John Hedley Skilling

Mansfield Chronicle Advertiser: 18/1/1945: Tragic Deaths of Forest Town Brothers Killed in Belgian Cinema.
Cpl William Jesse Skilling aged 30 of the R. E. and Marine John Hedley Skilling aged 22 the only sons of Mrs C M Skilling and the late Mr A Skilling of 35 Second Ave, Forest Town met a tragicdeath when a Belgian cinema they were attending received a direct hit. The brothers were celebrating their second meeting since they went to Europe.
Marine Skilling who had served for nearly 4 years took part in the North African Campaigns and was also in the battle which marked the invasion of Sicily and Italy.

Antwerp Cinema Rex Bombing.
Located on De Keyserlei 15 Antwerp Cinema Rex opened in 1935 and was designed by Leon Stynen. The design was based after the large American movie theatres.
On the 16th December, the first day of the Ardennes Offensive, at 15:20 a V2 rocket fired from the Netherlans by SS Werfer Battery 50 directly on the roof of the Rex Cinema during a showing of "The Plainsman" starring Gary Copper and Jean Arthur. There were approx 1,100 people in the cinema and the explosion killed 567, including 296 Allied Servicemen a further 194 servicemen were injured. It took nearly a week to dig all the bodies out of the rubble. 5 floors of the cinema collapsed in on themselves. A further 11 buildings were totally destroyed in the attack. It was the highest death toll from a single rocket attack.
Antwerp was a major staging post for troops moving between Britain and Europe and was the focus of German V2 attacks. In 175 days 2,342 rockets fell on Antwerp leaving approx 5,000 dead and 21,000 injured.
The two brothers were laid togather in the same grave (V. A. 14) at Schoonselhof Cemetery, Antwerp.