Month: January 2018

On the War Memorial Trail ….. Candlelight Service At Holten Canadian War Cemetery

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January 25, 2018.  When we visited the Royal Canadian Legion in The Netherlands and the Information Centre at Holten Canadian War Cemetery, we brought along flag pins, provided by Senator Mike Duffy of the Senate of Canada, to give to the schoolchildren who participate in the candlelight service at the Canadian war cemeteries on Christmas Eve.

So we were delighted that Edwin van der Wolf, one of the volunteers at Holten Canadian War Cemetery, shared photos of the 2017 Christmas Eve Ceremony.

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Edwin van der Wolf with schoolchildren from the town of Deventer, who are wearing Canadian flag pins, at Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo courtesy of E. van der Wolf)

The candlelight ceremony began in 1991, with the participation of schoolchildren from the nearby town of Deventer, birthplace of Canada’s first Surveyor-General, Samuel Holland.  They light candles and place them on each grave in the cemetery at dusk.

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Schoolchild places candle at one of the graves at Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Math Willems)

Originally, the candlelight service began in Scandinavia by Mrs. Leena van Dam, who was born in Finland and wanted to show how grateful she was to live in a free country.  In Finland, it is traditional to place a burning candle on the graves of loved ones. Finnish candles can burn for ten hours and remain lit in all weather conditions, whether rain, wind, or snow.  Initially, Mrs. van Dam donated a five year supply of candles.  The Welcome Again Veterans Foundation, through the help of sponsors and donations, has continued funding the candles.

Close to 300 school children participate in this ceremony, which begins at 4:30 pm on Christmas Eve. Canadian and Dutch traditions are mixed as bagpipes are played and a Dutch horn is blown.

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Bagpipers during the ceremony at Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Math Willems)

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The haunting sound of a Dutch horn is played during the ceremony. (Photo credit: Math Willems)

All evening, thousands of people from the area visit the cemetery and show their respects.  This candlelight ceremony is one of the many ways that the Dutch people remember the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers during WWII.

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Candles at each grave at Holten Canadian War Cemetery on Christmas Eve. (Photo credit: Math Willems)

When we visited Holten Canadian War Cemetery our guide, Edwin van der Wolf, explained why he was a volunteer.  He told us that his grandfather lived in an area of Deventer that had been liberated by Canadian soldiers, and told his children and grandchildren the same story every Sunday.  Grandfather lived in a corner house on a street where he could see a hospital fence 100 metres away.  German soldiers were lying on the hospital roof and firing at Canadian soldiers as they climbed over the gate.  Some successfully climbed over the iron gate and were able to get in a crouching position and go past the line of fire.  As more Canadians advanced, the Germans retreated.

Hearing this story every week captured Edwin’s imagination.  The story, plus the fact that so many Canadians came from so far away to help liberate the Dutch made him feel a special bond with Canada.

Have you visited Holten Canadian War Cemetery and its Information Centre?  Have you seen one of the candlelight ceremonies?  You can share your comments and stories by emailing us at memorialtrail@gmail.com, comment on the blog, or tweet to @researchmemori1. 

© Daria Valkenburg

…Want to follow our research?….

If you are reading this posting, but aren’t following our research, you are welcome to do so.  Our blog address: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/

Front cover OnTheWarMememorialTrailinEurope4 countries, 6 weeks, 7,000 km – an unforgettable war memorial journey in Europe…. Daria’s book ‘No Soldier Buried Overseas Should Ever Be Forgotten‘ is available in print and e-book formats.  Net proceeds of book sales help support research costs and the cost of maintaining this blog. For more information see https://nosoldierforgotten.com/

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On the War Memorial Trail ….. At Holten Canadian War Cemetery

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January 20, 2018.  After visiting the Information Centre at the Canadian War Cemetery in Holten, we went into the cemetery itself to lay flags at the graves of five known soldiers from PEI.  Two of them, William Douglas SHERREN and George Martin MCMAHON are listed on the Cenotaph outside the Borden-Carleton Legion.

We had wondered why the cemetery had more landscaping than most Commonwealth War Cemeteries and why it was not on one level, but terraced.  Edwin van der Wolf, our guide, explained that the cemetery originally was on flat ground.  The Canadian government acquired more land than was used in the belief that the war would last longer and go into Denmark, resulting in more casualties. Luckily, that didn’t happen, and meant that the excess land could be used for landscaping.

When the cemetery was first opened, metal crosses were used to mark each grave, and there is a display in front of the Information Centre that shows one.

