On Friday 04 May at the Canadian War Cemetery in Holten, the Netherlands a large crowd had gathered to honour and remember the 1,394 servicemen who paid the supreme sacrifice during the liberation of the Netherlands and the advance across the Rhine into Germany . The ceremony commenced at 1100 hours under sunny skies. The Royal Canadian Legion Colour Party was provided by the Liberation of the Netherlands Branch 005. We were especially honoured to have a large group of Veterans from across Canada present at this ceremony.

The highlight of the ceremony was the involvement of the young people from local schools that read poems and placed flower arrangements on each grave in the cemetery. A wreath was laid on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion by the Zone Commander and the President of Branch 005 Ben Zonnenberg.

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Branch 005

Following the ceremony in Holten members were invited to the Restaurant Mondani in the town of Lochem where the owners, Yvonne and Berry Swarthoff and family, have provided a home for Branch 005. Here we had lunch and later in the afternoon the Zone Commander had the honour of initiating two new members to Branch 005.

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Wilp

At approximately 1600 hours we moved on to the town of Wilp where the PPCLI re-enactment group hold there liberation event of keeping alive the battles which the PPCLI had in clearing the area and getting across the Ijssel River on their way north to Groningen.

Apeldoorn

To finish the day we proceeded to Apeldoorn and by invitation from the Mayor took part in the Silent March and wreath laying ceremony in the city park. After attending a short reception we returned to Ede .

Wageningen

Saturday morning dawned warm and sunny as we headed to Wageningen for the annual National Commemoration Capitulations 1945 Ceremony. The event this year was bigger than ever with groups from the Royal British Legion, Dutch Military, Bands, Military Vehicles of all kinds and description and the attendance of the local Dutch population was tremendous. In addition this year we were honoured to have with us the Canadian War Veterans. In previous years there were always veterans in the Netherlands at this time but for some reason they got carted off to a ceremony in Amsterdam and missed out on this ceremony. We had hopped to get some of the veterans to march with our Colours but wisely (given the distance of the march) they elected to ride in the many war time vehicles. None the less it was great to have them take part in the ceremony and between the times we spent together in Holten and Wageningen we met many of them and had a super time together.

Parade Pictures

Interesting People You Meet