VALKENBURG 2024 – 80 years free

The first liberators enter Valkenburg.

The story behind Point 9 – Operation Steeple Chase, Old Hickory

Photo left: two “soldiers of the Old Hickory division” during the capture of Valkenburg to the Geul river
Photo right: “Paul Simons” piloting the liberators, seated on the hood of a jeep.

by Arnold Schunck
On September 13, 1944, the Old Hickory Division reached the southern border of our municipality. A man from The Hague, l’Istelle, hiding in Valkenburg with the help of my father, went to the mobile headquarters of the Americans and sought contact. What they especially wanted to know there: how are the Geul bridges in shape? Only one bridge had not yet been destroyed, at Den Halder Castle. So it was agreed to try to take that bridge by surprise the next morning. Very dangerous, because that bridge was undermined. Now, eighty years later, I had the honor of reenacting what happened that morning. In the role of my father, who as head of the local aid to those in hiding (L.O.) and member of the Goossen intelligence service went to meet the Americans together with l’Istelle. They had agreed to meet at a bench on Daelhemerweg, just above the imitated coal mine. So it went that way this time too. The “American” offered me a cigarette, which I did not accept because, like my father, I do not smoke. But I did say, as agreed, the password: “I like steeplechase.” Then they drove into Valkenburg with their engines switched off, because that bridge had to be taken. My father in front, on the hood of the first jeep. People were already waiting to start cheering. My father managed to prevent that. The soldiers snuck through houses and gardens in two groups, guided by my father and l’Istelle. Unfortunately, the last Germans in Hotel Oda were warned by an NSB member and the bridge was blown up. That didn’t happen now, 80 years later, of course. People were there, but now with cell phones to photograph those original U.S. Army vehicles with that man on the hood. Then I had the honor of declaring in the old parish church, “After four and a half years of misery, we are finally free.”
There are people, even in the highest municipal circles, who don’t like “playing with liberation.” Drama is also playing, it is true. Many films and plays about the war and liberation have been created. I need only recall the famous movie “D-Day”. Reenacting history is an excellent means of remembering the past. Together with the re-enactors (the “Americans” of the Old Hickory Historical Military Car Club) I had the honor of contributing to this. You can read elsewhere in this report how good that did for some of the children of the time: Perhaps the most revealing photo of the past few days.