The Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-05-20, Page 57(Jim Fitzgerald photo),
4
Holland is freed,
Canadians arrive
By John Martens
It was the spring of 1945
and the' news was spreading
rapidly north that the
Canadian Army was pushing
. that way, driving the Nazi
troops slowly before them:
The hidden radios spoke
every day about those
Canadians, who .seemed to
be able to beat the Germans.
In their shelters, the Dutch
were fascinated by these
Canadians who seemed to be
everywhere and the people
of Holland had. found their
instant heroes, the young
- men from Canada, who were
to them symbols of a new
future and a new life in
freedom.
On the evening of the 16th
of April in the year 1945 they
reached the perimeter of the
defensive bridge -head the
Germans had established at
the enormous dike, stret-
ching across 20 miles of the
North Sea and the Zuyder
Zee and connecting Holland
proper in the west with
Friesland in 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 through town, and only
half, an hour before, buses
and trucks full of haggard
looking Germans had passed
through the village, their
loaded rifles pointed through
open windows at deserted
sidewalks. Their departure
was swift and nobody bade
them a bon voyage.
Those moments when the
eyes of the liberated
populace beheld for the first
time the young faces of their
liberators, have crystallized
in an affection for life for the
people of Canada and it is no
shame to express one's in-
debtedness in matters of life
and death to strangers. But
though they carnef rom a far-
away
araway country, no strangers
they remained, as all
Canadian 'soldiers will tell
you, who partook in the
campaign in Holland.
What would have hap-
pened to the population of
Holand if the A (lied offensive
had failed, is of course dif-
ficult to say. It seems that
the. Nazis had in mind to
transport the people en
masse to Poland, to fend for
themselves. The well
cultivated lands of those
intractible Dutch would go to
the Nazi elite.
But the Canadians decided
the issue and those very
moments when a notorized
group of Canadian soldiers
rolled through the village in
the twilight hours of April 16.
1945, are etched with in-
delible clarity on the screen
of memory.
COMPLIMENTS
OF
YOUR end
PPM%�ES
DEALER
Page 29
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