Tour of Northeast Holland

In the afternoon we visited Zutphen on the IJssel River, with its nice historical town center.



In 1945 it was the scene of much bitter fighting between the 8th Cdn Inf Bde and a Parachute Training Bn of the 3rd Parachute Division. We visited the bridge on the NE side of the old town center which was taken by the North Shore Regiment on April 8th, 1945; then named Larebrug but renamed after the war as the "Canadian's Bridge". It played a key role in the liberation of the town. For the location of the bridge see Canadian's Bridge Zutphen - Zutphen - TracesOfWar.com



Liberation of Zutphen:




The Cdn 3rd Inf Div covering the left flank of 2nd Cdn Corps swept the area immediately east of the IJssel River, but did not manage to capture intact any of the bridges across this river. The bridges at Westervoort, Doesburg , Zutphen, Deventer and Zwolle all were destroyed by the retreating Germans. Thus the 1st Cdn Corps, responsible for clearing western Holland, later, on April 11th, 1945, had to make a River Crossing assault.

Map of the operations along the IJsel:


Moving up to the Holten War Cemetery we passed through the villages of Bathmen and Lettele. Both have a small memorial/plaque dedicated to the Canadian soldiers who fell during the liberation of the locality. They are representative for the many more scattered all over NE Holland.

Bathmen:


The monument at Lettele, with the foundation blocks of a V1 launching site which was located in the nearby woods. The village is not far from Holten. There were several of these V1 - and even V2 - launching sites nearby, built in October 1944 to fire their deadly loads towards Antwerp. See also Memorial Fallen Canadian Soldiers - Lettele - TracesOfWar.com and Lanceerplaats V1 Lettele - Lettele - TracesOfWar.com


Last visit of day 3 was the Holten Cemetery and the Information Center next to it. More on the latter: http://www.canadesebegraafplaatsholten.nl/ENG/index.html

 

Day 4 - We stayed that night at Dalfsen, a small village hard east of the larger town of Zwolle.



Dalfsen was taken by the Highland Light Infantry of Canada (9th Cdn Inf Bde) in the early morning of April 13, 1945. The Germans had blown the bridge across the small Vecht River, that seperated the town from the advancing Canadians, but then had vacated the area. By now the Germans were on the run, fleeing either to the west, to the still occupied parts of western Holland, or to the north-east towards the Reich. With the help of two Dutch peat boats the Canadian troops were ferried across the Vecht River. Here a delirious population who had assembled on the northern river bank gave them a great reception, according to the War Diary of the HLI of C even the town's brass band turned out to the riverside.


Soldiers of the HLI of C embark on one of the peat boats:


More impressions of the Vecht river crossing:


Fragment of the War Diary of the HLI of C (courtesy Dryan):


Brigadier J.M. Rockingham was photographed in the center of Dalfsen conferring with officers of the 9th CIB and the Royal Canadian Engineers. The latter worked untill midnight to bridge the Vecht River. On the 14th of April the move to the north towards Zwolle, Meppel and Steenwijk continued.

While in haste, we were unable to find the exact location of the picture, which must have been taken somewhere near the church in the center, so took this then and 'now' of Dalfsen:



At Dalfsen we left the footsteps of the 3rd Cdn Inf Div and headed for Groningen. By the evening of April 13, 1945, the 2nd Cdn Inf Division, advancing to the north on a somewhat more easterly axis, had already reached the outskirts of Groningen, which was (and still is) the major town in northern Holland. On their way to Groningen the Canadians passed by Westerbork.

 

Westerbork - Liberating a "Durchgangslager"



Westerbork was the most notorious of camps in Holland, being a transition centre for Jews or as the Germans called it a "Durchgangslager". From the camp 107.000 men, women and children, including Anne Frank and her family, were deported in box-cars to extermination. Only 5.000 returned. Today there is a telling memorial at the spot where so many left on their final journey to the death camps in the east.





