Canada remembers, 70 years after guns fell mostly silent and Germans surrendered
Posted May 5, 2015 2:48 am.
Last Updated May 5, 2015 8:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WAGENINGEN, Netherlands – It was 70 years ago today that the guns fell almost silent along the Canadian and British lines in Holland.
The war in northwestern Europe was almost over and Pte. Frank Graham, who’d fought with the Canadian 1st Division all of the way through Sicily, Italy and Holland, didn’t believe his ears.
The BBC had announced the ceasefire the night before, yet Graham, now 92, said he’d been disappointed by rumours before.
It was only when Col.-Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz, commander of all German forces in the Netherlands and Denmark showed up at a smashed and ruined hotel in Wageningen that it became clear it was actually happening.
Canadian General Charles Foulkes accepted the surrender in a simple signing ceremony, which was to be followed two days later by the more formal unconditional surrender of all German forces accepted by Allied Supreme commander U.S. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower at Reims, France.
Despite the general ceasefire on May 5, 1945 in the Canadian sector, troops continued to die for at least three more days, according to Canadian War Museum historian Jeff Noakes, who says at least eight casualties were recorded.
