In my youth I was always fascinated by everything related to World War II . My father and mother grew up in a small town in Amsterdam, called Amstelveen. In the houses where my mother lived at the time of the war, German soldiers were stationed. These were mainly soldiers who were in charge of operations at and around Schiphol Airport. In the house where my mother lived were German officers stationed. By chance we came as a family to live in that same house where my mother grew up later in the 60. From my childhood my mother and father told stories about the second world war. Not so crazy anyway, because I was born in 1957, not long after the war. During walks through the neighborhood of our house, my father told about bombings, attacks, raids and other such things. The bombardment of Schiphol had a great impact on my mother. She told me that she could hear the ammunition of the fighter plains fall on the roof of our house.
I think I was 7 years old when I bought my first airplane kit from Airfix. After that first model dozens of models of tanks, planes, guns, trucks and of course hundreds of soldiers followed that we painted with Humbrol paint. All my pocket money was spent on plastic models.
I am now passed the 50 and this war has still my interest. Every year I take a walk with some of my brothers in Amstelveen on a free day and we tell each other about all the memories we have. By now we know exactly where all the bunkers were, where all German flak was, where the Germans were, where attacks occurred and precision bombing failed.
Today, nothing can give me more pleasure than painting miniature soldiers include the second world war.