Monument Dakota Crash

The monument commemorates the crash of a Dakota C-47 Skytrain in Linden on September 17, 1944. The aircraft was tasked with dropping paratroopers near Groesbeek during Operation Market Garden. Under heavy anti-aircraft fire, they managed to drop the entire stick, except for one paratrooper, Private Ralph P. Bellesfield remained in the plane, perhaps because he had already been wounded or killed by the intense anti-aircraft fire. Badly hit, the aircraft veered away from the anti-aircraft fire and eventually crashed into Piet Martens's field in Linden. The entire crew of the aircraft and the remaining paratrooper were killed.

The entire crew, co-pilot 1st Lt. Walter A. Voight, radio operator S/Sgt. Vernon G. Kassekert, and crew chief S/Sgt. Anthony P. Biondo.  Bellesfield has been buried in Allentown, Pennsylvania, since 1949; the four others are buried in a collective grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

James Martin was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1945 for courage and extraordinary achievement during his final flight.