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Metal cross originally used to mark each grave in Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

Originally, the Cross of Sacrifice in the cemetery was placed further back than in its present location.  Similar to the story we’d heard about the placement of a Cross of Sacrifice at Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, Edwin noted that he had heard that when Holten Cemetery began, Lt. General Guy Granville Simonds, Commander of the 2nd Canadian Army, “wanted the Cross of Sacrifice to be 60 metres high and lit up so that it could be seen across the German border as a reminder of who had conquered them.”  Whether this story is true or not, we don’t know.

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Pieter with Edwin van der Wolf by the Cross of Sacrifice at Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

 

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Landscaped grounds of Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Pieter Valkenburg)

The first grave where flags were placed was that of Captain William Douglas Sherren, born November 25, 1914 in Crapaud, son of William Douglas Sherren and Florence Amanda nee Carrier.  Married to Florence Mead Strickland, he was the father of two sons, Hubert and Harrison Blair.  An electrician before the war, Sherren enlisted on January 6, 1941 as a Lieutenant with the First Survey Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery.  On March 29, 1944 he was promoted to Captain.

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William Douglas Sherren. (Photo courtesy of Holten Canadian War Cemetery Information Centre)

On July 9, 1944, not long after D-Day, he arrived in France from England.  He was recognized by King George VI as a Member of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in March 1945, in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in North West Europe.

Unfortunately, on April 25, 1945, while in Germany, the vehicle he was travelling in struck a landmine. He was severely wounded and died on April 28, 1945.  Originally buried in Cloppenburg Hospital Cemetery in Lower Saxony, he was reburied in Holten Canadian War Cemetery in 1947, after the war ended.

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Grave of Captain William Douglas Sherren at Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Pieter Valkenburg)

The next set of flags were placed at the grave of Gunner George Martin McMahon, born January 14, 1913 in Emerald Junction, son of  Peter A McMahon and Catherine nee Monaghan.  Married to Margaret Kathleen Greenan, he was the father of 5 children. In addition, one child, Joseph Louis died in 1942 at the age of three months, and another child, Georgie, was born in November 1945 after McMahon’s death.  Prior to enlistment in Montreal with the Royal Canadian Artillery on December 7, 1943, he was a machinist with Canadian Vickers Ltd.  Fluent in both English and French, his army record noted he could play the violin.

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George Martin McMahon. (Photo courtesy “Around Kinkora Area” by G. K. Farmer)

McMahon left Canada for England in March 1945, and was sent to North West Europe in May 1945.  According to a letter to his widow, written by Colonel C. L. Laurin, McMahon was on “…a short leave to Amsterdam in company of a comrade with the same regiment.  On the evening of the 10th of August 1945, at approximately 11:50 pm, they parted company…” 

McMahon’s friend “…returned to the Army leave hotel alone.  The following day, this soldier, made enquiries and was informed that the body of the deceased had been found in a canal….”  It was determined that he had accidentally drowned on August 11, 1945.   He was first buried in Hilversum Community Cemetery, and in 1946 was reburied in Holten Canadian War Cemetery.

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Grave of George Martin McMahon at Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Pieter Valkenburg)

After visiting McMahon’s grave we went on to place flags at the graves of three more known soldiers from PEI: Carman GILLCASH, Frederick Charles CHEVERIE, and Daniel Peter MacKenzie.

Edwin van der Wolf told us that MacKenzie had been with the Carleton & York Regiment, which liberated the village of Posterenk.  This is where MacKenzie, plus 5 more from his unit, lost his life from sniper fire from Germans using the village’s windmill as a hideout.  For the past two years, on April 13, the people from the village commemorate the event around the old windmill.

Do you have more information or photos on these five soldiers from PEI?  Have you visited Holten Cemetery and its Information Centre?  Do you know of more soldiers from PEI buried in the Cemetery?  You can share your comments and stories by emailing us at memorialtrail@gmail.com or by commenting on this blog.

© Daria Valkenburg

….Want to follow our research?….

If you are reading this posting, but aren’t following our research, you are welcome to do so.  Our blog address: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/

Front cover OnTheWarMememorialTrailinEurope4 countries, 6 weeks, 7,000 km – an unforgettable war memorial journey in Europe…. Daria’s book ‘No Soldier Buried Overseas Should Ever Be Forgotten‘ is available in print and e-book formats.  Net proceeds of book sales help support research costs and the cost of maintaining this blog. For more information see https://nosoldierforgotten.com/ 

You are also invited to subscribe to our YouTube Channel: On The War Memorial Trail With Pieter Valkenburg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ591TyjSheOR-Cb_Gs_5Kw. 

