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There are many National War Cemeteries in Holland, which receive annual recognition in the form of Remembrance Day or Liberation Day Parades. In addition to these Memorials there are 450 Allied gravesites located in towns and villages scattered throughout the Netherlands where allied Servicemen are buried in local cemeteries.
To ensure these individual graves are not forgotten one of the three Royal British Legion Branches assisted by the other two branches, based in the Netherlands organize and conduct a Remembrance Service in one of these towns each year to honor those who gave their lives for peace and freedom.
This year's ceremony was organized by the Eindhoven Branch of the Royal British Legion in the Dutch village of Mariahaut approximately 17 Km NNE of Eindhoven. As in previous years through our Zone Commander, Mr. Thomas J. Andrews they requested a Color Party from the Royal Canadian Legions in Germany to participate.
On Saturday 06 October 2001 members from the Lahr and Baden Sölligen Branches drove to Geilenkirchen where that afternoon we held a Zone meeting. Following the meeting we drove on to a Dutch Military Base at Oirschot just west of Eindhoven where accommodations had been arranged for our stay in the Netherlands. Our group was well received by the Dutch military who escorted us to our barrack block and had the rooms all prepared. After we got our rooms one of the guards escorted us to a local restaurant where we had an excellent meal.
The next morning we drove to Mariahaut arriving at about 0930 hours found where the ceremony would take place and went across the street from the church to a café for breakfast. Shortly after the members from Branch 003 arrived as did the British contingent. We spent the next couple of hours at a reception meeting old friends and making new ones.
At approximately 1330 hours the Colour Party formed up outside the church and marched to the entrance where we split into two files and remained at the entrance while those present entered the church. The Colours were then marched into the church for the church service.
On completion of the church service the Colours were marched out and assembled at the gravesite in the cemetery by the church.
The ceremony was held in honour of the two British Soldiers killed in action there in September of 1944. The incident occurred during operation Market Garden in the area of Best, the Netherlands where the British 2nd Corps Armoured was included in support for the US 101st Airborne Division in the battle to build a corridor towards Arnhem.
In the battle around the corridor on 23 September 1944 these two young British Soldiers were killed and buried in Mariahaut. Twenty year old Lieutenant David Neale Stride and Trooper Jack Crompton were ambushed by the Germans at Zuid Willemsvaart in the neighborhood of Keldonk. Written in the military records of the Royal Dragoon Regiment, an Armoured Car Unit, it is recorded that there were 117 casualties in this area in 1944. It also states that the 5th Platoon of the Royal Dragoons (44th Tank Regiment) had fought there and C Squadron was given the responsibility of the front south of Veghel on that day at daybreak. South of Erde the 2nd Platoon had already broken through the enemy's infantry defenses and had taken twenty-eight Germans as prisoners.
Lieutenant Stride was on the east flank of the attack with 4 Platoon on that bright sunny day. He was intent on destroying the hostile enemy in his area, which was located at a half-destroyed bridge over the canal at Zuid-Willemsvaart. They took up a defensive position for the enemy had already built a strong position on the other side of the canal to the north. The following morning Saturday 23 September Stride and Cromptom left their vehicle and strolled down to the edge of the canal. They saw some American troops from the 101st Airborne Division on the other side of the canal. These troops were waving at them in desperation but before Stride and Crompton could realized the urgency of the situation and react they received the answer to this dilemma in the form of machine gun bursts from some nearby houses. They were both immediately hit and went down.
Hank Verbraker, a local Dutchmen was in the area and witnessed the entire action. Stride and Crompton were picked up from where they had fallen by an armoured vehicle and were taken to the house of Jan Stoop in Mariahaut. Jan Stoop answered the door at 0700 hours as Stride was in the throws of dying and Crompton who had been fatally wounded in the head also died as they reached the Stoop house.
With the help of the military Henri Verbakel buried both of these soldiers behind the church in Mariahout in graves that had been prepared by Johan Aarts and Wim Donkers.
The ceremony was complete with The Last Post, The Lament, The Act of Remembrance, The Silence, The Reveille, Prayers, The National Anthems and The Blessings. The ceremony, which was well attended, concluded with the wreath laying and the Colours being marched off and dismissed.
The Canadian Colour Party was then reassembled as the Zone Commander had the honour of swearing in five new members from the Netherlands to The Royal Canadian Legion Branches Europe. After the swearing in ceremony the new members were congratulated and welcomed by each member present. In the photo from the left: Corina Pott, Mark Hoedeman, Jose Stegeman, Margo Timmermen and Hans Dob.
Then it was back across the street to the café where a get together was held with our fellow comrades of the Royal British Legion. Later in the afternoon we bid farewell to our group from Geilenkirchen who had to attend another function on the way home. As our British friends departed it was goodbye until next year and we stayed on at the café with our new members for supper. Back to barracks a few games of cards and discussions of the day's activities then to bed and get ready for the long trip home in the morning.
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