During the City Council meeting last Wednesday evening a motion was submitted by the political party’s D66, VVD and PvdA about a missing Airborne monument in the municipality of Renkum.
In the municipality are monuments everywhere which recall Operation Market Garden but near the Renkums Heath, where the allies first landed on the 17th of September in 1944, is none. There is a large boulder with picture and story to listen, but it’s not a monument. The boulder is part of the Liberation Route Europe.
Sympathic
The entire Board felt very sympathetic for the motion to realize a monument commemorating the 1st airborne landings. Alderman Erik Heinrich therefore took over the motion. There was no voting necessary anymore.
In the motion is written that due to the initiatives of Renkum Leeft more and more people visit this historic place and from historical and tourist point of view it makes sense to mark this place on the Renkumse Heath.
And now?
There were earlier attempts to place a monument near the Renkumse Heath. The owner of Eethuis Airborne, on the corner of the former landing-zones, wanted a replica of an anti-tank gun like monument in 2015. For various reasons this didn’t took place, but could also count on sympathy of the municipality at the time, said Heinrich.
There was also some resistance to the cannon because hundreds of meters away, at the roundabout on the Utrechtseweg in Heelsum is already exactly the same anti-tank gun.
75th Airborne Commemoration
The new monument, realized before the 75th airborne commemoration in 2019, could be a cannon this time, but also a stone or plaque. The choice is free.
The plans will be actively involved by Renkum Leeft and the Airborne Museum. Appropriate funding could be requested at the Vfonds (fund for peace, freedom and veterans).
For realization the preference will be given to an artist from the municipality of Renkum.