The original wooden house of the Camp commander just outside the gate has been preserved:


Box cars at the railway ramp inside the camp:



On average 50 to 60 people were stowed into each box car. There was a thin layer of straw on the floor, no food or water and one bucket as a sanitary facility, which overflowed within the first hour. Trains, each about 20 boxcars long, left the camp on an almost weekly basis. Between July 1942, the start of the Entjüdung (or dejudaization) of Holland, and September 1944 a number of 93 trains left the camp. The Frank family was deported on 3 September 1944 to Auschwitz with one of the last trains to leave the camp. Nearly 35.000, one third of the deported, went directly to the notorious death factory of Sobibor.

The former centre court of the camp, where the roll cals were held each day, is now turned into a monument with 102.000 small stones symbolizing the camp prisoners who stood here at the call over and were deported never to return:







When the Canadians liberated the camp on April 12th, 1945, there were 876 people inside. 500 of them - though unaware of that fact - had seen the last train leave, the rest had been interned during the last months of the war.

Major George J. Blackburn also passed by the camp in his carrier. Blackburn: "In a moment you are surrounded by men and women of all ages yelling and whimpering, their eyes full of pure, raw joy. Skinny arms reach out to touch you. Weak hands clutch at a sleeve of your battledress and stroke the side of the carrier as though reassuring themselves you are real".

For further impressions of the camp site: Kamp Westerbork - Wikipedia and Waar ligt Nationaal Monument Kamp Westerbork - Hooghalen - TracesOfWar.nl and in Beeld en Geluid Version: 0.28

 

We skipped the area of Op Amherst (OPERATION AMHERST: French SAS in Holland, April 1945) and went straight for ...

THE BATTLE FOR GRONINGEN, April 13 - 16, 1945



The battle for Groningen lasted from late afternoon of April 13th until the morning of April 16th. Possession of the city, an important road-hub that controls most of the communications in the north, effectively would sever Holland from Germany. Groningen therefore had to be taken.

During our tour we covered the advance into the town's southern suburbs by the 4th Cdn Inf Bde and the mopping up of the old inner city by the 6th Cdn Inf Bde. While the balance of 2nd Cdn Inf Div fought its way into the city center from the south, the 5th Cdn Inf Bde outflanked Groningen to the west and moved into the northern part of the city, eventually cornering the German garrison in the city center. The plan was to rent a bicycle, but, much to the delight of DYRCH , as we arrived at the local bike-shop there were no bikes left.

Sketch map of the battle for Groningen:


The battle for the town opened in late afternoon of Friday, April 13th, along the main access road from the south, the Paterswoldseweg. Leading the 4th Bde advance were the RHLI, supported by Sherman tanks of the Fort Garry Horse. In the opening skirmish on the southern edge of the town, near the entrance to the 'Stadspark' (the town's public park), one Sherman tank was knocked out by a Panzerfaust and came to a halt against the wall of the houses bordering the road, setting a whole apartment-block on fire.




Nowadays a plaque attached to the house commemorates Trooper Butterworth, the driver of the Sherman tank, who fell as one of the first victims in the battle for the city.


It took the RHLI until next morning, the 14th, to clear up the Stadspark and the build up area along the Paterswoldseweg. Note how the overjoyed civilians seem totally oblivious of the dangers of the still ongoing fighting. The Niemeijer tobacco plant, across the railway overpass, still exists. The building still is painted in white.

The Rileys however failed to secure the 'Parkbrug' across the Hoornse Diep canal, which gave access to the other southern suburbs and the railway station area. The bridge, still intact, the Dutch bridge keeper had not heeded the German order to open up the bridge but instead had fled the scene, was defended by well sited machine guns positioned in the houses on the opposite bank of the canal.






