Reply With QuoteThanks - Interesting, if rather sad, stories.
There must be thousands of similar stories from all over occupied territories (from Europe and the Pacific war), but so many get lost in the overall story of WW2.
M
I know that some of us here like to hear and read about historical events. So here we go.
May 5th is our Liberation Day here in The Netherlands. Below, a few not so well-known facts about what happened directly after Liberation Day.
We owe a lot to allied troops, US troops in the SE, Canadian in the North and East and British troops in the SW had started liberating the country in the Fall of 1944, but it took another 8, 9 months before in Wageningen (that's 5 miles west from the spot where Market Garden started!), German high command surrendered. During the war, tons of allied weapons and instructors had been dropped in the country for training and arming the Resistance, officially the 'Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten' (Inland Forces)
Directly after the surrender, a total of 24 fighting incidents between Germans and the Resistance + allied troops took a few hundred lives. A few examples:
On May 7th, fanatic German troops opened fire on people in the streets of Amsterdam. Not all German troops were disarmed and they'd posted themselves on rooftops and high in buildings. That shooting lasted less than 30 minutes, but 120 people were killed.
On May 8th, German troops were in hiding in a forrest east of Rotterdam in the small town Bolnes (where I was born). Somehow, this small group of fanatics had managed to keep their weapons and when Dutch Resistance men and women tried to disarm those Germans, the Germans counter-attacked. They burned a GP's office/local hospital with a flamethrower, killing 7 people inside, including the doctor. After that, the Germans withdraw, back to the forrest. The forrest is easily surrounded and a man-hunt started. No German soldier survived (I think that the Geneva Convention was put aside then...)
A pic of the rebuilt GP's house. Only a few minutes from the spot where I was born. It's still in use as a GP's office. No longer a clinic though.
One event is not often mentioned. It has nothing to do with the Inland Forsce, but still a very interesting and less-know event.
During the war, German forces had recruited soldiers from the ranks of Russian POW's. Giving them the choice: 'fight with us, or die from starvation'. The Germans managed to assemble a few battalions. Most of these were divided into the origins of the soldiers. Then, the battalion was transferred from the East front to the West front. One Georgian battalion had been deployed in France, then near Antwerp and from February 1945 on the Dutch island Texel (on the map: look for Amsterdam, go north and the first island you spot is Texel).
Slowly but surely, the Georgian became aware of the fact that, after the war, they would be deported to Russia. And there they would be treated like war criminals and traitors. The only way out -in their eyes- was starting a mutiny! "Kill the Germans and we will be back in the allied 'good book'!" On April 6th 1945 the Georgians turned against their German officers, killing more than 400 of them with knives and bayonets! No shot was fired. A few Germans managed to escape to the southernmost German defense turrets and they managed to warn the Germans on the mainland! Despite the dire position of the German troops in Holland, they managed to transport 600 heavily armed Germans to the island. Slowly but surely, the Germans managed to defeat the Georgians. Fighting lasted until May 20th!!! It only ended when the Canadians landed on the island.
The Georgians were indeed deported to Russia. Many of them ended in Russian camps and only a handful escaped imprisonment. In 1956, during the 'de-stalinisation' period, all who were still alive were re-habilitated. The Georgians who died were buried on a Texel cemetery, but after 1956, a part of the cemetery is now an official Russian military war grave and memorial.
Thanks - Interesting, if rather sad, stories.
There must be thousands of similar stories from all over occupied territories (from Europe and the Pacific war), but so many get lost in the overall story of WW2.
M
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That was very interesting indeed. Many thanks for sharing.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Interesting stories, thanks.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Thank you for the reminder of this important day. I usually like to visit The Netherlands at this time of year but sadly that will have to wait.
Thank you for remembering De Bevrijders and in turn we should like to remember the bravery, fortitude and strength of the Dutch people who endured and survived five years of German brutality and oppression.
Thank you for posting this.
By it's very nature a WW is devastating, when we consider the millions of people killed it's all too easy to forget the individual events associated with many of those deaths.
Thanks for posting, a timely reminder that wars are not simply about huge battles, the personal tragedies live on.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Another view on history last night.
Remembrance Day is always full of traditions on a full Dam Square in Amsterdam and near all sorts of local monuments (like the one in the park next to my house). Normally, the Sovereign, our king, doesn't speak. But, with this C19 situation, all was different. There was this wreath laying and the king's speech.
Then he stepped forward to the microphone with is uncut hair and did something we, Dutch, wouldn't have guessed!
Normally his (Christmas) speeches are dull and full of platitudes. Not in his speech last night! It was close to brilliant. He referred to a conversation he had with an old jewish gentleman who he met a few years back. The king repeated this old man's words as in: "...the concentration camp started in the park in Amsterdam where we were rounded up. And on the sidewalks all those bystanders who said and did nothing." Then he continued: "... like my great-grandmother in London, steadfast and determined, but who also kept quiet..." (about the persecution of the Dutch jews). The king re-wrote our national history and his family's in one single sentence! His great-grandmum's role was always 'iffy' when it came to this subject, but was always a no-go area for Dutch historians.
I listened to his speech and thought: "Did he really say that!?" I looked at my wife and she nodded: yes.
