Baricades on the Bagijnhof

Abandoned barricades at the Bagijnhof. On May 13, 1940, Dutch soldiers had withdrawn behind the bridges over the canals to hold off a further German attack. That attack came. German tanks tried to cross the bridges and succeeded at the Vriesebrug. They drove via the Vest further into the Bagijnhof where chaos ensued. To the right (out of frame) from the Vest, the tanks approached, coming up behind a piece of 7-field artillery that was positioned approximately to the left in this photo. The artillery piece could not fire. It was Ensign Dekker who saved the situation by first firing a piece of anti-tank artillery through a barricade, and then opening fire on the German tanks. He repelled the attack.