Opposite Café van Heumen (now Café Landzicht), a location beacon is erected by the German air force, presumably as early as 1941. It is intended to help German aircraft, especially in bad weather and at night. The mast is surrounded by barbed wire and off limits to civilians. It is highly visible, though, as it stands opposite Café Van Heumen, a well-known tavern just outside Waalwijk. For a long time, things remain quiet in the immediate area. That changes at the end of September 1944. By now part of North Brabant has been liberated in the course of Operation Market-Garden. More and more German troops arrive in the part still occupied, including units with anti-aircraft guns, the so-called Flak. This is also the case near the beacon.

A total of fourteen guns of Flak-Abteilung 665 take up poitions along the Winter Dike from Westeinde in Besoijen to Labbegat in Capelle in late September. This unit spent most of the occupation in the Rotterdam area and even shot down some Allied bombers. Because of the rapid Allied advance through France and Belgium in early September, the unit was sent south. That is why they now find themselves in North Brabant. But the soldiers have very little desire to be so close to the front. By the weekend of 1 October, they are drunk as a lord. They walk across the dyke bellowing ‘Wir ergeben uns bald (we will surrender soon)’. Many a citizen hearing this thinks ‘if only that were true’. Unfortunately, it will take until 30 October for the enemy to leave here for good.