Dutch bond with Canada endures
Seventy-five years later, the sacrifice of Canadians is not forgotten
It was the most powerful army ever led by a Canadian general.
At its peak, the First Canadian Army — under the command of General Harry Crerar — would swell to a massive force of 450,000 men during the campaign to liberate the Netherlands from the Nazis.
Though Crerar’s force was an international one, with British, Polish, American and Dutch soldiers under his command, the bulk of the fighting men were Canadians — almost 175,000 of them.
And among those troops — united for the first time in years — were the four Calgary-based regiments that previously had been split: the Calgary Highlanders taking part in the D -Day landings in Normandy, while the Calgary Tanks, Princess Patricia’s and the Lord Strathconas had fought in the successful Italian campaign.
Now they would push back the Germans across Holland until Crerar himself would force the enemy’s surrender on May 5, a date celebrated as Liberation Day across the Netherlands each year.
The cost of victory was high. More than 7,600 Canadians never came home; they rest in military cemeteries across the Netherlands.
But that sacrifice has never been forgotten. Were it not for the Canadian Army’s efforts, it is estimated as many as two to three million more Dutch civilians would have died through starvation.
This is why every Christmas Eve, Dutch schoolchildren visit those graves and place candles of remembrance for the young Canadians who never made it home. For similar reasons each spring, the Netherlands sends 10,000 tulips as a gift to Ottawa.
The bond between the two countries was forged even before the liberation, when members of the Dutch royal family sought refuge in Canada following the German invasion.
In 1943, Princess Juliana, the future queen, gave birth to a daughter, Princess Margriet, at Ottawa’s Civic hospital — the maternity wing being temporarily declared international territory to preserve the infant’s future claim on the throne.
To commemorate her birth, the Dutch flag flew over the Peace Tower — the only time a foreign flag has flown over Parliament.
Rory Cory, senior curator at Calgary’s Military Museums, said although there were troops from several nations involved in the liberation it was overwhelmingly a Canadian operation.
The situation across the Netherlands following the winter of 194445 was dire.
“Dutch railway workers had gone on strike in the fall of ’44 in an effort to disrupt German reinforcements travelling through Holland on to Normandy,” says Cory. “In retaliation, the Germans shut down train transportation so the ability of the Dutch to move food was significantly reduced.
“Plus, the Germans were already pulling a lot of supplies out of the country to feed their troops and civilians, so things had got progressively worse.”
Productive farmland had been deliberately flooded in an effort to bog down the Canadian advance, which made the food shortages even more acute.
In an effort to relieve the dreadful suffering, Allied airmen flew mercy missions over the country, dropping food supplies instead of bombs, while grateful civilians daubed “Thank You Canada” on the roofs of buildings.
About 20,000 people would starve to death before the country was eventually liberated.
“It could have been much worse had we not liberated Holland. There were predictions that casualties could have risen as high as two to three million civilians,” adds Cory.
There was also a more strategic reason that the Canadians were chosen by Allied command to force German troops out of Holland.
The infamous V1 and V2 rocket sites had been forced back from the Channel ports and were set up in the Netherlands where they were able to continue launching rocket attacks both on Britain and the port of Antwerp, which was the major entry point for Allied troops continually arriving on the continent.
Following the German surrender, it was a time of celebration across the Netherlands — the Canadian summer, it was famously called. Many young Dutch brides would soon make the long journey across the Atlantic to start a new life in a new country with Canadian soldier husbands.
Even after the troops finally returned to Canada, bonds of friendship between the two countries would prove both deep and lasting.
Nine months after liberation day, with most of the Canuck troops departed, the Hamilton Spectator received a letter from a Dutch girl. It was an open message to the departing soldiers. When translated it read, “When They Ask Who Freed Us.”
Part of the message said, “And now, take to your good Canadian country lasting memory of us, the gratitude of a nation that is itself again by your co-operation. Our grandchildren will ask ‘who liberated us’ and then we will say, many brave boys with caps on their heads.
“Godspeed, boys, and welcome home! Maybe you will see a tear in the eyes of your mother, your wife, your girl or your sister, but don’t forget that a tear is a smile of the heart, and that same heart is beating in this small, low-lying country near the sea, Holland, that will set down your name in the chronicles of its history.”
Seventy five years later, that bond endures.