In two days the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry lost 11 men killed in action:
001 COLFORD LM F/9639 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
002 DES ROCHES N G/5195 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
003 DUCLOS JEE B/59171 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
004 GRANT WH F/64768 - 13/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
005 HAWKE CW B/625542 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
006 HAZLETT SA B/159256 - 13/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
007 HERMAN T - - 13/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
008 KENNEY HA G/24242 - 13/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
009 LOOSER WJ B/158882 - 13/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
010 MACLEOD JT F/45568 - 13/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C.
011 SOLOSE JJ B/628567 - 13/04/1945 ROYAL HAMILTON LIGHT INFANTRY, R.C.I.C
(John James Solose was a streatcher bearer)

 

TOWARDS THE INNER CITY (APRIL 14TH)




Two hours after midnight, on the 14th, two companies of the Royal Regiment of Canada silently crossed the dark 'Hoornse Diep' canal in small boats at the local shipyards to the south of the 'Parkbrug', so as to outflank the German strongpoint at the bridge. They immediately started to clear the blocks of houses on the other side of the canal, working their way up to the bridge and the main railway station. This again involved much house-to-house fighting.



The Parkbrug fell to the Royals just before dawn, though it was still covered by fire from an enemy quadruple 20mm Flak gun positioned at the eastern end of the Parkweg, which fired straight down the road at all and everything attempting to move across the bridge. Later that morning the Flak gun was knocked out by a Canadian 17-pounder gun of the 2nd AT Regt in a direct gun battle. Lt. Herbert P. Croome, leader of "B" Troop, 2nd AT Regt, earned a MC for this action.



Picture below: the bridge and houses beyond were on the receiving end of the German ack-ack.




On the bridge keeper's house is a small plaque commemorating Pte McCormick, one of the (young) Royals who fell during the fighting on the 14th; see also Gedenkplaat Parkbrug - Groningen - TracesOfWar.com:



The Royal Regiment of Canada lost 8 men killed in action on that day:
001 ESSERY FJ B/126826 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.
002 MATVICHUK S M/1415 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.
003 MCCORMICK TJW D/142898 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.
004 MILNER C B/117461 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.
005 MULVIHILL TP B/142765 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.
006 REID GC B/123543 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.
007 WALLACE RR B/158208 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.
008 WILSON JH M/5885 - 14/04/1945 ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA, R.C.I.C.


When the Royal Regiment of Canada reached Groningen Railway Station it faced the moated inner city. The canal in front of the station, the Verbindingskanaal, blocked all further advance. Picture of the railway station (brick building in the background) and the Verbindingskanaal as seen from the Heerebrug.

The railway station is another of the Major George J. Blackburn sites we encountered during our tour. From his hide-out inside one of the outbuildings of the station he spotted some activity on the boulevard beyond the canal, known as Ubbo Emaussingel. Major Blackburn: "Immediately you spot, in a tree lined street just beyond the canal, two German camouflaged staff cars sitting in front of a large house. As you give the map reference to Kotyk for transmittal back to Doherty manning the big 19-set in the carrier, who will send it back to the guns as a Troop target, you see a German rush out to the car with a package and rush back in. Obviously this is some sort of headquarters and they are packing up to leave (...) shortly you hear the shells whining in from the left. Instantly the tree-lined street is filled with flashes and dust, and when it settles, a whoop of delight goes up from the infantrymen who have collected to watch, for one car is burning fiercely (maybe both), sending up black columns of smoke".

Below: the Ubbo Emmaussingel opposite the Railway Station then and now:




After the fight German POWs are gathered by Canadian soldiers in the Ubbo Emmaussingel; across the canal the railway station. To the left the outbuildings of the station from where Blackburn called for an artillery concentration.