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On the War Memorial Trail ….. At The Information Centre at Holten Canadian War Cemetery

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January 16, 2018.  After visiting the very large Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek we next went to visit a smaller Canadian War Cemetery in Holten.  This is the second largest WWII cemetery in The Netherlands.  The majority of those buried here died during the last stages of the war in Holland, during the advance of the Canadian 2nd Corps into northern Germany, and across the Ems in April and the first days of May 1945.

After the war ended, their remains were brought into this cemetery, which has 1,394 WWII burials, 1382 of them identified.  The burials are listed as the following: There are 1,394 burials: Navy 2, Army 1,378, Air Force 14, of which 1,355 are Canadian, 36 British, 2 Australian and 1 Belgian.

Five of the known burials are soldiers from Prince Edward Island, two of which are listed on the Cenotaph outside the Borden-Carleton Legion, and part of Pieter’s Cenotaph Research Project.  William Douglas SHERREN and George Martin MCMAHON are listed on the Cenotaph.  Carman GILLCASH, Frederick Charles CHEVERIE, and Daniel Peter MACKENZIE are the other three soldiers from Prince Edward Island.

This was a very different visit than when we were at the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek, as there is a large information centre in Holten, where we met with Henk Vincent and Edwin Van der Wolf, two of the volunteers at the Centre.

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Pieter outside the Information Centre at Holten Cemetery in The Netherlands, with a bag of flag pins for schoolchildren who light candles at each grave at Christmas and flags for various ceremonies. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

The volunteers at Holten Cemetery have run a “Face to Every Name” project, in an attempt to receive a photo and learn more about every soldier buried there.  The original project began in 1995, during the 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of The Netherlands, with a group of friends who helped organize annual commemoration events.  They called themselves “Welcome Again Veterans”. 

While the organization that dealt with annual commemorations began in the 1950s, the new group started actively collecting photos, memoirs and books, and stories that had been donated over the years.

In 2005, as veterans arriving for liberation events began decreasing, the group started to think of a small museum as a repository for the information that had been collected.  By 2010, with funding secured from private donations, and Dutch municipal and provincial governments, plus the European Union, construction began, and the new Information Centre open in September 2011.  Unlike most Dutch construction, the Information Centre is constructed of wood, “just like in Canada”, according to Van der Wolf.

Today, the Information Centre receives 25,000 visitors per year, and we were eager to be two of them. Entrance is free, with donations helping to cover the operating costs of running this facility.

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Henk Vincent, left, and Edwin Van der Wolf, right, with Pieter in the centre, at the Information Centre at Holten Canadian War Cemetery. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

Highlights of some of the displays you can see and interact with are:

·         An Information wall with a map of northern and eastern Netherlands, showing where you can see where divisions entered the area, and liberation dates of different villages and towns, as well as a few important places where heavy fighting had taken place.  

·         The film hall, which lists the names of the 1,394 soldiers buried in Holten on its wall, then watch a 17 minute film about the cemetery.

 ·         Three information tables that use touch screen technology:

·         Information table 1 is a Database with basic data on all Canadian soldiers buried in The Netherlands. In addition, there are photos and biographies for many soldiers buried in Holten. 

·         Information table 2 is entitled ‘Meet a soldier‘, which features a more detailed life story for four fallen liberators using films with unique documents and photos.

 ·         Information table 3 showcases Interviews with witnesses of the liberation, plus three liberation stories, written during or directly after the liberation days.

 ·         Showcase wall, with a panorama photo of the entrance of the cemetery, and 8 showcases that highlight different themes. There are also 4 touch screens with films about the liberation of various villages and cities in northern and eastern Netherlands, a film about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and various photographs and films of commemorations at the cemetery over the years.

 ·         Four Documentaries:

1.      ‘Victory in The Netherlands’, an authentic film from 1945 on the liberation of northern and eastern Netherlands.

2.      The liberation of cities and villages in northern and eastern Netherlands from day to day.

3.      ‘Heroes Remember’, where Canadian veterans talk about their experiences of the liberation of The Netherlands.

4.        The May 4, 2015 ceremony at the cemetery.

 ·         Reading table, which includes memoirs and original newspaper articles about the liberation.

 ·         Cemetery Map

After touring the Information Centre, we continued on to the Cemetery itself, to lay flags at the graves of our five soldiers from PEI.

Have you visited Holten Cemetery and its Information Centre?  Do you know of more soldiers from PEI buried in the Cemetery?  You can share your comments and stories by emailing us at memorialtrail@gmail.com or by commenting on this blog.

