As soon as the front moves closer to Drunen, in late October 1944, more and more Drunen people seek shelter. One of such safe havens is inside the solid hull of the Hertogin van Brabant mill, a seventeenth-century corn mill. When the front comes to a halt on 30 October at the Afwateringskanaal from ‘s-Hertogenbosch to Drongelen, Drunen is on the front line. As a result, the number of people sheltering in the mill grows to 95. The people are packed like sardines in a tin and the tension is almost palpable. The adults pray to God and the Virgin Mary. And they agree that there will be an effigy of Mary in the mill when the war is over. 

As the mill is a prominent vantage point, a group of three Germans is stationed at the mill that same day. On 30 October 1944, this Sprengkommando under Wachtmeister Kuche blew up the bridge at Baardwijk. They are ordered to also blow up the mill once Allied troops launch the attack on Drunen. Ammunition and provisions are delivered on Friday 3 November. When shelling erupts the following afternoon and the Allied attack begins, the three Germans decide to ignore the order and instead head for the bridge at Heusden. They scouted the route a few days earlier. They leave quietly and it is not until much later that the civilians realise the disaster they have so narrowly escaped.

It is an act of extraordinary compassion at a time marked by unprecedented brutality. In this way, they have saved the lives of 95 civilians including the later minister Martin van Rooijen. The mill has escaped a disaster. That things may also turn out differently was demonstrated in Heusden, where no fewer than 134 residents were killed when the town hall was blown up on 5 November 1944.

Ten years after the near-disaster, the residents' promise is fulfilled and a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is erected over the entrance door of the mill. A permanent reminder of this miracle.