Friday, November 11, 2005

Rememberance day

Today the nations of the British Commonwealth have Rememberance day. A day in the memory of the soldiers and officers of the members of the Commonwealth such as the UK, Australia and Canada to remember those who fell in the service of their country.

The Netherlands was liberated by the troops of the British 8th Army, specifically by troops of the First and Second Canadian Corps. They fought their way from the Normandy beaches, where the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landed on Juno beach on June the 6th 1944, along the North Sea coast to The Netherlands and then on from the Southern Netherlands into Germany.

My grandmother tells me that when she heard the news she was driving a bike near a village looking to find food, because there was famine. People came running out of some houses because they heard about the capitulation of the German Commander in the Netherlands, General Blaskowitz, on an illegal radio. "They have capitulated. We are free" was the shout. She fell of her bike. The feeling she had then and there was the strongest feeling she had ever had in her life. She was 2 months pregnant of my mother at that time.

Hail to our liberators. Remember the fallen.

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