I was with 1st Canadian Division, I was with the Royal
Canadian Corps of Signal.
They weren’t a divisional strength, they are in every
unit, and every part of the command.
I was a signalman, the equivalent of a private. I am of
Dutch parentage, both my father and mother are from
Holland, both from Amsterdam. My grandmother was
from Groningen. She was married to my grandfather for 67
years! My parents came over in 1908, and I was born in
Canada. I joined the army in 1941. We went across
from Halifax, we’d call the ship the Drunken Duchess,
because it had to zigzag so much to avoid being
torpedoed. I got my training in England, I became an
expert of Morse code, and I became a signalman in the
Signal Corps. I served in England, Sicily in Italy, then
the 1st Division moved into France, and into the Black
Forest in Holland, I was there.
I had family still in Holland, I found my mother’s side,
not my dad’s side, my dad’s brothers perished in the
Belsen concentration camp.
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So that’s my background to Holland. There was a job to
do and we did it. I had reversed to being a dispatch
rider. My job was to take various packages of mail
down to headquarters, down to corps-headquarters, down
to regimental headquarters. As a dispatch rider, I rode
Harley’s in England and then BSA’s and other motorcycles
in Italy and Holland. We were considered “way
back.” Most of the time we were at least 3 miles
from the front lines. Sometimes you’d go up, but
most of the time we were quite a way back. Even today, I
still want to ride a bike. People think it’s
crazy, but I love bike riding. When the war ceased, we
were in Brabant, and then we moved into Rotterdam.
As soon as we had set up headquarters in Rotterdam, I
was given permission to take my own bike and to find the
family, which I then drove into Amsterdam to look for
the family. I don’t really want to remember anymore, or
be reminded of the war. It is very difficult to be
reminded, and at my old age I want to live a happy life.
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