© Daria Valkenburg

….Want to follow our research?….

If you are reading this posting, but aren’t following our research, you are welcome to do so.  Our blog address: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/

Front cover OnTheWarMememorialTrailinEurope4 countries, 6 weeks, 7,000 km – an unforgettable war memorial journey in Europe…. Daria’s book ‘No Soldier Buried Overseas Should Ever Be Forgotten‘ is available in print and e-book formats.  Net proceeds of book sales help support research costs and the cost of maintaining this blog. For more information see https://nosoldierforgotten.com/ 

You are also invited to subscribe to our YouTube Channel: On The War Memorial Trail With Pieter Valkenburg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ591TyjSheOR-Cb_Gs_5Kw. 

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On the War Memorial Trail ….. The Liberation Route

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January 6, 2018.  After flags were laid at the graves of the known soldiers from PEI at the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek, we travelled along The Liberation Route with our friends Ad and Noor Scheepers.  History lives and breathes here, and if you are unaware of the past, you can take things at face value.

One example…I’m fascinated by windmills.  Not the ugly behemoths that we see now, but the older windmills that are still seen in Europe.  One of these is in Groesbeek, and is now a shop, and I wanted a photo of it.  Ad told us that during WWII the windmill had been used first as a reference point by the US 82nd Airborne Division and later as an observation point in 1944 in preparation for Operation Market Garden.  This was an Allied military operation, from September 17-25, 1944 that succeeded in liberating Nijmegen and Eindhoven, but failed in liberating the last bridge held in Arnhem, which would enable troops to the Rhine into Germany.  If you’ve seen the movie ‘A Bridge Too Far’ (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bridge_Too_Far_(film)), then you may be familiar with what is discussed in this blog entry.

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Windmill in Groesbeek that was used as an observation post during WWII. (Photo credit: Pieter Valkenburg)

From Groesbeek, we followed the Liberation Route to Klein Amerika (Little America), a high spot near Groesbeek.  For some reason, Klein Amerika had this name long before WWII!  This was the area where parachutes and gliders landed in preparation for Operation Market Garden, to capture the bridges held by Germans during WWII.  In addition to the 505th of the US Army’s 82nd airborne division who landed here, the 1st Canadian Army guarded the area in the winter of 1944-1945.

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Memorial at Klein Amerika honouring the 1st Canadian Army who guarded the area in the winter of 1944-45. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

Today, Klein Amerika has a memorial park, complete with jeeps and a replica of a Waco glider, and an information panel that plays newsreels about the events of the battle and its preparation.

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Ad Scheepers and Pieter inspect a jeep, while Noor watches one of the newsreels on the information panel at Klein Amerika. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

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Ad and Pieter in the Waco glider replica at Klein Amerika. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

Ad told us a story he’d heard about a commander of the British Airborne Division who landed in Klein Amerika and sneaked across the border to Germany.  He came back safely and when asked where he’d been, said he’d gone to Germany to be the first Brit to “piss on the Germans”.  We’ve not been able to confirm this story, but with the border so close by, it could be true.

We followed the Liberation Route across the border into Germany and then ended the tour at a café in Milligen, where the Rhine and Waal Rivers meet. It was fascinating to see how much shipping is done by boat here!

CIMG9059 Sep 16 2017 boat near De Gelderse Poort Cafe in Milligan where Rhine and Waal meet

Shipping traffic in Milligen, where the Rhine and Waal Rivers meet. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)

Now that we had a better idea of what troops faced in trying to liberate this part of The Netherlands, we were even more honoured to be working on this cenotaph research project.  In our next blog entry, we visit another Canadian War Cemetery, this time in Holten.

Comments or stories?  You can share them by emailing us at memorialtrail@gmail.com or by commenting on this blog.

© Daria Valkenburg

….Want to follow our research?….

If you are reading this posting, but aren’t following our research, you are welcome to do so.  Our blog address: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/

Front cover OnTheWarMememorialTrailinEurope4 countries, 6 weeks, 7,000 km – an unforgettable war memorial journey in Europe…. Daria’s book ‘No Soldier Buried Overseas Should Ever Be Forgotten‘ is available in print and e-book formats.  Net proceeds of book sales help support research costs and the cost of maintaining this blog. For more information see https://nosoldierforgotten.com/ 

You are also invited to subscribe to our YouTube Channel: On The War Memorial Trail With Pieter Valkenburg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ591TyjSheOR-Cb_Gs_5Kw. 

Never miss a posting!  Subscribe below to have each new story from the war memorial trail delivered to your inbox.