Meanwhile, after the German ack-ack finally was knocked out, the Essex Scottish moved forward along the Parkweg and slowly cleared the build up area in the direction of the Heereweg. This again involved much house clearing. When this was accomplished it was decided to try to jump the big moat of the Verbindingskanaal by crossing the Heerebrug. In late afternoon of the 14th one infantry company of the Essex Scottish Regiment, mounted in Kangaroos, was launched across the Heerebrug and, after a stiff battle, managed to establish a tiny bridgehead across the Verbindingskanaal. One of the Kangaroos was KO' d by a Panzerfaust on its return journey. Thus the Essex gained a foothold within the moated inner city, which could be exploited next day, April 15th, by the infantry of the 6th Cdn Inf Bde.

The action at the Heerebrug yielded Major Douglas W. McIntyre, CO of 'A' Company, of the Essex Scottish Regiment, an immediate DSO:


Four members of the Essex Scottish fell on April 14th,1945:
001 DUNCAN WG A/104626 - 14/04/1945 ESSEX SCOTTISH REGIMENT, R.C.I.C.
002 SANDS RE A/50594 - 14/04/1945 ESSEX SCOTTISH REGIMENT, R.C.I.C.
003 TASKER WD A/110665 - 14/04/1945 ESSEX SCOTTISH REGIMENT, R.C.I.C.
004 WRIGHT MM A/116480 - 14/04/1945 ESSEX SCOTTISH REGIMENT, R.C.I.C


The Heerebrug then and now; the body of a killed German soldier is still lying on the sidewalk. Probably killed by the Royals at the Railway Station, while attempting to flee across the bridge to the inner city. Fire from a heavy machine gun of the Toronto Scottish, placed on top of the roof of the Station building, swept the bridge area and accounted for 33 enemy soldiers. The bridge is a little out of joint by the impact of the Kangaroos that dashed across it. In the background the viaduct in the Heereweg across the railway lines.



That night the old historical inner city of Groningen was burning, many of the fires being deliberately set to the buildings by the Germans.

 

GRONINGEN BATTLE FOR THE INNER CITY (15 AND 16 APRIL 1945)



On the 15th the 6th Cdn Inf Bde, supported by tanks of the Fort Garry Horse, started mopping up the Germans from the inner city of Groningen. This involved another day of large scale street-fighting, a slow and difficult process. The 6th Brigade operated on a two battalion front: the South Saskatchewan Regiment cleared the westerly half of the city and advanced in the direction of the Vismarkt, Les Fusiliers Mont Royal cleared the easterly half of the city up to the main square, the Grote Markt, with the 96,8 metres high church tower, known as the Martini Toren.On the 16th the last of the German garrison surrendered.

We followed the route of the Fusiliers Mont Royal.


Harbour area of 'B' Squadron of the Fort Garry Horse at the Parkwegschool, a school building located along the Parkweg, scene of the heavy street-fighting of the previous day (the Parkweg bridge is visible in the background of the 'now' picture below). From here the Squadron's troops of Sherman tanks sallied forward to support the infantry in the street-fighting in the inner city.



Scenes of the fighting & aftermath of the battle:


and
Bevrijding van stad Groningen



Heresingel/corner Rademarkt



Radesingel



Verlengde Oosterstraat



Gedempte Zuiderdiep/corner verlengde Oosterstraat



Oosterstraat



Grote Markt with Martini Toren



Guldenstraat



When Major George Bergeron, CO of 'A' Coy, Les Fusiliers Mont Royal, fell on the 15th, Lt.Col Jaques A. Dextraze, immediately went forward and personnaly led the attack. His handling of the operation earned him a Bar to his DSO. Next day, Colonel Dextraze negotiated the surrender of the last of the German garrison. When two German adjudants of the garrison Headquartes approached the Canadians waving a white flag, Dextraze, accompanied by an interpreter and two privates, went back with the officers to the German HQ and in a ten-minute talk convinced the garrison's commander of the futility of the German position. Some 600 Germans gave up the fight and surrendered.


