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doors and windows – frames and all –, carpets and
mattresses to build their manholes. Other people took
refuge in our houses. Our belongings were scattered over
several farmhouses, and we had to fight with total
strangers to get our pots and pans and our blankets
back!”.
Because of the heavy fighting we have a special
regulation in our village forbidding the use a metal
detector. This is to prevent people from digging up
dangerous material. A couple of years ago, our police
station was visited by two little boys who came in with
a live grenade that they had bound onto the back of
their bicycle….. Ever since, the police pay close
attention, which we discovered when we wanted to record
some “nature” for a CD. The park ranger who spotted us
was convinced our ultra flat microphones and the tape
recorder were in fact a modern metal detector!
Each year in September, on Remembrance Day, those
beautiful, impressive aeroplanes come flying low over
the studio. In 1944 they brought us the same brave men
you see standing in the open doors right now. They are
in their eighties, but in 2004 some of them made the
same parachute jump as they did then, over the moors of
Renkum, very close to the farmhouse that is now the
Farmsound Studio. Like my mum said: They made quality in
those days!
No more rumours of war here now, only the sad echoes
from long ago and far away. We prefer to make music
instead, and we sincerely hope that we will be
"post-war" children forever.
Judith Budding
Farmsound Studio Heelsum, April 17, 2005
TILBURG
young men put their lives on the line
Kangaroos
The city of Tilburg in the south of the Netherlands was
liberated by the Scottish 15th Armoured Division on
October 27th, 1944. Tilburg was and always will be
extremely grateful to the Scots. However, the people of
Tilburg realize all too well that the Netherlands would
never have been liberated without the tremendous efforts
of the other allied armies, like the Poles, the
Americans and the Canadians.
The population of Tilburg have their own memories of the
Canadians. Tilburg was the meeting point and base of
operations for their headquarters and squadron Kangaroo
tanks for quite some time.
There is a wonderful picture of the Canadian Armoured
Tank Corps with these Kangaroos in the centre of
Tilburg. The picture was taken on |
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October 28th, the day after Tilburg was liberated, on
thesun-drenched market square.
We hold on to the good memories we have of our
liberators and recall to mind how the thousands of young
men put their lives on the line for our liberation.
Ruud Vreeman, Mayor of Tilburg |
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