What goes up must come down. Sometimes this is a more violent process than normal, for instance during times of war. With this cache, you will visit some places that witnessed plane crashes during the second world war. This cache trip is suitable to undertake by bicycle or car (appr. 7 kilometers). Please observe that this cache is not a roundtrip, you will not end up near the start coordinate.
Near the former airforce base (‘Fliegerhorst’) Soesterberg several German and Allied planes crashed during the second world war. ‘Junkers 88? shows you several locations where planes came down. At the start location you will find a small monument that commemorates the crash of a B17 flighing fortress on october 20th 1943. Here you can collect the information that leads you to the following waypoint.
Waypoint 1 = N 52°06.349 – E005°11.191
How many citizens died during this crash? The dutch word for civilian is ‘burger’. This number = A
Waypoint 2: N 52°07.(825/A) – E005°11.(795+(10*A))
Waypoint 2 is not the crash site of an airplane, but it is a historic landmark from the second world war. Please note that on your left hand side behind the building the German SS operated a ‘Schwere Funkstelle’ (high yield radio transmission station). The bunker where this tok place can still be seen. Now the question for this waypoint. How many people are commemorated here? This number = B
Waypoint 3: N 52°07.(60*B) – E005°11.(320*A+10)
On many plane crash sites, nothing remains that points at the events that took place so mny years ago. This is also the case at waypoint 3. In the night from march 23 to march 24 ‘Oom Jo’ (uncle Jo), a flamboyant family member, returned home from his evening shift at Bilthoven railway station, where he held a position as station master. Unfortunate for him, his coming home coincided with the crash of a Junkers 88 German fighter plane. Oom Jo got wounded on this occasion, although not too bad. It will be obvious to you by now how this cache got its name. At the junction of roads where you are now, the Junkers 88 crashed. Look for a silent witness to this event when you observe the houses in the street. You will notice that some houses are newer than the ones you will normally find in this neighbourhood. Find a lantern post here and note the number that you will find on a small sign attached to it. This number=C
From here you will undertake your last, somewhat longer leg towards the end location of the cache. At the cache location yet another plane crashed, also a Junkers 88.
The date is march 21st 1944 and the Junkers that was heading for Soesterberg never made it to the airforce base. The crash site lies on private property, so we hid the cache a little to the south. Use the numbers that you found to calculate the cache location by using the following formula:
N 52°09.((C-1495)/500) – (A * 2) | E005°13.((A*B*10)+34)
Many thanks for creating this cache description goes to Drs. J.C. Brugman that inspired us with his book ‘Occupied and resistance, De Bilt and Bilthoven in times of war’ and to my uncle, Gerard Achterberg, for providing excellent inside information about our family history and the several crash sites.
Team member Aart-Jan