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According to the Loss Registers 1939 - 1945 of the Ministry of Defense, the following plane crashes among others took place: On 5 July 1941, a Hampden I of the 106th Squadron crashed near the Strabrechtse Dijk. The pilot was Sergeant Norman Edward Bowering, who, along with his crew, died in the conflagration that ensued after the crash. On July 8, 1941, a crash of a Wellington IC of the 99th Squadron was recorded in front of Heeze (Strabrechtse Heide). The pilot was Lieutenant EA Masters, who was taken prisoner of war along with his entire crew. On December 27, 1941, the crash of a Wellington IC of 57th Squadron was recorded in the Heeze - Someren area. The pilot, Thomas Purdy, and four other crew members are buried in the war cemetery in Woensel. On April 27, 1944 a Messerschmitt Bf 110G-4 crashed. The pilot, Oberfeldwebel Rudolf Frank, was killed. On December 25, 1944, a Typhoon IB of the 440th Squadron crashed. The pilot was Harry J. Hardy, who was able to leave the plane.

Out of gratitude that nothing happened to Sterksel himself during the war and that the conscript soldiers from Sterksel returned home unharmed, a Maria chapel was built in 1945 on Ten Brakeweg. On the stone at the chapel it says: "May 1940 - May 1945 O May Queens, O Star of the Sea. You led us safely through the dangers of war. Through the turbulent surf of five terrifying years. Your month of May, O Mother, brought freedom and peace. We thank you, Queen of peace. You who come kneel here. Repeat this prayer. "Yet a resident of Sterksel, namely Henk van Rossum, was killed by the Germans. Henk was a member of a resistance group in Geldrop and had contacts with the resistance group of the de Koning brothers in Heeze. After the raid on Huisven in Heeze followed a raid on the Peelven, where the van Rossum family lived. Henk reported on June 17, 1944 in Haaren and was deported to concentration camp Dachau. According to the victim register of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Henk died there on May 31, 1945. Only in 2016 a memorial stone for Henk van Rossum was unveiled near the British cemetery (near Berkenlaan).

After the liberation, Allied soldiers camped in the woods behind the ice house and the castle. Here and there you can still find carvings from that time in trees and beech trees in particular. The long supply lines from Normandy? for soldiers, fuel, ammunition, material etc. and the resistance of the occupier made it necessary to go into bivouac. Many trees were felled in the forests that were necessary to be able to pass through the wet and swampy Peel.