Liberation of Holland Ceremonies 03 - 06 May 2001

Holten Cemetery, Vreenen Cemetery and the Parade in Wageningen.

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On arrival at the Dutch Military Barracks in Ede on 03 May 2001 it was learned that the liberation parade in Wageningen had been cancelled because of the hoof and mouth disease crisis in in the Netherlands. Also all of the other expected ceremonies in the Canadian War Cemeteries had been as well cancelled.

The Geilenkirchen Group was immediately contacted by telephone and told not to come to the Netherlands. The initial group of seven continued on with the planned schedule of events to be visited in the next two days. On 04 May this group visited the Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek where a wreath was laid and the Liberation War Museum was visited.

Following this they traveled to the War Cemetery in the Reichswald Forest and the German Cemetery in Cleve.

This cemetery lies within the Reichswald Forest and on the road between Kleve, Germany and Gennep in the Netherlands, on the German side of the border, about 5 kilometres south-west of Kleve and 10 kilometers from Gennep. It is the largest Commonwealth cemetery of either world war, in terms of area, and contains 7,654 graves.

After the end of the War in 1945, thousands of graves of soldiers and airmen were brought from burial places in western Germany to lie in the Reichswald Cemetery. Many of the soldiers who rest here perished in the grim battle of the Rhineland. Some fought and died in the advance through the forest itself in February 1945. Many others died in the crossing of the Rhine, among them men of the airborne forces whose bodies were brought from Hamminkeln, where a landing was made by the 6^th British Airborne Division from bases in England.

Nearly 4,000 airmen are buried in the cemetery. Some lost their lives in supporting the advance into Germany, but most died in earlier years of the war, in the intensive air attacks on German targets, and were brought to the Reichswald from cemeteries and isolated burial places in the neighbouring area. The soldiers graves lie to the right, the airmen to the left, as one enters the cemetery at the northwest boundary.

In the morning of 5 May this group visited an Exhibit in Wageningen dedicated to the remembering of the atrocities committed against women by the Japanese in WW II.

In the afternoon of 05 May the group of seven went to the local liberation ceremonies at Achterveld with a group of young Dutch people who have a World War Re-enactment Group who are totally dedicated to Remembering. This group has a number of Canadian vehicles from the 2^nd World war including uniforms, tents and equipment, a field kitchen and weapons including a 25 pounder artillery piece. For the ceremonies there, the Deputy Zone Commander being an ex gunner, did the honours of firing the gun to start the days activities.

Achterfeld is the village in which the PPCLI had set up their HQ for the negotiation to bring food relief to the starving in the northern part of the Netherlands in 1945. Later that afternoon we discovered that a young local boy due to illness was unable to attend the activities and wanted to meet Canadians so we all piled into an old army vehicle along with some of the local kids and drove to his farm. We gave out souvenir pins and crests to the kids. I think we made his day. The child's father told us that an Artillery Battery was set up on their farm pointing to the area where the guns were put into action.

Reichswald Forest Cemetery	A View inside the cemetery	New monument for the village of Rha	One of the many WWII vehicles

PPCLI  Headquarters	John Wallace trying to talk army with Mark Hoedmann	The old gunner at work	Thomas Andrewa our Zone Commander finally gets a good meal

Considering all the official ceremonies had been cancelled we had a full schedule and enjoyed our trip very much. The Group of seven Legion members returned home on 06 May having increased their family of friends in Holland and including a couple of new members for the Legions in Zone Germany.