National Liberation Parade, Sunday May 9, 2010

[Dirk Leegwater (RIP)]

No room for our Canadian specials in the Remembrance Parade.
The Dutch Vehicle Group "KTR" plus the big shots from Apeldoorn have made the decision, only US trucks GMC - Dodge - etc. plus some Canadian trucks with a G.S. body in the parade.

No hit the road, for our "Blackbook" specials: FOX - Lynx - Loyd Carrier(6-pr)gun - FAT(limber/25-pr)gun, and crew.

A very disappointment,

Dirk

[Alex van de Wetering]

Yes, very strange news indeed. Slowly the public is forgetting that most of our country was liberated by the Canadians....and most of them are thinking it was the Americans that were responsable......the invasion star and liberation parades nowadays are not helping.

Dirk, any chance we can see Stefan and you in another parade or tour on May 5th????

Alex

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

Yes, very strange news indeed. Slowly the public is forgetting that most of our country was liberated by the Canadians....and most of them are thinking it was the Americans that were responsable......the invasion star and liberation parades nowadays are not helping.

Dirk, any chance we can see Stefan and you in another parade or tour on May 5th????

Alex

Alex and Dirk...
You should contact those ungrateful,ignorant..yes IGNORANT(Because they either don't know or don't care to recognize how close the Dutch and Canadians are...) parade organizers..
Send them this clip to remind them..and tell them we are not sending the tulip bulbs back..
http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/01/19/

Send the message with Hanno..all 6'17" of fire breathing Dutchman...they'll get the message..

[Dean (Ajax)]

I was in Appledorn last May..I went to the Visitor Center and asked if there were any Memorials to Canadians..the girl at the center did NOT know of any

I was lucky as I was talking to the Girlfriend about it at a Cafe..the Waiter did know of 2..and he gave us dirctions to them...small messy ones near a Canal..covered with garbage...rather sad I thought.

Dean

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Those KTR types need to be reminded of our common history... yes, there were some Americans there, but for the most part, it was the Canadians and British who liberated Nederlands. Most of us seem to know this already, but it might behoove the KTR people to remember who was actually there in '45 (and what they drove).

The government of the Nederlands knows this.. why don't these vehicle types recognise it?

Read this, in our local papers today:

May 1, 2010
Netherlands to mark 65th anniversary of liberation
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, Parliamentary Bureau Chief

Gilles Turcot. (QMI Agency Photo)
OTTAWA — After five years of hunger, fear and despair, there were tears of jubilation.

Under occupation by the Nazi Germans, the Dutch had endured an especially harsh winter in 1945. Thousands had already died of starvation and thousands more were frail, weak and dying.

Second World War veteran Gilles Turcot — one of the thousands of Canadians who brought food and freedom to Holland that spring — tries to focus on these moments of joy when he remembers the long bloody war.

“They wanted to hold you and kiss you and thank you,” he recalled from his home in Magog, Que. “The Dutch people are the most generous in terms of showing gratitude for the efforts for liberating them.”

Turcot went overseas at the start of the war in 1939 at age 21 with the Royal 22nd Regiment — the “Van Doos.” Wounded by a shell during the invasion of Sicily, he returned to Europe for the end of the war. As second in command of his company, the troops fought their way through to “finish the war.” Moving from town to town, they found alternately weak and fierce resistance.

“A lot of the SS were fanatics and they thought they would still win the war, but on the whole we were stronger than they were by then in Holland and we were pushing them back, pushing them back, until we pushed them back in the hook against the sea,” he said.

Turcot, who continued to serve in the armed forces after the war, is returning to the Netherlands this week to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation.

“It will be the last time, no doubt, and the country will be covered in Canadian flags,” he said.

But amid the celebration will be grief for the thousands of Canadians who never returned home. Turcot said he is still stunned to see the ages etched on white markers in neat rows at war cemeteries.

“It makes you cry. At the time they’re killed, you’re the same age and it doesn’t strike you in the same way. But once you’re old like I am and go to the cemeteries, I can’t help but cry.”

Dr. Steve Harris, chief historian with the Department of National Defence, said the liberation of Holland took part in two distinct phases — in the fall of 1944 and the spring of 1945. While the Germans didn’t fight hard everywhere, the campaign still had intense and deadly fighting.

In some areas, there was a bizarre proximity of both violent battle and joyous celebration.

“In some of these towns, the Canadian army would fight its way through and by the time the lead elements were at the far end of the town, there was already a liberation party going on at the back of the town,” he said.

