Victory in Holland

Heroes Remember

Victory in Holland

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Transcript

Yeah we took the last city in Holland, Apledoorn, that's where the war ended. You must have heard about that didn't you, Apledoorn? Interviewer: Yeah, tell me about it. Scared going in that night too because we didn't know what was in there. Well we, and they strafed us about, oh for about an hour and a half on the road going in and we all got down in the ditch. I don't know, I think we lost a couple of men. But we got into Apledoorn, we stayed there for a day I guess but the Germans left. Then we were outside of Apledoorn and dug another hole in the ground and that was May 8th. The war was over, holy jeez, you should have heard the screams and the hollers. Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah, that was a good sound when they said the war was over. Geez you couldn't believe it. Interviewer: Who do you think was the more excited, the Canadian troops or the Dutch people? Or what? Interviewer: Who was the happiest when they heard the war was out I guess everybody was happy. Yeah. There was a lot of people after war there stayed and moved in with Dutch people, like you know. People like the engineers that was there and the service corp was there after the war and they just stayed in private homes. Interviewer: So what did everyone do to celebrate? What did we do to celebrate? We had a big street dance there in Apledoorn, got drunk. Yeah. But I'm telling you, she's sure glad it was over.

Description

Mr. Durant speaks of the fall of the last German stronghold in Apeldoorn, Holland, and the celebrations that followed.

Lawrence Durant

Mr. Durant was born in Saint John, New Brunswick but moved to Prince Edward Island as a child and grew up in the Summerside area. His father was a peddler. He joined the army in May, 1943 and was sent to the Italian front where he saw action for the first time on the Anzio Beachhead. He was part of the forces that went on to Rome and forced its fall from German hands. He was also briefly part of the Devil's Brigade. With the West Nova Scotia Regiment, Mr. Durant saw action in France, Belgium and Holland where he took part in the fall of Apeldoorn. He briefly left the service after coming home, but enlisted again in 1950 and took part in three peacekeeping missions to Germany, Egypt and Korea. He was discharged in 1960 from the military and made his home in Charlottetown, PEI.

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