The civilian population of Gennep had already been evacuated in the last couple of months of 1944, but there were still around 800 patients and carers left in the town’s two sanatoriums. 5 December, the day on which Sinterklaas brings a present to every child, is approaching.
Sinterklaas
All supplies started to run out. People go foraging for food in the surrounding area each day. And on top of that 5 December, the day on which Sinterklaas brings a present to every child, is approaching. The restaurant on the Brabant side of the river Maas is the Oeffelt Ferry House (Veerhuis Oeffelt). For centuries, people and livestock were carried over the river by the ferryman here. In mid-1944, the area around the Ferry House had been liberated, but the Limburg side of the Maas was German-occupied territory. Every evening, the British troops withdrew to the village of Oeffelt. German soldiers and their prisoners dug trenches in the fields along their side of the Maas. At some point, their enemies would attempt the river crossing. This situation, with the river as physical separation between the British on the Brabant bank and the Germans on the Limburg side, lasted until February 1945. Then the Allies decided to advance. The Royal Engineers moved forward, to construct a Bailey Bridge over the Maas. Thanks to this Bailey Bridge, Montgomery was able to cross the Rhine a few weeks later, in late 1945, with the aim of taking the Ruhr area. The bridge at Gennep remained in use until well after the Second World War, when a permanent bridge could be built.
