On this page I've collected the experiences of civilians and veterans who worked or served on the airstrip near Keent. If you have any recollections that you want to add to this page, don't hesitate and mail me please at info@bommeltje.nl. HOW I CAME TO BE AT B.82 GRAVE by "Jack" Hillman 125 Wing HQ telephone section. I had joined the RAF in February 1939 as a telephonist, and, after various postings and exercises in the UK, was sent to 125 Fighter Wing at RAF Ford in April 1944. I belonged to the Advance Party of 125 Wing - which meant we were the first ones into any of our Landing Grounds and helped set them up - this was generally a week or so in advance of the actual Squadrons landing. For reasons of security we weren't allowed to carry diaries with us - although, no doubt, some people did - so I wrote all the relevant dates in my pocket book. Similarly, we also weren't allowed to have a camera, so I spent a lot of my off-duty time sketching - unfortunately these pictures are long gone now. Our party had landed in France on 18 June at Courseulles-sur-Mer, and helped set up our first Landing Ground at (B.11) Longues-sur-Mer, where we stayed for about 6 weeks, then moving to (B.19) at Lingevres near to Tilly in August. Came the breakout from the beach-head in August we were rapidly on the move through northern France, crossing into Belgium on 4 September to (B.60) Brussels/Grimbergen where we stayed for a few days, sleeping in or under our trucks, until we could move to (B.70) Antwerp/Deurne on 7 September. Our squadrons joined us there on 17 September but, as the Advance Party, we left there in a hurry and went up the corridor, which was cut 2 or 3 times, to (B.82) Grave on 20 September, to give maximum support to 1 Airborne Division at Arnhem. We sat there and waited - not knowing whether our B Party or the Germans would turn up, fortunately for us it was our B Party. My basic memories of B.82 Grave - We stayed on a muddy field for over a month, near a very big bridge - it was horrible!! Because of the atrocious weather I moved from my tent into a pig-sty (still occupied by pigs which were fed by the farmer daily) - my colleagues and I covered our heads with a tarpaulin and smoked captured German cigars to kill the smell of the pigs!!! - Then we moved into a cow-pen - again shared with the cows - and that smelt as well!!! The cows were one side of a metal fence and kept sticking their heads through - so you had to beware of their horns!! Because of sabotage by Dutch workers when the Germans first set up the Landing Ground the drainage was terrible - we were also bombed by the Luftwaffe on a regular basis. Whilst I was at Grave I went up to the Grave Bridge to ask about my brother Ken (Corporal K Hillman 1 Platoon, A Company 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade, 22 Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division), as I knew that an Armoured Division was involved in the land corridor battle to Arnhem (it was the Guards Armoured Division) - I was told that they were not there as the 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats) were operating elsewhere and that I had better go back to my ALG quickly - when I asked why I was told that regular as clockwork the Germans shelled the bridge at 4 p.m. and it was nearly 4 - so I scrounged a lift in a bren-gun carrier and just missed the shelling!! After over a month of this type of existence we went to (B.64) Diest Belgium on 30 October, then to (Y.32) Ophoven a few miles north of Hasselt, where we were shot up on 1 January, whilst I was out repairing a telephone line to the dispersal's, from there I returned to Holland at Zeelste near (B.78) Eindhoven on 20 January 1945. Then in the advance to Germany we stayed for a few days at (B.86) Helmond (Advance Party only) crossed the Rhine at Rees and swung north into North Holland to (B.106) Twente, near Enschede, where we were the first Fighter Wing to operate from a base east of the Rhine and finally then to (B.118) Celle in the final attack that knocked Gerry out - end of war. We then set off through the German lines and countryside into Denmark to (B.160) Kastrup, Copenhagen, to oversee "Gerry out" and liberate the place, from there to North Germany, (B.172) Husum, where sadly the best Fighter Wing (125) disbanded on 14 July 1945. I then continued in the Occupation Forces at Sylt before returning to my family in the UK - and continued my RAF service until 1957. LOST CONTACT WITH 127 WING by Charles Clark from Canada. I served with 127 Wing RCAF,late in October and was stationed at Grave. My job was to run generators and supply electricity to the various tents and trucks that were the work shops that supplied the various aircraft. I haven't much information about life on the Grave airstrip except it seemed to rain a lot and our slit trenches were always full of water. The Germans had a habit of strafing us with anti-personal bomb which would bounce on the soggy ground and explode - how they could bounce I'm not sure. One wet day I was boiling my shirt to try and get the dirt out, when the Germans attacked us. I heard the planes coming and could feel and hear the little bombs. A load hit my tent and blew up my fire and I threw myself into the flooded slit trench. Because of the water I didn't get all the way in and I received some bomb fragments in my rear end. The sergeant seeing what happened pulled me out and cut off the pants to see how bad the wound was and called up the ambulance and sent me to a local hospital - I'm not sure which hospital. The wound was not bad, they sewed me up and I spent the night in hospital. The next day I was let go but I had no place to go. 127 Wing had left. I found out later that they had gone to Brussels (Evere) for the winter. But that left me in the hospital with no pants. After wandering around the hospital wearing an old coat I found a pair of pants hanging on a clothes line. Looking around and no one was there. I stole the pants and left the hospital and hitched a ride back to Brussels, sure was glad to see everyone again. OUR DONKEY REFUSED TO WORK by Martien van Bommel. In August 1944 the airfield of Volkel (B.80) was heavily shelled by the Allied Forces. Because repairs would take quite some time, the Luftwaffe decided to build some alternative airstrips in the direct surroundings of Volkel. They chose to prepare a grass-strip in the former bend of the Maas river near Keent. People from the surrounding places were forced to work on the strip to speed things up. I was 19 years old and lived on a farm in Escharen (near Grave). I had to bring our donkey and carriage up to the strip and work at gunpoint. Not showing up would certainly mean imprisonment or even deportation. My work was to fill my carriage with sand and mud and bring it from one point to another. Not very difficult, but there was a small 'problem' that nobody had counted on. My donkey wasn't what you would call of the cooperative type and was scared very easily by nearly any strange noise that it heard. And of course the area was filled with strange noises. When my carriage was loaded I started to walk and my donkey would follow..... until for instance a truck drove by. Then all hell broke loose and the animal started jumping up and down and my load of sand and mud followed and was spread all over the place. After 3 or 4 attempts with the same result, the Germans capitulated to my donkey and I had to stand in a corner of the field for the rest of the day. Some of the other Dutch workers laughed and rolled on the floor every time my donkey did his thing and this got the Germans very angry but, luckily for me, at the end of the day they told me to go home and never to come back again. In spite of all the mishaps, the attempts at sabotaging the drainage system and the delaying tactics by the Dutch, the field was ready in the first week of September, but was never used by the Luftwaffe because of the landing of paratroopers on 17 September 1944 - which marked the beginning of the liberation of Grave and it's surroundings.