A life’s ambition realized! Daria in the driver’s seat of a jeep! Spoiler alert – our battlefield tour was in an SUV, not the jeep! (Photo credit: Joël Stoppels)
October 10, 2025. While in Europe this spring for the 80th Anniversary of Liberation Commemoration events, we visited 14 cemeteries to place flags at the graves of 383 soldiers that Pieter has researched since 2014, with the stories of many of these soldiers previously told on this blog.
On the wish list for our 2025 European War Memorial Tour was to tour some of the battlefields in which these soldiers lost their lives in order to have a better appreciation of what they had faced.
Battlefields guide Joël Stoppels, of Groningen, The Netherlands, offered to spend a day showing us locations where the various battles that comprised the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket took place. Over the years, we’ve featured stories of many soldiers who lost their lives in the last weeks of the North-West Europe campaign during WWII, and we eagerly anticipated learning more. (See https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/history/battlehonours/northwesteurope/delfzijlpocket.htm)
Map showing the locations during the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket. (Map source: http://www.canadiansoldiers.com)
In Part 1, our battlefield tour began at a field where 19 Canadians lost their lives during the Battle for Wagenborgen, the preliminary battle before the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket. (See https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2025/10/01/on-the-war-memorial-trail-battlefields-tour-with-joel-stoppels-part-1-battle-for-wagenborgen/)
In Part 2, we travelled to Appingedam, the town where the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket began. (See https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2025/10/05/on-the-war-memorial-trail-battlefields-tour-with-joel-stoppels-part-2-the-battle-of-the-delfzijl-pocket-began-in-appingedam/)
Now, in Part 3, we left Appingedam and travelled to Holwierde, where our first stop was at the Canada Memorial.
…. The Canada Memorial in Holwierde…
Pieter and Joël at the Canada Memorial in Holwierde. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
Front view of the Canada Memorial in Holwierde. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
We knew that there was a plaque at the church in Holwierde that commemorated the Canadians who lost their lives during the Battle of Delfzijl Pocket, but had no idea there was also a monument in the town itself…. with houses on either side of the main road where it’s located.
Called the Canada Memorial, with red and white flowering plants around it, the stone plaque simply states ‘In honour of our liberators from Canada. Their glory is our freedom. 21 April – 2 May 1945’
Closeup of stone plaque at the Canada Memorial in Holwierde. (Photo credit: Pieter Valkenburg)
…. Canadian soldiers called Holwierde ‘a killing ground’…
Battlefields Tour poster describing Howierde as a ‘Killing ground’.
As we walked through this quiet and picturesque town towards the Stefanuskerk, we asked Joël about his poster describing Holwierde as a ‘Killing ground’. He explained that “….Holwierde was one of the most heavily contested villages during the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket in April 1945. The Perth Regiment fought intense house-to-house combat here, as German paratroopers and naval infantry had fortified nearly every building. Many Canadian soldiers referred to the village as ‘a killing ground’ due to the high casualties on both sides…..”
Holwierde in April 1945, with a temporary bailey bridge, leading towards the Stefanuskerk. (Photo Courtesy of Joël Stoppels / Battlefield Tours)
Holwierde in April 1945. A temporary bailey bridge allowed residents and troops to cross the canal. The Stefanuskerk is on the right. (Photo Courtesy of Joël Stoppels / Battlefield Tours)
“…The Stefanuskerk, although spared from destruction, stood right in the middle of the battlefield and witnessed days of shelling and close-quarters fighting….”
Holwierde in 2025, 80 years after its liberation. The bailey bridge from 1945 is now a permanent bridge over the canal! (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
…. We found a banner for one soldier whose story was previously told…
Banner for Joseph ‘Gerald’ Fougere in Holwierde. (Photo credit: Pieter Valkenburg)
As we walked down the street towards the Stefanuskerk, the main reason for our visit to Holwierde, we saw a banner for Joseph ‘Gerald’ FOUGERE, who was serving with the Perth Regiment. He was wounded on April 24, 1945, during the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket, and died on April 26, 1945, one month before his 29th birthday. (See https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2021/01/27/on-the-war-memorial-trail-atlantic-canada-remembers-part-5/)
Joseph ‘Gerald’ Fougere’s banner was by the canal in Holwierde, but this wasn’t where he died. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
The banner was by the canal, and while I was busy snapping photos, thinking this is where he died, Joël said “…no, he actually died in nearby Nansum. Since Nansum is such a small village, his banner was placed in Holwierde for greater visibility...” He then kindly pointed out that “…the bridge over the canal had been blown up by the Germans on April 25, 1945.…”
Never mind…Nansum was quickly added as our next stop after Holwierde!
