Liberation route Bergen op Zoom

( 3 hour 20 minutes ) 40 km

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On this route, you will cycle through the landscape of the Battle of the Scheldt. The rolling hills separated the water-rich Zeeland from Brabant, the province that formed the access route to the Westerschelde for the Allies. This river was very important, because it gave access to the port of Antwerp. The Allied Sherman tank and the German tank moat are visible reminders of the battle on this route. As are the memorial graveyards in Bergen op Zoom, where fallen Canadian and British soldiers - as well as other Allied soldiers - found their final resting place.

The Liberation Route Brabant tells the story of the liberation, but also shows what the Second World War was like for ordinary people who lived in Brabant at the time. Eight cycling routes, spread across North Brabant, lead you past the Brabant Remembers stories, the Liberation Route Europe audio columns, monuments and museums. Together they make the impact of the war on North Brabant clear, even all these years later.

Signposting Liberation Route Brabant

Follow the signs marked ‘Liberation Route’. These are located below the regular junction signs.

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Sights on this route

Nature Gate Wouwse Plantage

The Nature Gate Wouwse Plantage includes a spacious, carefully designed parking area, a zone arranged for art and an event meadow. From the Nature Gate you can walk or cycle straight into the forest.

War Monument Huijbergen

With this monument Huijbergen, a village in the municipality of Woensdrecht, commemorates the Second World War and its consequences.

Flakstellung Buitendreef

Around Woensdrecht Air Base the Germans built eight bunkers, specially designed to protect the anti-aircraft guns against enemy air attacks. Flakstellung Buitendreef is one of them.

Control Tower in the Kooibos

In the Kooibos near Woensdrecht you will find a replica of a red and white checkered control tower, which served Woensdrecht Air Base in the 1940s.

Sherman-tank

At the Onderstal in Woensdrecht you will find an original M4 Sherman tank, which was used here by the Canadians. The tank has stood at this location as a monument since 1978.

Liberation Monument Woensdrecht

The monument consists of a natural stone statue of a female figure with a wounded soldier.

Monument Reconstruction Woensdrecht

The Monument Reconstruction Woensdrecht is a chapel built of brick.

Listening Post – Dramas around the Liberation

After the liberation of Bergen op Zoom on 27 October 1944, the city remained under fire and both soldiers and civilians were still killed. Piet Hoedelmans, then 13 years old, tells about it.

Memorial Anton van Duinkerken

On the Grote Markt square there is a statue of Anton van Duinkerken, pseudonym for Willem Asselbergs. Van Duinkerken was a writer and a leading scholar of Dutch and was considered dangerous by the German occupiers. In 1942 he was held hostage in camp Sint

Listening Post – Hell, Bill, let's take this damn'd place

After some hesitation, the Canadians decided on 27 October 1944 to liberate Bergen op Zoom. Kees de Waal, 16 years old and a member of the resistance, went to meet his liberators. He was allowed to show them the way.

War Memorial Bergen op Zoom

At the rear of the St. Gertrude’s Church there is a monument in memory of the Bergen freedom fighters and other war victims of the Second World War.

Liberation Monument Bergen op Zoom

The Liberation Monument of Bergen op Zoom dates from 1955.

German Tank Barrier Blocks

Along the water of the turf canal De Zoom, concrete blocks were placed on the orders of the Germans as a tank barrier.

Canadian Cemetery

1119 soldiers found their final resting place on this cemetery. Most of these, 969, are Canadian soldiers. Half of the soldiers buried here died during the Battle of the Scheldt, between September and November 1944. The other bodies came from various muni

British Cemetery

This cemetery has 1284 graves. Most of the predominantly British casualties buried here are air force personnel who died over the Netherlands. There are also soldiers buried here who died during the amphibious landings on Walcheren in the autumn of 1944,