerons (152 Brigade) left Vught at 1300 hours 8th February, arriving at Mook concentration area Map ref 720519, map 12NW 1/25000. The relevant map is available on line but the website is down at the moment. back up again Groesbeek, Holland | Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Wow!! Thank you all so much for your help! It seems a lot of units came through Beers, it was both on the Market-Garden route and Veritable route. My grandparents found a full brencarrier track in our garden. It is still in the ground... I found 3 mentions of Beers in the book for December, this is great new information!! Wich map do I have to use to look up the coördinates? Or do these just point to Beers and not to a specific area?
Nothing to do with the question asked, but I was just thinking how much I would like to live in a village called Beers (yes, I know it's pronounced differently in Dutch, but I don't care).
... the Highland Division was heading for the Reichswald, to take part in the opening of Op Veritable in the morning of Feb 8th, 1945: VERITABLE 1945: 51st Highland Division Reichswald Forest Note that the division moved into the attack on an one brigade front with 154 leading, followed by 153 and 152 Bde; the latter moved up to the frontline in the course of the 8th Feb, as is noted by Highland51 in his post above.
Thanks Stolpi! The question remains though, were the troops the man whitnessed heading for the Reichswald or as he stated to Overloon? We might never know the answer.
Wrong thinking by the witness - probably inspired by the reputation of the Battle of Overloon (Oct 44), which acquired a lot of name in the post-war Netherlands. Whereas the much larger Operation Veritable, or the Britsh/Canadian Rhineland Campaign, the bloody prelude to the liberation of the Netherlands above the rivers, has remained far less known to the average Dutchman and even today needs further explanation.
He was not sure of the month, just that there were troops stationed at his farm for one/couple of days. He also told me about a cross that they erected on his property. It was some kind of joke, the hole being just a dump pit. I still hope to locate this.. Unfortunately he passed away last year.
Well said Stolpi. I study history and one of my classmates made a remark that everything about WW2 in the Netherlands was already well known. Turned out nobody knew anything about operation Veritable or even what happened after operation Market-Garden.
