And that was the last medal I got. 

Interview Mr Jack Anderson
….armoured cars and trucks and jeeps, into the airport at Arnhem, so I didn’t get back to England till christmas eve of 1945.  I went to Groningen, Arnhem, Amersfoort and Leeuwarden and some other place, I can’t remember the name.  That was during the war, and after the war.  I was young and I was a sergeant and the Canadian soldiers were sent home, depending on the number of years, whether they were married, whether they had children and since I was young and unmarried, I didn’t have many points, so I had to stay in Holland and my job was all the vehicles to the airport in Arnhem and I didn’t get back to England till Christmas eve, they were called the Staghounds, 15ton  armoured cars, very big armoured cars, and of course we had Ford scout-cars, which were smaller, about 5 tons and of course, lots of jeeps and trucks.  I don’t know what happened to them, I know there’s one at the new center in Juno Beach, but I don’t know what happened to the rest of them. I don’t remember a lot about Holland, we went through there fairly fast, and we were ahead of the rest Allied forces most of the time.  My regiment liberated Oostende in Belgium, and another town. I got pictures here, but I can’t remember the name.
I do remember one thing, we were always supported by the underground, like in France and in Belgium and in Holland and the Dutch underground was the best. We could always believe what they told us and they were very good to helping us. We would always be ahead you know and sometimes it was good to know what the country was like  and maybe sometimes where the Germans were and so on. The Dutch were very helpful to us.  We had a dutch underground attached to our regiment maybe more than one, one in my squadron anyway.  They were part of the dutch underground and they sometimes could give us information, to know where the Germans were and what street they were.
We worked very closely with them, they were practically in our regiment, we worked that close with them, more than other regiments maybe, cos we were going into unknown territory. Mostly I remember the Dutch as being honest and you could believe them.  Sometimes it wasn’t accurate, as far as I know, the Dutch were always right on .

 I always felt more at home in Holland than in any of the other countries.  They had a very active underground, very brave too…. I have the regimental book here, we went through France, then into Belgium, then into Holland, and then into Germany, to Kleve, in the woods, near Arnhem.  That was right after the big push.  We were sitting acting as infantry, because we couldn’t go any further, is that the Maas, or the Waal, one of the rivers near Nijmegen and Arnhem, after the big push there, when the paratroopers went into Arnhem, we were one of the first regiments to go into Germany, we went into Kleve, and then into Oldenburg…it’s hard to remember all this! After the war, when we came bac\k to Holland, we stayed in one place I’m not sure, I’d have to look it up
 in Amersfoort or somewhere, there was a pub and upstairs there were rooms, and we stayed there.  I have a picture of that actually. When we came back from Oldenburg, we went to Groningen and then to Leeuwarden  and we were in a house ware collaborators had lived in. The Dutch kicked them out and we lived there for quite a long time.
While there I remember seeing a lot and hearing a lot of noise in the street. They were parading some girls out with their heads shaved, because they had collaborated with the Germans and the Dutch shaved their hair off.  I didn’t get a picture of that of course, but I remember that. I think that was in Leeuwarden. Incidentally we have friends in Holland during the 50th anniversary. We stayed in Zwolle for a long time and the next summer their children came over to Canada. Their boy was 17 and the girl 14 and they stayed with us for 5 weeks.  Later my granddaughter was in Europe and she went to see them and my other son and his wife and son also went to see them in Zwolle. I remember my son saying that it was just like going visiting relatives. I guess h felt that because he got such a warm welcome. I just want to say one thing: about a year ago I got a letter from the Dutch Embassy in Ottawa, wanting to know about my time in Holland. They sent me a medal. A Dutch and Canadian flag, half of each and that was the last medal I got.  I’ve got 7 other ones.
Jack Anderson, West Thornbury, Ontario

Sergeant Jack Anderson
WWII Veteran
Royal Canadian Army

Liberator of the Netherlands