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Edmund Martin of Grand Falls will leave April 29 to join
other Second World War veterans of the Liberation of the
Netherlands, who will travel to Holland to attend
official commemorative events scheduled to take place
between May 3-8. More than 200,000 Canadians played a
vital role in liberating the Netherlands, pushing
the
German occupying troops out of the northeast and west of
the country and ending the threat of mass starvation
facing the Dutch people in the "Hunger Winter" of 1945.
More than 7,600 Canadians gave their lives during the
Liberation. As a result, sincere and profound ties of
friendship and respect between Canada and the
Netherlands exist to this day.In 1942, at the age of 17,
Edmund Martin enlisted in the Canadian Army and was
posted in Fredericton for basic training. He was later
stationed at other bases such as Borden, Ontario and
Debert, Nova Scotia where Martin and his unit awaited
embarkment from Halifax to their final destination of
Liverpool, England."Once overseas, we were transported
to various military camps for continuous training prior
to the Normandy Invasion," Martin stated in an interview
with The Victoria Star. "In early June, 1944, our unit
crossed the English Channel onto the coast of Normandy.
Alongside our allies, we fought our way through
Normandy, France, Belgium and Holland.""I will never
forget our landing in Normandy where we were bombarded
day and night for 20 days or so. We slept in a hole we
had dug in the ground. I was with a soldier from
Vancouver. He nicknamed me "Martin the Kid". After the
war, we lost touch.""We slept in our clothes. I remember
we did that for three weeks before showers were set up
in a nearby wooded area for us to wash and we were given
complete new clothing," Martin said. "We would come out
of the hole at night to get nourishment such as canned
food, Bulley beef, sardines, etc. Finally, when the
Germans were no longer in the area, we moved on. The
night was all lit up when the Germans were bombing
everywhere. They were doing everything they could for us
to go back to England. I will always remember Christmas
Day in 1944. My comrades and I found ourselves in an old
abandoned grist mill alongside a canal in Holland.
We hung tarpaulins to shield us from the wind and to
allow the cook to prepare the meal.
We shared our meager Christmas supper in the cold and
the dampness," Martin said."When we arrived in Holland,
the Germans were in strength. We were almost made
prisoners," Martin recalled.
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"As
the Germans approached on both sides, we were advised to
discard all of our weapons into the canal in the event
of an imminent capture. Fortunately for us, the
situation was averted with the arrival of
reinforcements. "Martin remembered one incident when a
high-ranking officer asked him to drive him in his jeep
to a tent unit nearby where there was a small hospital.
"We traveled on a country road. We had been traveling
for about 15 minutes when we saw a group of Canadian
soldiers to our right who had stopped some Germans near
a barn. While guns were trained on them, the Germans
were being searched for any weapons, etc. by the
Canadian soldiers. The officer told me that we were in
the wrong place and to turn around. We went back to our
unit. We had been going into enemy territory. I was
relying on him. I thought he would know where we were
going, but I think he was even more scared than I
was."Over the next few months, Martin and his fellow
soldiers went through one
hardship after another as they advanced through Holland.
"We were stationed in Nijmegen, Holland for a few days
while they were building a Bailey bridge to cross the
Rhine River and then enter Germany. The Germans were
firing upon us continuously," he said."I never slept in
a bed or ate at a table for 11 months. That's war and it
was hell," he said. Shrapnel from a bomb explosion
injured Martin in his right knee as well as a fellow
soldier. Both were taken to a mobile hospital. From
there, Martin was transferred to a Belgium hospital for
a short period of time and then transferred to a
hospital in Britain where he stayed for three months.” I
don't know whatever happened to the other soldier. I
lost contact with him after I was transferred to
Belgium," Martin said. "However, he would have survived
his injuries because he was not as seriously injured as
I was. I am sure he quickly recovered and returned to
action.” I returned to Canada on the Lady Nelson
hospital ship in August 1945. The war ended in Japan
while I was on that ship. I remember the doctors and
nurses telling us that the war was over. The Japanese
had surrendered to the Allieds," he stated.Martin has
kept contact with only one member of his former military
unit. "He lives in Halifax and we talk on the phone once
in a while.” It is an honor and a privilege to celebrate
the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of the Dutch
people. I am happy to be returning to the Netherlands in
a time of peace," Martin stated. |