Harris said the deep gratitude of the Dutch endures 65 years later because the oppression and hunger was so severe. If the liberation had come just two months later, an estimated half the population in the western part of the country would have starved to death.

“We helped them get their political independence back, but I think that’s almost second place to the fact that we saved the people, and they know that they were saved,” he said.

The Dutch show their gratitude to Canada with annual gifts of tulip bulbs, by tending to the war graves and by extending a welcome to Canadian visitors for commemoration every five years. Next week’s events in Holland are expected to be the last to take place on a grand scale, as the direct connection weakens with the aging veteran population. Thousands of Canadian students, teachers, veterans and dignitaries are travelling to take part in ceremonies in the run-up to VE-Day May 8, the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Wim Geerts, the Netherlands’ ambassador to Canada, expects a crescendo of appreciation across the country to thank the “brave Canadians.”

“Unfortunately that group is getting smaller, and that is why we think it is important to pass on the torch to the younger generation, encouraging them to visit war cemeteries and think about what it must have been like being far from home, risking their lives and fighting for the liberty of others,” he said.

The critical period in bloody history forged a close bond between Canada and the Netherlands.

“It was a turning point in our history. Our lives, the lives of our grandparents and parents, would be very different if we had not been liberated from Nazi occupation,” Geerts said. “They are our liberators — our heroes.”

kathleen.harris@sunmedia.ca

[Hendrik van Oorspronk]

Originally Posted by Dean (Ajax)

I was in Appledorn last May..I went to the Visitor Center and asked if there were any Memorials to Canadians..the girl at the center did NOT know of any

I was lucky as I was talking to the Girlfriend about it at a Cafe..the Waiter did know of 2..and he gave us dirctions to them...small messy ones near a Canal..covered with garbage...rather sad I thought.

Dean

Hello, what a shame, the National Memorial for all Canadians is in Apeldoorn and in the villages around Apeldoorn are several Memorials wich are maintained by the local schoolchildren to keep the memory alive.
Each year on 11 november or the sunday closest to it, there is a ceremony at the National Canada/Holland memorial, a twin of this statue is in Ottawa.

http://www.monument.apeldoorn-onderw...met3hoeden.htm


Hendrik

[Brian Gough]

Dirk & Stefan,

I agree it is sad there is no room in the Apeldoorn parade for your very rare restored Canadian vehicles. Your disappointment is shared by your Canadian crew from 2000 and 2005.

Is there a Bunschoten - Spakenburg parade this year ? I have fond memories of those parades in 2000 and 2005 as well. I recall we met up with Hanno there at the last one.

Brian

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Hendrik van Oorspronk

Hello, what a shame, the National Memorial for all Canadians is in Apeldoorn and in the villages around Apeldoorn are several Memorials wich are maintained by the local schoolchildren to keep the memory alive.
Each year on 11 november or the sunday closest to it, there is a ceremony at the National Canada/Holland memorial, a twin of this statue is in Ottawa.

http://www.monument.apeldoorn-onderw...met3hoeden.htm


Hendrik

Hendrik:

You may be pleased to learn that I walk past this statue twice a day. Teenage girls like having their picture taken holding their hands on the statue's backside.

That particular park has a very somber memorial plaque for victims of an Air India 747 that was blown out of the sky by terrorists killing all on board, including hundreds of Canadians. Off to the west is Queen Julianna Park where we often play soccer or ultimate frisbee. A few kilometers in the other direction is a monument to the female signals operators who did highly classified intercepts during WWII.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Dirk Leegwater

The Dutch Vehicle Group "KTR" plus the big shots from Apeldoorn have made the decision, only US trucks GMC - Dodge - etc. plus some Canadian trucks with a G.S. body in the parade.

Dirk,

I can see why you are disappointed. But as I understand it, the primary function of the vehicles in this parade is to transport veterans, hence the request for vehicles which can carry passengers. Many Jeep owners will be disappointed, too!

On the other hand, there is a tendency to forget the major Commonwealth contribution to the liberation of the Netherlands. Therefore I personally would like to see some Canadian specials to freshen up our collective recollection of the past!

Hanno

[Dirk Leegwater (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Dirk,

.............the primary function of the vehicles in this parade is
to transport veterans, hence the request for vehicles which can
carry passengers.....Many Jeep owners will be disappointed, too!

Hanno

Sorry Hanno, no comment...............

Dirk