An important fact about this event was that the German crew carried extremely detailed and highly confidential documents about the intended German attack on the Benelux countries, Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg.
Since then a lot has been written about this incident. Wel known politicians (like Churchil) and historians mention the crash. All of them usually give good descriptions, except for one thing : they practically all point the incident in a village called 'Mechelen - aan - de - Maas' where it really happened in Vucht, a village nearby.
In his book, 'Eerste Duitse adelaar viel te Vucht'
(The first German eagle crashed at Vucht), the author Mr. Flor Vanloffeld
makes a really good reconstruction of the crash, the events that took
place before and after and shows how it changed (or could have changed)
world history.
Trying to get a copy of his sold out book I contacted Mr. Vanloffeld. A
few days later I did receive not only the book but also two pictures
and a very kind letter. From this letter I would like to quote a
passage :
In the book you will find a picture of the plane
after the landing. This picture was officially the only one taken, as
confirmed by all possible sources, and probably taken by a reporter of
a Belgian newspaper.
After the publication of my book, so fifty years after the crash, I found
out that there were other pictures.
In our village (Eisden) there lives Mr. Hubert Van Hecke. As a lieutenant
during the mobilisation he was ordered to guard with his unit the
'Zuid-Willems vaart' (a channel) and was given a motorcycle to carry out
his duty's. A few hours after the crash he come on the spot and made some
pictures with a camera he always kept in his side-car. Due to other
military obligations he was not able to give more attention to it.
Exactly fifty years later, after retiring, his wife started to clean up
the papers he left from a well filled career and so found the forgotten
pictures. Being close to our family, knew what we were doing and even read
our book she saw immediately the connection. She rushed to our home and
asked "if this could be the German aircraft in Vucht". To me the
photographs were of tremendous importance. Even Mr. Van Hecke was
very surprised and could only explain that he forgot about the pictures
due to the hectic situation early 1940.
Later I was able to interview Mr. Van Hecke. He told me the following :
As an officer in the national reserve I was called
to join my unit the '3° Regiment Lansiers'. We were first placed near the
French border at Nijvel, Ath and Mons. After that we went to Opitter near
Maaseik and later on a little more south behind the 'Zuid-Willems vaart'
a channel near Eisden. Here our assignment was to defend the channel from
Eisden to Lanklaar.
In that period I was called to the staff and given the
function of S2 (intelligence officer). On January 10 I heard about the crash
and went to Vucht with my motorbike. Being S2 I was the only officer in the
regiment with a clearance to go to the eastern side of the channel.
As I always kept a Voightlander 16 mm camera in my side-car I took
some pictures. The outbreak of the war made me forget about them
until, a few months ago, my wife found them.
We are now able to show you these very rare pictures. This is however only thanks to the complete co-operation of Mr. Van Hecke and Mr. Van Loffeld.
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Date of last maintenance : 01 January 2000.
Belgian Fronts © 2000 Jo Vermeulen, All Rights Reserved.