Villas in Egheria

In the last year of the war, the Germans became more nervous. Due to the advancing Allies, the front moved northwards. Senior German officers and their staff, who had their command post in the west of the Netherlands, were directed to border regions. For this purpose, many buildings were requisitioned by the occupying forces along the street road from Oldenzaal to De Lutte. At the beginning of 1945, General Johannes Blaskowitz, the commander of the 25th German Army, came east from a bunker complex near Hilversum. He moved into the villa 'Egheria' located at the highest point of Twente. Blaskowitz would later sign the capitulation on behalf of Germany in Wageningen. Although all this was done in secret, the resistance got wind of this. The resistance fighters had contacts with two marconists dropped from England. In the Rhoderveld, to the left of the Olden-zaal – Denekamp road, they send secret messages to England from a summer cottage. The position of 'Egheria' was passed on. On Friday 30 March 1945, around half past six in the afternoon, the villa was bombed. Eight fighter planes carrying rocket bombs did their destructive work. However, Blaskowitz and his staff had exchanged the villa in time for a farm on the Duivendal in De Lutte. There, hidden under trees, they felt safer than in the villa 'Egheria', which is clearly visible from the air. After the war, the villa was rebuilt in a more sober version. Part of the garden complex and wall are still present.

The cycle route does not go directly past here, but you can easily walk here via the yellow walking route that starts behind the dome on the Tankenberg

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