Saturday, January 16 at the Society's Exhibition

We left the town hall and went across the street to the Troempeelke community hall which had been set up to show some of the history of the Allies coming to liberate the area in 1944. I'm not sure what I was expecting but the display was amazing. The effort that had gone into gathering the artifacts and the documentation was huge.

This is what greeted us outside - four vehicles all decked out by the Old Military Vehicle Association of Opglabbeek.

A group photo outside the hall.

And here is one of the panels dedicated to Dad.

Here is William speaking to some of the crowd gathered. Note the picture just to his right on the panel - that's an old aerial photo of the airfield which Dad was trying to reach after being hit. And please note the Canadian flag which hung over the two display panels with information about Dad.

Here's me speaking to the people at the exhibit.

And then to open the exhibit, I copied William and rattled the PSP - pierced steel planking - with my foot that was used for the runway at Y.32 Ophoven airfield. Dad would have landed on that at least three times - January 1, 2 and 13 and taken off on it four times before he didn't land on it on January 16, 1945.