The message of the speech was also very clear. 'Something that's not acceptable should never become acceptable and we're all responsible for that. Looking away is never an option'.
He did great.
Another historical moment, good to have been there and hear it said.Originally Posted by thieuster
Thanks for posting and a reminder of the brutality of war on and off the battlefield
Off topic, however I understand that the OP has family connections, an affinity and interest in Canada and its military history in a Europe.
Whilst cycling around during lockdown, I’ve been looking around local churches and graveyards. I have been quite surprised by the number of military graves, generally ones or twos, maybe natural causes, effects of wounds, training accidents, shot down in the case of the RAF. Overgrown at the moment.
In one graveyard there is a cluster of a dozen Canadian graves from WW1 that look to be manicured even during lockdown to CWGC standards. Perhaps there was a Canadian base or hospital nearby and the deaths are again from wounds, illness, accident, perhaps even the 1918 flu epidemic. I suspect there was a base locally. The deer park nearby was Ike’s SHAEF HQ in WW2.
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Another OT: my dad was born in May of 1918 - the year of the "Spanish Flu." He went on to serve in the U.S. Army during WWII, but in the Pacific. I'm a "Boomer" born in '47.
Good photo PC, and good to hear that you sound "on the mend",Another OT: my dad was born in May of 1918 - the year of the "Spanish Flu." He went on to serve in the U.S. Army during WWII, but in the Pacific. I'm a "Boomer" born in '47.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
VJ Day today, the end of WW2.Another OT: my dad was born in May of 1918 - the year of the "Spanish Flu." He went on to serve in the U.S. Army during WWII, but in the Pacific. I'm a "Boomer" born in '47.
After the end my dad ended up in Hiroshima and Iwakuni. Took ages to get home.
Red Arrows will be over my back garden at 17:30h today.
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I know there was a RCAF base in Taplow during WW2, I know as I was borne in the base’s hospital in 1965 :-) My mum got a letter many years later explains that , even though I was borne on Canadian Soil, I cannot claim Canadian citizenship !Off topic, however I understand that the OP has family connections, an affinity and interest in Canada and its military history in a Europe.
Whilst cycling around during lockdown, I’ve been looking around local churches and graveyards. I have been quite surprised by the number of military graves, generally ones or twos, maybe natural causes, effects of wounds, training accidents, shot down in the case of the RAF. Overgrown at the moment.
In one graveyard there is a cluster of a dozen Canadian graves from WW1 that look to be manicured even during lockdown to CWGC standards. Perhaps there was a Canadian base or hospital nearby and the deaths are again from wounds, illness, accident, perhaps even the 1918 flu epidemic. I suspect there was a base locally. The deer park nearby was Ike’s SHAEF HQ in WW2.
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VJ Day indeed. The Prime Minister did a speech in The Hague at the National Monument for what we call 'The East'. He did a very special, personal speech about his father who was in a Japanese POW camp during the war in the East. Very recognisable for a lot of people attending the ceremony.
What happened in the Dutch Indies (Indonesia) after the Japanese capitulation isn't one of the most glorifying parts of our modern history. As so many European countries with colonies, we weren't ready to let those colonies 'go'. Here, in the Netherlands, you can't separate VJ Day from what happened afterwards.
After the war had ended in Europe, lots of Dutch young men signed up for fighting the Japanese. My father (who spoke English and German) was enlisted in the British army as an interpretator, so getting 'shipped' to Asia was quite easy: he landed in Malaya in October 1945 and was then enlisted in the Royal Marines who had landed there a month earlier - just at the time when the Japanese surrendered. He and a few dozen Dutch lads were trained in jungle warfare by the Marines and then sent off to the Dutch Indies (Indonesia) as an officer(...) to fight Sukarno who had proclaimed the Indonesian Independence.
Ultimately, he ended up in Northern Sumatra, near Lake Toba in the north, where -according to b/w pics I still own- he had some fierce encounters with the 'nationalists'. Only to be transported home 3 yrs later where he started working in naval engineering - what he'd studied pre-war.
VJ Day today, the end of WW2.
After the end my dad ended up in Hiroshima and Iwakuni. Took ages to get home.
Red Arrows will be over my back garden at 17:30h today.
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Which unit is that? I'm grandfather was an engine fitter on B24s in the far east - 160SQN
Was your grandfather in Kankesanturai? I note that 160Sqn was.
My dad was a WOp/AG and air to surface vessel radar operator 1943 to 1947. Coastal Command then SEAC, Middle East then Far East. I don't know the unit in that particular photograph. At times in 1945 he was in 292Sqn and 1346Flt in Kankesanturai. They were maritime patrol and ASR units. I have a photograph of him in Kankesanturai in June 1945 and a Christmas aerogramme from him dated late November 1945. In between he had been in the Cocos Islands. From memory he had also been in Egypt, Palestine, Aden, Karachi, Bombay, KL, HK, Saigon/Hanoi and then sometime in Hiroshima as part of the occupying force. I think his job in Japan was supervising clearing and repairing runways.
Christmas Day 1945 Kankesanturai, football match 203Sqn & ASR vs. 160Sqn & HQ.
Last edited by BillyCasper; 16th August 2020 at 12:38.
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