268th Port Company V2 postumous Purple Heart group
An officially hand engraved WWII cased Purple Heart to
Edward A. Soucek
and includes his Purple Heart certificate and accolade as awarded for giving his life on December 16, 1944.
Private Soucek served with the 268th Port Company of the 13th Major Port of Antwerp. On Dec. 15, a German V2 rocket his the cinema in Antwerp with great loss of life. More information follows these pictures.
$400.00
This photo from the web...
The
Rex Cinema V2 attack
On the first day of the German Ardennes offensive, December 16, 1944, the
worst disaster occurred. The "Rex" Cinema on avenue De Keyserlei was packed
full of people in middle of the afternoon, nearly 1200 seats were occupied,
all watching the featured movie. At 15.20 hrs the audience suddenly glimpsed
a split-second flash of light cutting through the dark theater, followed
by the balcony and ceiling crashing down during a deafening boom. A V-2
rocket had impacted directly on top of the cinema.
Charles Ostyn happened to be near the cinema that day and would later learn
of a personal tragedy in his life caused by this particular rocket attack.
"December 16, 1944, is a day I can never forget. It all really sank
in on us after the massacre at the Rex Cinema..." said Ostyn. He told
about his feelings at that time: "I still remember that Saturday as if
it were yesterday. I had walked past the theater about 20 minutes before
the impact - to think, at that very moment a V-2 was being tanked-up by
members of the SS Werfer Battery 500 in Holland, it being destined to kill
all those people in one blinding instant."
The destruction was total. Afterwards, many people were found still sitting
in their seats, stone dead. For more than a week the Allied authorities
worked to clear the rubble. Later, many of the bodies were laid out at
the city zoo for identification. The death toll was 567 casualties to soldiers
and civilians, 291 injured and 11 buildings were destroyed. 296 of the
dead & 194 of the injured were U.S., British, & Canadian soldiers.
This was the single highest death total from one rocket attack during the
war in Europe.
"I heard the explosion while I was traveling home on the tram. The cinema
was packed with more than 1100 people and I remember the movie playing
was 'The Plainsman' * with Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur (about "Wild
Bill" Hickock - I was a real movie nut in my younger years). Later, I found
out that my employer and his girlfriend were in the audience. Apparently,
my boss took his girlfriend out to see the film on a spur of the moment
decision."
James Mathieson remembers the rocket struck the cinema just at the point
in the movie where “Gary Cooper had captured an Indian who informed him
that General Custer and his troops had been wiped out.” Mathieson was a
member of an RAF intelligence unit, one of the first permanent RAF units
in Belgium, which was stationed at German Admiral Erich Raeder’s former
headquarters in Antwerp.
“That day my CO decided he would allow a few men off to have a little break.
We decided to go to the Rex because the picture showing was The Plainsman,
starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur, who were two of my favorite actors,”
said Mathieson.
Upon entering the cinema, Mathieson and his buddy decided to sit in the
back row of the smallest portion of the balcony. When the roof fell in,
Mathieson felt bricks and mortar falling from above. He put his left hand
up to shield his head, which was quickly sliced open from the falling debris.
Another brick landed on the opposite side of his head leaving a large gash.
In a state of semi-consciousness, covered in dust and blood, Mathieson
remembers being rescued from the debris.
“I was in a row where only three seats remained attached and I was lying
over into space from the balcony. If I had gone down into the pit
I would have had no chance. I consider to this day that I have a guardian
angel looking after me because I think it was an absolute miracle that
I escaped with so little injury.”
Mathieson was moved to a British Army hospital in the Belgian town of Duffel.
When he awoke a few days later, he discovered his wounds had been stitched
up and his head and arms were wrapped in bandages. Amazingly, he was told
the building housing his unit was hit by another V-2 the very next day
and practically everybody was wiped out. Even though the V-2 explosion
at the Rex almost killed the young Mathieson, the injuries he sustained
may well have saved him from perishing with his unit.
Survivors said that the rocket came through the roof and exploded on the
mezzanine. The rubble and debris was up to 5 meters high and it took the
rescue teams six days to dig out all the dead. American and British teams
had to join in with Army cranes and trucks. The hospitals were swamped
and health services couldn't cope anymore.
"The news that something really terrible had happened in the city filtered
to the suburbs later that evening," said Ostyn. "During the following week,
it was finally confirmed that our boss and his fiancee were found dead
under a thick layer of dust, both remarkably intact except for terrible
head wounds."
"Thinking back, my closest call of being blown to eternity was one week
after the 'Rex', we were at the funeral for my boss at Silsburg Cemetery
at Deurne and just before the coffin went down into the ground, at about
14.30 hrs, a V-2 exploded at the other end of the cemetery, ploughing into
a row of houses... as if to underline the tragedy of it all. It was a very
weird episode, which I cannot ever forget."
After this shock, all theaters and cinemas were shut down and no more than
50 people were allowed to gather in any one place. People who could afford
it left the city for safer parts and Antwerp became a somber and semi-deserted
city. The residents remaining really felt that they were under siege.