This sign at the railway station of Gouda I had not noticed before.
It details two allied attacks on the station on 6th and 26th of November 1944. Gouda is an important railway junction between the cities in the west of Holland with rest of the country, and of course Germany.
Five attacks were made by 138 Typhoons and Spitfires. Despite dropping 44 tons of ordnance, they failed to do significant damage, but you are invited to search for the marks of grenade hits in the steel beams.
It details two allied attacks on the station on 6th and 26th of November 1944. Gouda is an important railway junction between the cities in the west of Holland with rest of the country, and of course Germany.
Five attacks were made by 138 Typhoons and Spitfires. Despite dropping 44 tons of ordnance, they failed to do significant damage, but you are invited to search for the marks of grenade hits in the steel beams.
This was one of the famous 'Cheese' raids where Bomber Harris, running out of legitimate targets, told his pilots to target famous cheese centres as he was lactose intolerant. Gouda took a pounding, as did Camembert, Brie and Dairylea. The problems started when they also bombed Cheshire, Wensleydale and Lancashire.
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil,
DeleteFascinating stuff. Immediately made it clear to me why some air crew were talking about milk runs.
And makes me wonder what culinary connection there is between Warsaw, Rotterdam, Coventry and Belgrade...