Toespraak Commandant der Strijdkrachten tijdens een meet and greet met Canadese veteranen

Toespraak | 18-02-2016

Dear veterans, it is a great honour to meet you here in the Canadian War Museum. I have to confess that this is the first time in my life I have been able to visit your beautiful country.

When I knew I was coming to Canada, I asked the Dutch embassy to help me arrange a meeting with you – our World War Two liberators. I wrote down some things I wanted to tell you. I wanted to meet you personally, to express my deepest gratitude for your service. Both as a soldier and as a Dutch citizen.

My father is 85 years old now. He is ill and doesn't have long to live anymore. And when I talk to him about the life he has had, he often mentions the Second World War period.

He was a young kid, born in Rotterdam. A city wiped away by the German bombers at the start of the war. He survived.

He also survived the Dutch winter of famine, our “hunger winter”. When there was no food on the table and people had to eat tulip bulbs. He experienced what it is to be suppressed, to live without freedom, to see whole families being deported to be gassed.

My father also knows how it feels to be liberated.  To him, you as World War Two veterans, you are all heroes, you came to our rescue.

In the darkest days of our nation’s history. You crossed the Atlantic to fight gruesome battles for our freedom. For the freedom of a continent under fascist rule. For the freedom of millions of people.

Something my father will never forget. Something the Dutch people will never forget. I can only imagine the memories you have of this period. Memories as laid down in a story I read about the Calgary Highlanders, who seized the bridgehead over the Albert Canal in Belgium.

Let me read it to you: 

By six in the morning, three rifle companies were across the canal. Low black clouds, creating a twilight effect, hung over the battlefield, and the men moved in and out of thick patches of ground fog, that made it difficult to see either friend or foe.

In this confused landscape, a bitter battle raged through the morning. The Highlanders knew that to win the day, they must expand the bridgehead sufficiently to render it safe for the engineers to build a bridge next to the lock, and the Germans knew that a bridge would render their line along the Albert Canal untenable.

Shell and mortar fire pounded the small Canadian toehold, frustrating attempts by the engineers to begin work. Slowly ‘C’ Company pushed westward, ‘A’ Company northward, and ‘D’ Company eastward.

On the eastern flank, Major Bruce MacKenzie put two platoons forward into a line of buildings, that stood about two hundred yards from the lock gates. Once this position was secured, MacKenzie ordered the platoons to move out across a field to clear some woods beyond.

As the men moved into the open, a German machine gun in the woods ripped into their ranks. Screams cut the air. Some men were killed outright, many more wounded.

Withdrawal was ordered. As the men went back, William Fedun – a twenty-three-year old Corporal, grabbed a Bren gun and covered their withdrawal until he was shot down.

MacKenzie hosted a badly wounded sergeant and carried him back the locks. All might have been lost had the Highlanders not managed to set up a ferry operation using makeshift rafts, which shuttled badly needed ammunition across the canal to the rifle companies, and brought their wounded back.

This steady resupply, combined with some close-in mortar and artillery fire on positions inside a cement factory, prevented the Germans mounting a concerted counter attack”.

Dear veterans, the passage I just read is just one example that shows how determined you were to prevail. How determined you were to save us.

And I know your heroic actions were equally impressive and equally brave. After all, all of you were deployed far away from home, to risk your life for a country that was not your own.

All of you fought, and helped rebuild the nation that WE now live in, in freedom. I’m thinking of veteran Harry Loop, Rifleman in the Canadian Infantry Corps, who landed in Normandy ten days after D-Day.

Harry fought through Belgium to the Netherlands and stayed in the Netherlands for a while after Victory Day, to help deliver food to starving Dutch people…

I’m thinking of Robert Hanley, whose job it was to scout possible airfield locations throughout the Netherlands, as the Canadians pushed back the Germans. Robert witnessed the Nazis destroying our dikes, and flooding large areas of our countryside. I am told it still gives him nightmares…

I’m thinking of Elsa Drucilla Lessard, who was posted to secret establishments. Elsa intercepted Morse code transmissions from the enemy, and would take high-frequency bearings on transmissions from the U-boat fleet.

Veterans, my point is: Without the risks all of you took, without the sacrifices all of you made and without the solidarity all of you showed, we might not have been free, we might have had very different lives.

And that is why our appreciation for what you did will never fade. For me, this became very clear when your former prime minister - Stephen Harper - visited our liberation celebrations a year ago.

Together, we watched a parade of Canadian vets. They were driving in vintage trucks and jeeps used in the Second World War. Now let me tell you: Even though there was a raging rain- and hailstorm that day, a storm that soaked everyone, still the streets were crammed with Dutch people, trying to thank your comrades.

I even saw young children, sitting on their parents’ shoulders. They were cheering. And trying to touch the hands of your veterans while showering them with flowers.

I think what it all comes down to, is that we – as a nation – know that your role in our history, is not only remarkable, but in fact crucial. For we now live in a country that is not at war.

A democratic and prosperous country, with freedom of speech and equal rights for all. We can live a life worth living, and raise our children free from fear and violence.

And I know we can never repay you for that. All we can do, and will do, is to continue to honour you today, tomorrow, forever. And that is exactly what we are doing.

So even though I realise a simple ‘thank you for your service’ doesn’t even begin to convey our gratitude, please allow me to say these words.

Dear veterans, dear friends,

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

 

-0-0-0-