Times Advocate, 1989-06-07, Page 36Page 36
Times -Advocate, June 7, 1989
Wartime friends
By Yvonne Reynolds
DASHWOOD - Bud Durdin
• 'played host to a special guest last
week. Okke Douma, a retired
Dutch minister, was visiting Cana-
da for the first time. The two men
had last seen each other. 45 years
before, while both were being kept
hidden by the Dutch underground
on a little farm in occupied Hol-
land.
The reunion stirred up some viv-
id memories for Durdin. He re-'
called the early morning hours of
January 29, 1944. He experienced
again the feelings of a 21 -year-old
mid -turret gun er, bailing out of a
Reunion - Bud Durdin (left) and guest Okke Douma, meeting
again after 45 years, look over some old pictures taken .while both
were in hiding, protected. by the Dutch underground, in wartime
Holland.
meet again, forty-five years later
mortally wounded RAF Halifax
bomber. He remembered the safe
landing near the tiny village of
.Godlinze, and the first steps of a
walk down the road • to the un-
known.
Durdin did not get far. He was
met by a farmer who led him to a
haystack and indicated he was to
remain there until further notice.
He stayed hidden all; day. That
night he was interrogated by mem-
bers of the Dutch underground, and
convinced them he was who he said
he was - friend, not foe.
Over the next few weeks, Durdin
was -moved from safe house to safe
house along a 100 -kilometer trek
-that led. eventually to a farm near
Oudeja. Here he met 20 -year-old
Douma, already in hiding to avoid
being picked up and sent to Germa-
ny for forced labour.
The two young men became
close friends in the next six
months, learning each other's lan-
guage, working together to help
with milking and other chores
(once even delivering a calf) and
keeping up each other's spirit's with
jokes and encouraging words.
Sitting in Durbin's living room
four decades later, Douma recalled
some of those occasions. He re-
membered turning around while
milking to catch Durdin with a
thrce1cgged milking stool held up
to his face, pretend -filming the
scene in the style of a Hollywood
director. And Durdin walking past
him in the barn, on his way to the
outhouse, tossing back the instruc-
tions "If someone.calls for me, tell
them I'm in the office". •
Durdin spent many hours with
the only two books available in
English the •Bible and the coin.:
plete works of Shakespeare. He
read both from cover -to cover.
The danger of being discovered
was always present. Outsiders were
told that Durdin was a rather dense
farm hand from another part of the
country who kept silent because he
couldn't speak the local dialect. If -
Dutch traitors or their German mas-
• ters were in the village, Durdin and
Douma crossed the canal and slept
among the reeds, their bed an old
wagon box.
Durdin celebrated his twenty-
second birthday on July 4, 1944.
Later that month, he said goodbye
to his Dutch friends on the farm.
Rumours of an invasion were eve-
rywhere; this. meant a concentration
of German troops, and Increasing
'danger for his protectors. The time
had come to move on, and try to
get back to friendly territory.
Members of the Dutch resistance
outfitted Durdin and a couple of
other. Allied military personnel with
civilian clothes and false passports,
and headed them towards Belgium.
They got as far as Antwerp, where
they were arrestedby German field
police as they crossed the border.
They had been betrayed by infiltra-
tors. -
Durdin was taken to a jail in Ant -
A pleasant memory - Bud Durdin (right) fceeps this picture as a
reminder of his time spend hiding in Holland in 1944. Sailing
across a canal with him are Okke Douma, (left) Dutch under-
ground liaison Tiny Mulder and a. young Jewish girl who was also
being protected.
Donation - SAAN Store manager Peter Antaya (second from left) presents -Lions Gfenn Kells (left)
Ross Mathers with a cheque for $2,973.75 for 'the Exeter Lions Youth. Centre. The cheque repre-
sents one-tenth of total sales at the store during Youth Week May 1 to 6. Mayor Bruce Shaw (right)
endorsed his honorary manager's $300 cheque back to the Youth Centre.
and
Clears the bar - Jeff Westacott easily clears the high jump bar as, from left, Ryan Stuart, Joey
Medd, Brent Southcott, and Billy Graham, get ready for thier jump, during a special activity day held
for the students Friday behind the school. The event was postponed once because of wet weather
last week.
•
Flying up - These Kirkton Brownies flew up to guides at the special ceremony Thursday night at the
Kirkton Community Centre. Front row, left to right, Jenny Ross, .Robin Mikita, Pam Trout, Elsa Pike.
Back row, (l -r), Lori Richardson, Dayne Bambrough, Starr Hovious, Amy Mizzi, Kristy Dishman, Marcy
Swance.
Council briefs
EXETER - The town will be donating $600 to the Exeter Lions Club to
purchase card tables to be used at the new Youth Centre.
The money will be taken from a seniors recreation reserve fund of
$1,347. .
* *. *
Council has been advised by the fawn of Clinton that they support Exet-
er's resolution expressing concern over the 19 percent increase in the HW -
ren county budget for 1989.
A resolution from the city of Guelph was supported. It calls for Bell .-
Canada to initiate a program to develop telephone directories which can be
readily recycled.
Councillor Ben Hoogenboom reported a Fanshawe College student John
Smith has been hired.to draw up new plans for the Exeter -Morrison Dam
corridor.
The town and the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority are co
operating on this project.
* * * *
Back (*rom.a trip to Holland, councillor Harry Klungel reported waste dis-
posal in that country was handled much the same as here. He said dump.
grounds were lined with plastic before refuse was dumped and each town
had a central collection depot for bottles and glass.