A plaque at the former German HQ building commemorates the final surrender of the town: Plaques Former Archives - Groningen - TracesOfWar.com

Major Bergeron now rests on the Holten War Cemetery:


The 2nd Cdn Inf Div lost 209 men at Groningen, including 43 killed. The Germans lost about 130 men killed, some 2.400 were taken prisoner. The large-scale street fighting inside the densely populated areas inevitable took a toll among the civilians; 110 civilians lost their lives during in the battle, even though the Canadians proceeded extremely cautious, making minimal use of their heavy weapons, especially artillery.



After concluding our visit to Groningen we moved across the border to Germany to the town of Leer.

 

Stolpi,

Great find with the you tube clip.

 

Amazing posts Stolpi and 17thDYRCH. Very interesting!

 

Fantastic job by both of you, as usual.

 

One of the stories of the 7th Recce Regiment comes from the WD dated April 25, 1945.
A three man patrol led by Cpl. H. Goldberg was patrolling near Driever, Germany.

From the WD:

A foot patrol of three men under Cpl Goldberg was sent from Driever to investigate the building at MR 787125. As they approached the buildings they came under small arms fire and were also on the receiving end of some grenades. They went to ground and returned the fire. They finally decided to withdraw. In the meantime an enemy patrol had worked around behind them and our patrol had been split. The two troopers returned to Driever, but Cpl Goldberg who had been slightly wounded in the leg was missing. The Squadron could not advance beyond Driever due to small arms and 75mm fire from the area MR803130. At 2215 hours a strong fighting patrol, twenty men under Lieut Lefebvre, went to check the buildings at MR787125 and to see if they could find any trace of Cpl Goldberg.
When they found that the enemy had evacuated the buildings they pushed on to Kloster-Muhde Square 8012. Slave labourers told them that the village was clear, but due to artillery shelling the town the patrol returned to Driever.

From the Regimental History:
The next day, as the troops moved forward, they moved through the ill fated postion at which Cpl. Goldberg was reported wounded and missing. A little further on they came across his grave and after some investigation it was established the this excellent N.C.O had died of wounds and had been properly buried by the Germans.

One questions whether or not is was customary for Germans to bury Allied soldiers. And, more research is underway to determine the circumstances of Goldberg's demise.

 

David,
Again...thank you for the WD's. They came in handy.
And, resident expert Stolpi creates a great scene of the battlefield then and now.

 

Randy

All of the story so far has been actions of Canadian 2nd Corps - and before the 1st Corps joined them from Italy in the early spring of '45 in Belguim

They did a fair bit of fighting as well

Cheers

 

No offence to the part 1 Canadian Corp played in the Liberation of the Netherlands, but Randy is following his Father's journey and his unit did not serve with them.

 

Ramacal

Thought Randy was just outlining the liberation of Holland…..!

Cheers

 

Tom

Roger that. I did cover part of 5th Canadian Armoured Division during the 2012 tour. As you know, my wife's second cousin served with the Perth Regiment which, along side the Irish Regt., Westminster Regt, and Cape Breton Regt. were instrumental in clearing the Germans from the Delfzijl Pocket ( Stolpi knows I still cannot pronounce Delfzijl )

 

Tom,
We are already discussing the 2016 tour which will cover in more detail the 1st Corp's actions around Arnhem and Appeldorn.

Cheers

 

Please gents, have a little patience. We've covered part of 1st Corps actions on our last day... yes, our focus was 3rd Cdn Inf Div, because of DYRCH's father. We drifted a bit off to Groningen, because that's my old stomping ground

BTW Randy you pronounce it as: Delve-sail (Delfzijl)

The other difficult ones were:

Do-tin-gum (Doetinchem)

Suit-van (Zutphen)

Day-van-tar (Deventer)

Grow-nyn-an (pronounced quickly after eachother = Groningen)

A-duh (Ede)

Waah-guh-nyn-an (again pronounced quickly after eachother = Wageningen)

 

The morning of Day 5 was dedicated to Operation Duck - the River crossing of the 9th Cdn Inf Bde at the German town of Leer, April 28th, 1945.

