It isn't often that an entire armoured division gathers in one place. That was the case on May 23rd, 1945 at Groningen Airport Eelde for the Canadian 5th Armoured Div parade called Exercise FINALE. It required a number of days for set up and reveille on 23 May was at 0430 hours when all ranks moved to the airfield. There was a general salute by General Crerar, Army Commander, then he, Major-General Hoffmeister and Brigadier Johnston drove through the ranks. After lunch, there was a drive past by units and a return to unit lines. The Canadians called the site "Finitocamp"
I gathered those pics from various sources. Some were LAC. I didn't have the time to find the larger versions from the first image.
Here is the entry from the GS War Diaries of 5th Canadian Armoured Division regarding this assembly. It also shows the location of all units of the division on May 22nd, 1945.
One year to the day after (their first action as a division) the 5th Canadian Armoured division exploited through the Hitler line after the 1st Canadian infantry division cracked it wide open. a lot of battles, and victories and heartache in between...My dad was back in Canada by then having been seriously wounded in the Liri Valley on May 29th