…. A solemn few moments at Stefanuskerk…
Entrance to Stefanuskerk in Holwierde. (Photo credit: Pieter Valkenburg)
We continued walking down the road until we got to the Stefanuskerk. A plaque near the door noted that the church dates to the 11th century! In the 13th century the church was enlarged. It was severely damaged in April 1945, but restored by 1950, to give the appearance as to how the church would have looked before 1830.
Pieter by the plaque in Stefanuskerk that commemorates Canadian soldiers who died during the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket. (Photo credit: Joël Stoppels)
We wanted to visit the church in order to see the plaque that commemorates many of the Canadian soldiers who died during the Battle of the Delfzijl Pocket. It was a very solemn few moments for us, as we looked over the names, many of them of soldiers that Pieter had researched over the past years.
From the Royal Winnipeg Rifles:
- William ‘Willie’ DANIELS: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2021/07/23/on-the-war-memorial-trail-remembering-ww2-soldier-william-willie-daniels/
- Donald Charles MACKENZIE: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2022/01/23/on-the-war-memorial-trail-the-ww2-soldier-from-springhill-who-received-a-memorial-cross/
From the Perth Regiment:
- Joseph ‘Gerald’ FOUGERE: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2021/01/27/on-the-war-memorial-trail-atlantic-canada-remembers-part-5/
From the Cape Breton Highlanders:
- Carman Edward GILLCASH: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2022/10/22/on-the-war-memorial-trail-the-wwii-soldier-from-glenwood-killed-during-the-battle-of-the-delfzijl-pocket/
- Philip Hubert LONG: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2020/11/01/on-the-war-memorial-trail-a-face-for-philip-hubert-long/
- Norman James NIXON: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2021/03/07/on-the-war-memorial-trail-the-ww2-soldier-from-st-stephens/
- Daniel PEARO: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2021/01/20/on-the-war-memorial-trail-atlantic-canada-remembers-part-4/
- Ford Hilton SPIDLE: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2021/01/07/on-the-war-memorial-trail-atlantic-canada-remembers-part-1/
Not mentioned on the plaque:
From the 9th Armoured Regiment (BC Dragoons), who is commemorated on a plaque in Appingedam:
- Louis Graham RICHARD: https://onthewarmemorialtrail.com/2021/02/22/on-the-war-memorial-trail-atlantic-canada-remembers-part-7/
…. We couldn’t miss seeing Nansum…
We left Stefanuskerk in a reflective mood after looking at the names on the plaque, and quietly got back in the car for the short drive to Nansum, which is indeed a tiny place, near the coast. Joël didn’t know exactly where Joseph ‘Gerald’ FOUGERE was killed, unfortunately. What remained of a German bunker was still visible, so he likely died of shrapnel wounds.
Yellow arrow indicates the remains of a German bunker in Nansum. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
Joël noted that 177 Kriegsmarine were captured here. The Kriegsmarine was Nazi Germany’s Navy from 1939-1945. By 1945, as the war progressed, the Kriegsmarine formed infantry units from its personnel, who were re-trained as infantry to fight on land, all in an attempt to alleviate the strain on the German Army.
From Nansum we continued on the last leg of our battlefields tour, as we followed the route taken by the Cape Breton Highlanders to Delfzijl. Coming up in Battlefields Tour With Joël Stoppels Part 4: From Nansum To Delfzijl And Wirdum.
Thank you to Joël Stoppels, guide and founder of Battlefield Tours, for a wonderful and informative tour. (See www.battlefieldtours.nu) If you have a story or photo to share, please contact Pieter at memorialtrail@gmail.com or comment on the blog.
© Daria Valkenburg
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4 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 Research Project........ with Pieter and Daria Valkenburg 