Memorial L/Cpl. Antonio Barbaro

A monument overlooking the spot where he drowned: Lance Corporal Antonio Barbaro C/90149 of the Royal Canadian Engineers 23rd Field Company.
Tony, as he was called, survived the perilous evacuation of the trapped Allies after the failed Battle of Arnhem. That night, seven of his comrades drowned in the Rhine. Tony was later praised by his commanding officer in a Canadian newspaper for his heroic conduct.

After the battle of Arnhem, the Allies prepared for the Rhineland offensive. A massive movement of troops and equipment was about to happen. They had to cross the river Maas to do so. That required quite a bit of preparation; pontoon and Bailey bridges were built at various places along the Maas. At the beginning of 1945, the Royal Engineers, in particular the 5th Field Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers, started building a large Bailey bridge in Mook. Other Allies built three more pontoon bridges at Mook. The Bailey Bridge was built on the pillars of the railway bridge blown up by the Germans on September 17, 1944.

On February 15, 1945 around half past nine in the morning, a motorboat left with three crew members: L/Cpl. A.Barbaro, Spr. H. Malone and L/Cpl. A.E. Sager. Far out from shore, their boat slammed into a pier and was punctured by the current's enormous current. The water level of the river was extremely high after heavy snowfall in January due to the meltwater. Tony Barbaro gave the two life jackets that were in the boat to his comrades who couldn't swim and said he would try without a life jacket. His courageous act saved their lives.

Although he could swim well, he was unable to withstand the force of the strong current and drowned, leaving his comrades defeated. He was only 22 years old. His body was not recovered until two months later and buried in the temporary cemetery at the Bailey Bridge in Mook. He was later reburied at the Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek.

The Municipality of Mook en Middelaar has L/Cpl. Tony Barbara was proclaimed an icon of the soldiers and residents who fell in Mook during World War II.

This memorial was unveiled on September 18, 2014 by the Mayor of Mook and Middelaar Willem Gradisen, the Defense Attaché of Canada Col. Michael Hogan, along with Tony's brother Sam's daughters, Win MacKenzie and Deborah Robinson and granddaughter Cassie of Kanata, Ontario, Canada. They did that together with 93-year-old veteran Donald Somerville, a comrade of Tony.

The memorial consists of an original Wartime Bailey Bridge segment and a commemorative plaque. A Bailey bridge is made up of segments that are connected to each other. It is a military bridge designed in 1943 by British D.C. Bailey. Many of these were built during World War II.

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Source

• Text: Alice van Bekkum
• Photos: Gemeente Mook en Middelaar (1), Alice van Bekkum (2, 3, 4)

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