This memorial page is dedicated to Douglas Salt, one of more than 725 war victims connected to the municipality of Deurne documented by Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers. The municipality of Deurne and the surrounding villages of Liessel, Vlierden, Helenaveen, Neerkant and Zeilberg were liberated in the autumn of 1944 during heavy fighting. Victims fell on all sides: Allied soldiers from countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, and German soldiers.

But the archive covers more than just the combat victims on Deurne soil. Residents of Deurne who lost their lives elsewhere are also commemorated: civilians who were murdered in concentration camps, forced labourers who died in Germany, people who were executed or succumbed to the effects of persecution and oppression. In addition, residents of Deurne who entered German military service and were killed elsewhere are also included.

Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers has been documenting the story of all these people since 1995, without distinction of nationality, side or background. The goal is to give every person a name and a face, and to keep their memory alive.

 

Douglas Salt

Name: Salt
First names: Douglas
Nickname: –
Date of birth: –
Place of birth: Stoke-on-Trent
Residence: 19a West Close, Stone
Rank / Occupation: Trooper
Identity tag: 7959506
Unit: Royal Armoured Corps, Inns of Court Regiment.
Date of death: 13 November 1944
Place of death: Deurne
Cause of death: –
Cemetery: Mierlo War Cemetery
Memorial site: –

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Additional information

Grave location: VII. F. 2.

Aged 21. Son of William and Gladys Nellie Salt, of Walton, Stone, Staffordshire.

On a cold Monday morning (13 November 1944), Lieutenant Webster of the Royal Armoured Corps, as he had done regularly before, climbed a haystack which served as an observation post. That morning, however, his boot struck something soft, which later turned out to be a German soldier hiding in the hay.

Lieutenant Webster managed to overpower the German soldier and began to search him when, suddenly, Lieutenant Webster’s unit came under fire from several buildings and haystacks in the vicinity. It soon became clear that Lieutenant Webster’s unit had fallen into a German ambush, in which Trooper Douglas Salt and Trooper Frank Loft were killed almost immediately. Corporal Dean was wounded in one of his legs, and Lieutenant Webster had no choice but to surrender to the Germans, who in turn took Corporal Dean and Lieutenant Webster prisoner.

The field graves of Douglas Salt and Frank Loft were located near the NAD camp at Wasberg, also known as Camp Wasberg, situated between Langstraat and Suezlaan in Deurne.

View all persons in the category: Allied soldiers killed in action