20/12/2025
Dear WWII Re-enactor or Enthusiast,
I’m forwarding you some information about a WWII monument that we would like to site at the location of a Bailey Bridge built in September 1944 in Son en Breugel as part of Operation Market Garden. I’m a resident of Son and am helping Arie Donck (see below) achieve this. However we are facing some planning permission issues related to the location and have set up a petition to address this. Can you please read the information below and sign the petition? Please also share this with any friends or members of your group. We need as many individual signatures as possible.
Please help us!
Towards the end of World War II, as part of Operation Market Garden, the US 101st Airborne Division, the US 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the British Royal Engineers of ### Corps (30 Corps) liberated the village of Son en Breugel in the Netherlands. This involved building a Bailey Bridge over the Wilhelmina canal during the night of 18th/19th September 1944.
To honour and remember these very brave men, a monument has been created, that is constructed using parts of an original Bailey Bridge. Unfortunately, the local council will not give permission to place this monument on the banks of the canal at the location of the bridge, but prefer a location a kilometre further into the village, near a pond, which in 1944 was a sandy pit that served as a POW assembly point.
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Every year dozens of buses carrying the remaining Operation Market Garden veterans, their families, and other interested parties come from all over the World to visit the site of the Bailey Bridge. Disappointingly, at the moment there is nothing to commemorate this important event.
We feel very strongly that the monument should be in the historically correct place and so have launched a citizens’ initiative to petition the local council to change their decision on the location.
We need as many people as possible to support this petition, not only the residents of Son en Breugel but also anyone from a national or international background. So please add your signature.
You can sign the petition (available in English) by scanning the QR code or using the following link: https://monumentbaileybrug.petities.nl
Thank you very much.
The Bailey Bridge Monument Working Group.
SMI (retired) A. Donck
A Facebook group is also available:
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Monument Baileybrug Son
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The liberation of Son en Breugel is celebrated every year around the 17th September with a large re-enactment taking place on the Oranjeveld in Son. If you are ever passing please call in – you’d be very welcome.
Forwarded by:
Rick Busbridge
Vanuit grote historische waarde verdient de gemeente Son en Breugel een monument van de Baileybrug op een plek bij de huidige hefbrug. De realisering hiervan is tot nu toe niet gelukt. https://monumentbaileybrug.petities.nl or in English (https://monumentbaileybrug.petities.nl?locale=en)