We made the Germans make bread for the Dutch

Frank Barlow in Holland............ I joined the Regina Rifles 3rd Division at Antwerp.  From there I traveled down to Ghent, to Tilburg, to s’Hertogenbosh, to Nijmegen, and up to the Mooiland Woods.  Next I crossed the river to Emmerich, the Rhine and went north to Deventer.  Then I walked up to Zwolle and Steenwijk.  From there, I went northeast to Croningen then straight east to Leer and up to Emden and Aurich. The war was over on the eighth of May, 1945.  We had pushed the Germany Army all the way to Emden.  Then we had a few parades and a large Victory Parade at Utrecht.  We stopped at Leer, Germany then we went back to Utrecht. We set up a large bakery.  We made the Germans make bread for the Dutch.  I was on guard one morning when a bug German soldier came walking up to me.  I told him to halt which he did and then he started to talk in fluent English.  I asked him where he got his language from.  He said he farmed at Regina before the war and went to Germany to fight for his father land.  I told him that he was nuts.  He was going back to Canada if he could.  He thought he would go back to his farm but I don’t think he made it. The flour was shipped over from Canada.  After the war we had the prisoners doing the baking.  We had the meal truck come every three or four days and feed us.  We would get rice pudding sometimes.  We always had the Dutch children showing up when we had rice pudding and we would give it to them.  They would hold their hands out in a cup and we filled their hands full.  You could tell they were hungry.  We gave them all the chocolate we had.  I spent a lot of time in Utrecht.  I enjoyed my time in Holland. When I left Holland, I joined the American Army to help fight the Japanese Army.  I never got there because we dropped the big one.Of all the countries, we helped liberate, I enjoyed the Dutch more than any of them.




Frank Barlow - WWII Veteran ,  Liberator of the Netherlands