Many thanks to JohnS who wrote an excellent book on the operations in and around Leer. It came in handy as a guide.

After the 3rd Cdn Inf Div had cleared the westerly half of northern Holland up to the Afsluitdijk, the division was turned to the east, across the the axis of the 2nd Cdn Inf Div, and started to advance into Germany. Not far across the border the division found the River Ems flowing astride it's path. Though the river line had been breached further downstream, the town of Leer, protected by the junction of the Ems and Leda, an eastern tributary, was still firm in German hands. Leer was the key to the north. The town controlled the roads to Emden and Aurich and therefore had te be taken. The assignement went to the 9th Cdn Inf Bde. It was decided to attack the town in a river assault with storm boats from three different sides ('Operation Duck'). Map of the crossing points:



At Leer the Ems River and its eastern tributary form a real estuary and are tidal rivers. We visited the rivers in the morning at low tide. The large clay banks that fell open would have been impassable for the infantry and the receding water would have sucked the assault boats out towards the sea. An incoming tide also could endanger the operation, with the assault boats drifting away by the strong current. The most favorable moment to cross the river, it was figured out, would be when high tide reached its summit, which was at 15.00 hours - in broad daylight! A heavy artillery programm therefore was called for with ample of smoke screens to protect the infantry when they were at their most vulnerable out in their open boats on the water.

(1) Crossing site of the River Leda at Esklum, where the North Nova Scotia Highlanders made a succesfull crossing. View from the German bank. Esklum is beyond the bund. Note the heavy clays.


(2) Leer Ort: the landing site of the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, they started the crossing somewhat further upstream on the Ems and landed on the spit of ground at the confluence of Ems and Leda, called Leer Ort. The Ems is on the left; the Leda in front.


(3) The SD&G Highlanders crossed the Ems west of Leer. They launched their boats from the Bingumer Canal a small branch of the Ems river.


.. they had to cross the much broader expanse of the Ems river and landed on the dykes across. The pictures were taken from the bridge, that is visible on the photo in the background of the Leer Ort crossing point.


The Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders had an especially difficult time and lost 19 men killed in the crossing operation. Several of them drowned in the Ems River, when their storm boats were sunk by enemy fire:

001 BIERNASKI FJ C/34053 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
002 BROOKS WJ B/127618 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
003 BROUGH LG D/175599 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
004 GRAVELLE SJ C/1977 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
005 HINDS JG C/122922 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
006 JOSLIN EH C/612040 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
007 LANGILLE IC F/86580 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
008 LAWES CA C/612520 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
009 MOORE MC C/121815 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
010 MUNROE FE F/57852 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
011 OSLUND SA B/155242 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
012 POWELL SD C/115150 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
013 SAWATZKY J B/116108 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
014 SMITH ED F/4948 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
015 SPENCER FW C/124540 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
016 STEWARD JA C/63815 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
017 SULLIVAN JE F/2515 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
018 THACKERAY RI B/117047 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C.
019 WAKELY GS C/123972 - 28/04/1945 STORMONT, DUNDAS AND GLENGARRY HIGHLANDERS, R.C.I.C

 

We leave Leer and proceed to Aurich Germany.

It should be noted that the last two weeks of the war produced a large number of Canadian casualties including 490 fatalities. Of these, 114 died in May, including 12 on the last day of the war in Europe.

With regard to the 17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars, the last two soldiers to die one day before the end of the war in the Netherlands were hit by sniper fire from a farm house very near the Ems - Jade Canal. With the aid of Owen and the War Diary we were able to locate the farmhouse and the road on which the patrol carrying Cpl Morrison and Sgt Dabbs was hit by a German sniper.

We parked the car and walked around the area. A family was in the yard preparing a picnic. I was going to go over to them and tell them the significance of the farmhouse. But, decided that would be inappropriate. They were quite curious as to why all the photos were being taken.