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Mr. Hormidas
Bérubé
WWII Veteran
Service Corps,
Royal Canadian Army
Liberator of the Netherlands
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I am proud of having served and helped for the Liberation of
Holland
A veteran’s story from Mister Hormidas Bérubé, a proud
Canadian, that helped with the Liberation of Holland.
In 1943, at only 23 years of age I left Canada for England.
In September 1944, I then left England for the Netherlands,
to Nijmegen. I was with the Service Corps, and my job was
the transport of all the supply needed to support the
Canadian troop stationed in Holland. Most of the time the
delivery of all supply took place at night. The supply we
transported, varied from weapons, ammunitions, clothing and
food, everything that the troops needed to survive. During
the war we were living in tents but after the Liberation, we
were living in houses that were previously occupied by the
German. I also had the chance to live in Breda and Tilburg
for a while but only after the Liberation. For the last
months of my stay in Holland I became <<Batman>>for Colonel
Smith, an Irish Officer in the Canadian Forces. Now from
Mont-Laurier, Quebec, Mr Bérubé kindly shared with us his
memory of the war. <<On the morning of the Liberation, I was
on my two weeks of holiday (R & R) in Paris, France. During
that night, the bells from all the churches and cathedrals
started ringing and the French people were running in the
streets yelling: << The war is over! … The war is over!...>>
I taught that they were all crazy because, when I left for
Paris nobody nor anything in Holland, would of let us
believed that the war was near the end. I went back to
Holland by train, and when I arrived in Nijmegen, I walked
back to my camp a short distance, 10 miles…once back in
camp, the soldiers told me that the Germans had surrendered,
they were not resisting anymore and that they were laying
down their weapons and that they were simply sitting on the
side of the roads not fighting anymore. I left Holland in
November 1945 to return to Canada. My memories from Holland
are that it is an extremely beautiful and clean country and
that the people are very warm and thankful towards the
Canadians. I am proud of having served and helped for the
Liberation of Holland>> |
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