L108: Een tragische vergissing

On September 18 American paratroopers enter Eindhoven. They liberate the city. They also ensure that the advance route and the bridges over the Dommel for the British ground army are secured and kept open. Eindhoven residents, often dressed in orange, stand along the road to welcome the Americans. But liberation also has its drawbacks. During the fighting, one of the paratroopers makes a tragic mistake. American paratroopers who had been dropped near Son on September 17, 1944, advanced the next day to Eindhoven. The soldiers of this 506th regiment of the American 101st Airborne Division were ordered to take Eindhoven and immediately secure the four Dommel bridges. "We can't waste any time to kill Germans". With these words Colonel Sink, the commander of the 506th, made it very clear that there was no time to waste. After some German resistance on the Vlokhovenseweg and then on the Woenselsestraat, the Americans managed to reach the bridges. But the liberation of Eindhoven also took its toll on the people of Eindhoven. Some resistance fighters were killed, including Adri Luijkx who was accidentally shot by an American parachutist. Listening stones are placed in places where a story can be told, in these places is a stone with a plaque on which, among other things, a QR code. A kind of barcode that you can scan with your smartphone and then you hear the story as a radio play. The radio plays can also be heard on the Liberation Route Europe website.