October 1944. Heavy fighting ravages Overloon. On the Kamphoefweg George Renda and Aloysius Gonsowski, two soldiers 1st class of the C Company of the 48th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 7th American Armored Division, are hit by German artillery fire.
February 1977. Two boys with a metal detector find a helmet along the Kamphoefweg. While police and the war graves service in Bussum are informed, War Museum curator Harrie van Daal immediately goes there and witnesses how another helmet, shoes, a wallet, some letters, a golden ring and the remains of two people are being dug up. Two identification plates are also found. Renda and Gonsowski have been buried in a shallow hole by German soldiers, according to Van Daal, as the civilians of Overloon had been evacuated at that time and the Germans had taken over the area after the Americans’ withdrawal.
October 2009. One of the boys who discovered the grave takes the initiative to erect a monument on the exact location for George Renda from Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and Aloysius Gonsowski from New York. Gonsowski has found his final resting place at the American cemetery in Neupré, Belgium, and Renda at the cemetery in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
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Routes with this story
Cycling route ‘On the other side’
This special cycling route (59 km) connects two remarkable places: the German War Cemetery in Ysselsteyn in Limburg and the War Museum in Overloon in Brabant.
check routeDownload the unique app and experience the past
The free Venray Remembers app shows the past as you have never seen it before. Download the app, take the car or bicycle or go on foot and follow a beautiful route in De Peel. Follow the instructions in the app to project an augmented reality video at the indicated locations and become part of the story that happened there.
View the war past from a different perspective and through this unique app. A modern way to let young and old relive the past in a positive way. Let’s keep remembering!
