While the Dutch army initially put up a spirited resistance, mounted partly from bicycles and WWI-era rifles, the Germans bombed the hell out of Rotterdam and warned that the rest of the country would follow unless the military surrendered. Six days later they did. (Rotterdam is the only city in The Netherlands without a historic city center for this reason).
Four and a half years later the Allies entered Holland through Belgium. Although under British command, the contingent responsible for clearing Holland was made up almost entirely of Canadians--the largest and most cohesive Canadian military operation in modern history.
At the time the Canadians entered Holland was on the brink of starvation (the Germans had other things on their mind, such as the 3 million-man army marching towards Berlin from Moscow). At one point the Canadians completely halted their advances in order to bring in relief supplies to the population and ensure the Germans wouldn't destory any of the vital dikes in the area.
On May 5th, shortly after Hitler committed suicide in his bunker, the Germans surrendered.
These are all photos of Canadians in Holland during WWII.
Photo sources: 1-3, 4).
Video from the Canadian Army Newsreel:
Today Holland is scattered with plaques and monuments to the Canadian soliders stationed there. There are over 50 of them; you can see the list here.
I perused the list, picked out a couple of the major sites, and set out on a rainy Sunday to go find them.
Apeldoorn: National Monument to the Canadians
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Apeldoorn was a pleasant if unexciting place. The location of the monument was a fair ways off and my long walk took me right through the center of town.
Most Dutch places are quiet on Sundays, but I've been to funerals that were livelier than these streets.
After a while, and completely unexpectedly, I came across this:
Cool! "Canada Lane".
Right beside the sign is a tree monument that I guess was planted in honour of a Canadian general.
I keep walking.
Eventually I spot a Canadian flag in the distance: this must be the place!
This is the official monument to thank Canadians for the liberation. A statue of a man with two hats stands between a Dutch and a Canadian flag.
An identical one was built in Ottawa.
This is the plaque that stands in front. While I was there I saw many people stop by and read it.
The text reads: Canada brought liberty and life to the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War. Between October 1944 and May 1945, with fierce fighting and heavy loss of life, the Canadian military opened the Scheldt estuary and the port of Antwerp to Allied supplies, cleared much of the country of the enemy, and fed a Dutch people left starving by the Nazi occupiers. On May 5, 1945, in Wageningen, the Germans surrendered to Canadian Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes and H.R.H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, commander of the Dutch armed forces. The bonds of friendship forged between Canada and the Netherlands stand strong to this day.
The monument itself stands on a cement pad with maple leafs imprinted on it. To each side of the statue are large concrete blocks with the two countries' names.
As I was leaving a family came up and their kids spent a while cycling around the state; it made for a nice photo. (I kept waiting for the damn wind to blow to be able to see the flags properly, but this is the closest I got).
Well, off to my second location.
Ede: Memorial Park and Restored Tank
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Wageningen is where the offical surrender of the Germans in Holland was signed, but unfortunately it was just too far off for me to walk to and I didn't have the patience to try and coordinate bus routes.
My first goal in Ede was the "Open Air Theatre", a local cultural treasure that was mostly destroyed during the occupation. After the liberation Canadian soldiers helped to restore it while they stayed in Ede. (There you have it; while the Russians were raping and pillaging East German cities, Canadians were helping the Dutch rebuild their culture.)
Supposedly there is a plaque for the soldiers inside. I say 'supposedly' because it was all locked up and surrounded by a large fence, so I couldn't go in.
Nearby, however, I spotted this at the side of the road. It was a monument for all the armies that helped secure Holland.
The monument sat right at the entrance to a large memorial park which was built for Dutch soldiers killed during wartime.
Who built the park? Well, I'm glad you asked:
Text: Ede Memorial Park. Construced by 7 Canadian Infantry Brigade. August 1945.
Farther along, after a much longer walk than I was expecting, and in heavier rain and waning daylight, I found a restored Canadian Sherman tank.
Text: Liberation of Ede: on 17 April 1945 the town of Ede was liberated by the Canadian ‘Calgary’ regiment with the help of Sherman tanks. This unit was then part of the British ‘Polar Bear’ Division.
This was all I could manage on Sunday. I plan to someday visit the Canadian war cemetaries, probably when the weather gets nicer in spring.
5,609 Canadians were killed during the liberation. There are three major cemetaries here: Groesbeek, Holten, and Bergen op Zoom. Groesbeek is the largest, with about 2,300 graves (coincidentally, the same number of soldiers we now have deployed to Afghanistan, just south of the 1600-strong Dutch contingent--but more on this in another post).
Video taken of the Holten cemetary by some guy:
Every year a ceremony is held on the evening of May 4th at Groesbeek to commemorate the fallen Canadians. I plan to go. May 4th here is a day of mourning and remembrance--it's "their" November 11--and May 5th is a day of celebration of the liberation.
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