William Jesse Skilling
Worked has an assurance agent.
- Family History
- Military history
- Extra information
- Photographs
Son of Andrew and Charlotte Skilling of 35 Second Avenue, Forest Town. Andrew died 6th March 1942.
Siblings Jean 1925 and John 1922. John was killed at the side of William at the bombing of the Rex Cinema in Antwerp.
William was baptised at St Edmund's Church on 29th July 1914.
Married Ida Victoria Shaw on 30th October 1937. They had three children, Terry, 1938, Carol, 1942 and Pamela in 1944. In 1939 they lived at 19 Titchfield Avenue, Mansfield Woodhouse.
Ida married again in 1946 to Ronald Dale.
Antwerp was a staging post for men coming and going to Western Europe after the invasion of France.
The Skilling brothers were at the Rex Cinema to see the film "The Plainsman"starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. A V2 rocket hit the cinema at 15:23, causing the 5 storey building to collapse and causing the largest death toll from one V2 rocket. It took over a week to dig out all the bodies. Over 1000 people were in the cinema, 567 were killed of which 296 were allied sevicemen and a further 194 servicemen were injured.
William was waiting to come home to see his family for Christmas and to meet his new daughter, Pamela, whereas John had just arrived. They died side by side and were buried side by side in the same grave.
Antwerp was a major staging post for Allied forces, British, American, Canadian and Polish coming and going to Britain. The port had been taken in September 1944 but it wasn't until the end of November, after the waterway to the North Sea was cleared, that the port could be used. Antwerp soon became a major hub for the North West Europe Campaign and full of soldiers. The Germans had launched a V2 campaign against Antwerp in October 1944 and by the time attacks ended in March 1945, 6000 V2's had been landed on Antwerp and the surrounding area.
On the 16th December 1944 the German Army had started the Ardennes Offensive, with Antwerp being a prime target. They needed to retake Antwerp and it's docks to cut off the Allies' supply route and to split their forces. The V2 was launched at 3:17pm from Batterie 500 from it's base at Hellendoorn, The Netherlands, it impacted only 6 minutes later at 3:23pm. It wasn't the only V2 attack on Antwerp that day but it was the one that caused the most casualties.
Located on De Keyserlei 15, Cinema Rex had opened in 1935. Designed by Leon Stynen based on the American movie theatres of the times. It was 5 stories high and all 5 floors collapsed in on themselves, it took almost a week to dig out all the bodies from the rubble.
There had been 1100 in the cinema, many were Allied servicemen but also local civilians including many children. 567 were killed, of which 296 were servicemen, with another 194 servicemen were injured. 74 children were killed.
In the aftermath the Belgian government banned all large gatherings and major entertainment venues were closed.
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