HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1985-05-08, Page 62d?
y 19404ermam so1die , eseeed
Holland. Ing five da s their filen
estructiQn was complete, Thhe. Dutch
r had surrendered the , roves
yen captu rett�d the Netherlands
1�over teethe tee,
' or ,ve
earatmpountry was held in
ip of Hitler'sI Of tleftrUte, Death and fear,
and" poverty reigned.
ty tfie spring Of 1945 tifere were faint
npses, of hope in Holland, News was
eliding rapidly north that the Cana-
an Army wasspushing that way, driving
the Nazi troops lowly before them.
The hidden radios spoke every day
about those Canadians who seemed to be
able to beat the Germans. The frightened
Dutch people remained hidden in their
shelters, but they silently hoped and
prayed for their Canadian heroes and the
future and new life in freedom.
On the evening of April 16, 1945, the
Canadians reached the perimeter of the
defensive bridge -head the Germans had
established at the enourmous dike, stret-
ching across 20 miles of the North Sea
and the Zuyder Zee and connecting
Holland proper in the west with
Friesland iri.the east.
It had taken the Canadian army ,a
month to reach the shores of Friesland
against stubborn German resistance.
One hour before sundown the Canadians
drove t rou h to y
hourbef`ore,, esand'(
gard looMng Oen**
through.-the village,. their 1
pointed through ' , ' 1 window i *.
deserted sidewalks e r departw
swift and nobody ba ' e them farewcl
Those moments .when the eyes et the:
liberated populace saw -for the first time
the young faces of their liberators,, have
crystallizeed_ an affection for life for the
people of Canada. It's no shame to ex-
press
xpress one's indebtedness in matters of
life and death to strangers. But though
they came from a faraway country, no
strangers they remained, as all Carni-
dian soldiers will tell you who.ppartook in
the campaign of freedom in Holland.
What would have happened to the
population of Holland if the Allied offen-
sive had failed, is impossible to deter-
mine. It seems that the Nazis had in mind
to transport the people en route to
Poland, to fend for themselves. The well
cultivated lands of those intractible
Dutch would go to/he Nazi elite.
However, the anadians decided the
issue and those very moments when a
notorized group of Canadian soldiers roll-
ed ` through ''the village in the twilight
hours of April 16, 1945, are etched with in-
delible clarity on the screen of memory.
2111
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