In the early evening of Saturday 4 November, the 51st Highland Division crosses the Afwateringskanaal from ‘s-Hertogenbosch to Drongelen at various points to take the area south of the Bergsche Maas. The operation is called Guy Fawkes. The attack is a great success and soon units of the second wave cross the canal. One of them, the 2nd Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders, enters Drunen from the south. They are tense as they have just lost five comrades to artillery. That these are their own shells only becomes clear later.

From the village centre, the men walk down Grotestraat in search of German stragglers. That is not an easy task. The heart of the village has turned into one big ruin. There are fires everywhere and smoke hangs in the dark streets. The Scots are moving from west to east. Suddenly, a shape looms in the darkness, approaching fast. A Scottish soldier stiffens and shouts at the stranger. To avoid shooting at friendly troops, a password has been agreed for the operation. The invocation is ‘From Normandy’ and the correct answer is ‘To Berlin’. The Scottish infantryman calls out the appropriate words, but the unknown person does not give the correct answer. The Scotsman opens fire. The figure falls and beside him a bicycle clatters to the ground. It is the village doctor, Gerard Akkermans. He is badly wounded. 

A Scottish soldier, James Nairne, noted the incident in his diary: ‘someone had shot the only doctor in the middle of the night while he was riding his bicycle down the street and did not respond to the call. Our own medical officer was busier looking after wounded civilians than our own men, and besides bandaging wounds, he had to act as a midwife.'

But Akkermans is not dead right away. He asks a passer-by, ‘Can't you get help for me? I have been shot in my stomach.' He lies in front of Pijnenborg's farm and is carried inside a moment later. His pregnant wife is called as is a Scottish doctor. Unfortunately, that help comes too late. Early the next morning, the day of the liberation, he dies from the effects of the ‘misunderstanding’. He is the thirty-fifth fatality in Drunen of Operation Guy Fawkes