Old vets, old values underline Dutch regard for Canada's WWII liberators
No talk of 'Canadian swagger' back in 1945, just humility and duty, which the Dutch understood
This is a rare thing to see, always emotional, and it's why a few dozen very old Canadian war vets riding through flag-decked streets and vast crowds in Apeldoorn, in central Netherlands, this Saturday morning is not to be missed.
It's a joyous occasion that has been held every five years since the 40th anniversary of VE-Day in 1985, and the CBC covers it live.
- Watch live coverage with Peter Mansbridge Saturday 6-7:30 a.m. ET on CBC TV and News Network, and streamed live on CBC.ca
- Full CBC coverage schedule of week-long VE-Day 70th anniversary
But this time there's sadness too — because we are unlikely to see its likeness again, according to some Dutch officials.
The Canadians who were mostly in their early-20s when they freed Holland from Nazi occupation will soon be too old or frail for this personal love-in to be continued, the current thinking goes.
This Saturday, therefore, you can expect the streets of Apeldoorn to be crammed with Dutch trying to personally thank those who liberated Holland in 1945.
Many will reach out to touch the old men and throw them flowers, while small children will be held up so they, too, might one day tell their own children they actually saw some of those legendary foreigners who had once come so far and risked all to save the Dutch nation.
Modest warriors
I've covered many a parade, but none like Apeldoorn. When I reported on the first one 30 years ago nothing had prepared the vets for the size of the crowds 15 and 20 rows deep, the roar of the cheers and the cascade of flowers, and yes even the kisses.
Despite their historic achievement these soldiers had been of a modest generation.
None had expected to be so mobbed by the normally sedate Dutch so long after the war, and when I asked for their reactions, most were too choked up to do more than point at the crowds pressing in and shake their heads in wonder.
I recall few dry eyes. Those who could speak through the emotion mentioned comrades lost in battle who could not see this day.
A decade ago I expected the enthusiasm would have finally faded, but even a raging rain-and-hail storm that soaked both the Dutch on-lookers and the vets did nothing to reduce the crowds as the parade — really more a mass mingling — rolled on for two hours.
Too long for these aging warriors to march, they rode in vintage WWII trucks and jeeps, looking happily at home.
For decades, Dutch school children have every year placed a small flag before each Canadian war grave. But the Dutch wanted to do more, so 20 years ago they started lighting a candle as well to glow in silent tribute through one full night.
Still not sure they'd done enough, 10 years ago the government added learning the Canadian national anthem to their school curriculum.
Suffered greatly
Across Europe in 1945, there were other liberations, of course, and other conquering armies. But historians still struggle to fully explain why the Dutch and Canadians ended up with this seemingly unique bond.
As far as I can tell, there is not one, but many reasons.
The Dutch were not part of the First World War, so the Second is their "Great War" and is still a profound and painful memory.
Under German occupation from 1940 to '45, the Dutch suffered more deaths per capita than any other Western European ally.
The vast majority of its Jews, 106,000, were deported and murdered; thousands of other Dutch were dragged into slave labour, while all suffered as Nazis looted the land and even blew the dikes in the terrible winter of 1944-45 to try and block the Allied advance. The ensuing flooding contributed to a famine that killed 18,000.
To the Dutch who remember the war, there seemed nothing but darkness in their future until Canadian soldiers arrived.
As one Dutch boy, Wim Alings Jr. later wrote: "The grownups believed that one day the war would be over, but I was quite sure they were mistaken — until suddenly, one evening, everyone knew the Canadians would come the next morning."
No 'Canadian swagger' then
At that point, life began returning to the Netherlands. After forcing the German surrender, Canadian soldiers joined in the celebrations, then quietly began delivering food and volunteered to work restoring the devastated farms and towns.
The British also liberated parts of Holland, but they were near neighbours, after all, and what struck the Dutch was how much the Canadians had sacrificed to come so far to liberate them.
What's more, these Canadian troops were almost entirely volunteers who could have been home instead of fighting month after month through that part of Europe.
Since D-Day, almost a year earlier, Canada had lost 11,300 soldiers and saw 33,000 wounded while liberating millions across Europe, including the Dutch.
This was an astonishing historic achievement for a nation of 11 million, and yet many Dutch I've spoken to stress how down to earth the liberators were. Quiet guys who did not swagger in the way of conquerors.
In recent years I've been appalled by a trend among our sports and some political commentators to speak glowingly of a new "Canadian swagger" abroad.
Such in-your-face-boastfulness would have struck our WWII liberators as unseemly. They were and are profoundly proud of Canada, but they demonstrated that pride in the quiet ways of a generation that valued humility even in triumph.
The Dutch got this, revering these men for that virtue and for all they sacrificed and gave of themselves.
That is why this Saturday parade will be covered live in Holland and in Canada.
It will be quite the party, for no one in Holland wants to let what is possibly the last return of these honoured old vets pass quietly. Feelings run too deep for that.
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