* * *
Councillor Morley Hall reported on attending a recent meeting of the
Bluewater Recycling Association in"Thedford.
• Hall said Bluewater now had 15 municipalities ready to start in Septem-
ber. Included are Hensel' and Zurich.
He added," They were disappointed we are not getting on stream at the,
beginning. Strathroy is considering a January 1, 1990 start. I hope we can
be ready tie go by that time."
Change street names
EXETER - The names of three
streets north of the bridge in Exeter
were officially changed Monday
night.
As the result of a bylaw approved
by council, Andrew Street North
will become Orchard Street, Wi)-
Iiam Street North becomes_
McConncl -Street and Carling
Street North will be known as
Francis Street.
At a public hearing at the begin-
ning of the regular council session,
a concern was heard from Mrs.
olet Jean Schwartzentruber of 181
William North.
In a letter, Mrs. Schwartzentruber
said she could not afford a cost of
$1,000 to change the. deed of her
ProPertY•
Council members told her daugh-
ter who was in attendance that a
change of street address or street
name did not require a change of
property deeds. Properties are usual-
ly described by lot and plan, num- •
bcrs.
Letters to the Editor
Box 279, Lanark,
Ontario KOG 1K0
May 16,' 1989
613 267-4899
Dear Sir:
The decision to reduce the deer
population at Long Point is a ne-
cessary and ethical thing to do be-
cause it is good for the environ-
ment. The extremely high numbers
of deer were caused by human tam-
pering in the first place. The lands
of Long Point now look like a
large, intensely overgrazed eau
pasture. Even the remaining ri -0,st
- is being eliminated. •
As soon ac d,!er numbers can be
brought 1,:n I, o n'o ii; ' levels, the
Long Pei ecosyster will be able
• to restore itself to health, beauty
and vitality. Hundreds of native
plant species and many animal and
bird species will again thrive natu-
rally at Long Point as they did in
the recent past. And dozens of deer
will still -be there.
A government controlled cull is
Help keep
Red Cross
ready.
the rational, humane and safe 'Nay
to do it; under the guidance of pro-
fessional biologists, and -using only
trained marksmen employed by the
Canadian Wildlife Service.
Culling the deer meets the most
important ecological and ethical test
of our time will it sustain (or re-
store) the natural systems and pro-
cesses which themselves sustain all
life? For the sake of the health a
small piece of the earth, the answer
;,. •definite yes. •
Yours sincerely
Ted Mosquin,
President,
Canadian Parks &
Wilderness Society
werp. He could have been shot, as
his dogtags were his only proof that
he was an airman.
"One part of the tagwas red, and
one black. The red carried the regi-
• mental number,•name, religious de-
nomination and blood type. The
black. part was used as a grave
marker", Durdin said casually. •
Durdin was interrogated "craftily
and thofoughly" in Frankfurt, then
sent to a prison camp near Breslau
and the Polish border.
"Some men had been in that
camp since 1941...some since Dun-
kirk," Durdin said.
The following January the prison-
ers were moved to another camp
southwest of Berlin, reaching their
new quarters after an 18 -day walk
and three days in a cattle car.
"We were told this was to save us
from the Russians," Durdin re-
marked.
Durdin and his fellow prisoners
were liberated by the Russians in
May, 1945, but were kept• in the
camp for another month. He re-
gained•his freedom in a mammoth
prisoner exchange across the Elbe
River.
"It was done on a one to one ba-
sis. The Russians got 700of their
men back, and they let 700 Com-
monwealth members go across the
bridge," he'cxplained.
Durdin speaks fondly of the farm
couple who took him in, knowing
their own lives would be forfeited if
he were discovered.
"They had no children of their
own, and they treated Okke and me
like sons. If we needed a scolding,
we got that too, Durdin smiled..
He got the chance to see the
couple again:. Hc joined the RCAF
in 1949, and- was posted to France
in 1964. - At the first opportunity,
Durdin headed to Holland. - -
"I drove up.to the house. The
farmer, now retired, was outside.
He looked. I looked. He dropped
his gardening tools and ran inside to
get his wife. Our reunion was a
very moving -experience.
'When asked why he had risked his
life to save others, the old man re-
plied simply, "That's the way- the
Lord gives to mc'.
There have been other emotiogal
encounters. -Durdin saw his naviga= -
tor for the first time in 44 years, at
a 158 RAF Squadron reunion- in
Winnipeg. -Tiny -Mulder,. a young -
woman who acted, as liaison be-
tween Durdin and Douma and the
Dutch underground, has made the
journey from Holland to Dashwood
three times since the war.
Okke Douma stayed in hiding un-
til the war was over, then rejoined
his -family. He became a minister
in the Dutch Reformed Church. A
conference in British Columbia
brought him to Canada.
Seeing- Dome again was, for. his
friend Bud Durdin, the latest chap-
ter in a saga that began by de-
picting man at his best, and his
worst. Fortunately, this story has a
happy ending.
Graduates - Mr. and Mrs. Pete
Groenewegen and Mrs. Jackee
Groenewegen are pleased to an-
nounce the graduation of Paul
from the Faculty of Graduate
Studies of the University of
Guelph. At the convocation cer-
emonies on June 1, 1989 Paul
received his Master of Science
degree majoring in Animal and
Poultry Science. Paul is a gradu-
ate of N.M.D.1-I S. Parkhill. Paul
is. employed at Ralston Purina
Canada Inc. as a Management
Trainee. Paul and Jackee Groe-
newegen currently reside in
Strathroy.
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