Battlefield tour with Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment from Yorkshire

Last week, our Foundation welcomed a group of 20 veterans from the Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment of Yorkshire in England. They have spent a week in the Netherlands and visited several locations where the former East Yorkshire Regiment fought in World War II. Many soldiers from their regiment were killed in the process, including in the Overloon area. Of them, 15 soldiers are buried at Overloon War Cemetery and 10 at Venray War Cemetery.
During a battlefield tour we organised, they visited Overloon, where we had placed photographs at the graves of the East Yorkshire Regiment. Several personal stories were also told there about a number of soldiers.

Recently, Dr Tracy Craggs, who accompanied this group published her new book “D-Day, to Bremen and Beyond” which features her interviews with the men of the 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment who did survive the war and were able to recount it. Many of these stories are set in the Overloon area.
Read more about this book: https://ddaytobremen.co.uk
In Oeffelt, we stopped at the bailey bridge, the longest in Europe in 1945 and told about its background. The tour continued sight to sight to Venray at the Monument of the 1st Battalion Norfolks, 3rd British Infantry Division where sad stories of the “Blood Beek” were told at the Loobeek.

They then visited the German cemetery in Ysselsteyn which also made a deep impression.
To conclude, the party ended at the museum of one of our members, the museum van postzegel tot tank (from stamp to tank) in Groeningen where they were given a nice tour and where the bond between the veterans made for a wonderful day.

More photo’s of their visit are on our Facebook Page.