The Liberation of the Netherlands during World War II (1944 – 45)

Watch the LIBERATION SERIES: THE LIBERATION OF FRANCE: https://youtu.be/QJ9mshYAH38 THE LIBERATION OF BELGIUM: https://youtu.be/Vh_GduTpjN8 THE CONQUEST OF WESTERN GERMANY: https://youtu.be/nqjVGk_qUqM

My grandparents spoke of this time often. My grandmother ate Tulip bulbs that her mother had made into a sort of pancake - she experienced true hunger. It's hard to imagine. My grandpa was more fortunate, his family owned a bakery, and thru it all, they still had bread to eat. Thank you for your content - I cherish this channel as my grandparents are dead and I can no longer ask them questions about this stuff

My father was in the Canadian Army and was part of the libration of Holland. I finally got him to tell me of his experience 50 years after the war (he wouldn't do so before this). He uncharacteristically started crying when he talked about seeing starving Dutch children. I had never seen him cry before.

Great respect for the Canadians! They have been the main Liberators of the Netherlands but never got the credit the Americans and the British got. 🇨🇦🇳🇱🇨🇦

YAY Canada! Holland still sends us boatloads of tulips every year on liberation day.🇨🇦

My dad was one of the few lucky GIs who got to the Netherlands. He was in Rotterdam. Stephen Ambrose, the historian of GIs in the European Theater, took an unofficial and unscientific poll of the GIs he knew. He asked who they liked the best. For those lucky guys like my dad liked the Dutch best. Overall, the GIs liked the Germans best. The people they disliked the most. Wait for it. The French.

My hometown of 's-Hertogenboch (in the south of the Netherland), was liberated by a regiment of Wales and one of Poland. Last year that liberation was 75 years ago. There was a big celebration and the last surviving members of the Welsh regiment were there. I m a guide in the cathedra , Sint John's cathedral, and I was there during mass. It was something I will never forget. There were a group grandchildren of the liberators who said the names of those who died to give us back our freedom. It was a very beautiful sunny day, but at the moment they said the first name the sun went away. And these 4 very frail men were sitting there in front of us. We will be forever in their debt. A memorial stone was placed in the church to commemorate what they did for us and will be there for forever. As they will always be in our memories.

The allies tried to bomb the railway bridge in Deventer alot. But my grandmother said that there was a saying: you should hide underneath that bridge, because the allies never were able to hit it but bombed the city center instead with lots of casualties.

My Uncle (who has passed on years ago) fought in the Canadian 1st Army Liberating the Dutch people from the Nazis in the Scheldt in Zeeland... he always used to tell me and my friends about the Wehrmacht unit who was surrendering to them after a quick fight, and an SS unit behind THEM opened fire with a machine gun on their own German countrymen for surrendering!!!

My grandfather and his brother fought in the Battle of the Scheldt with the Black Watch of Canada. Sadly, his brother, who was only 22, never returned home after being killed by a German grenade. He is buried at the Bergen Op Zoom cemetery. My grandfather was injured by that same grenade, but even though he survived, this haunted him for the rest of his life 😢

That was a great review of the battle Stefan. My Dad's last posting was in Breda. Royal Netherland Brigade(Princes Irene) he was on Bomb Disposal and Salvage till April 1946. I have his book, 'Holland and the Canadians' that was presented to him by his men. He was in Canada prior to hostilities and joined up with RNB in Stratford, Ont. in 1941. He was reserve as he was in the Dutch Army in WW1. My Grandfather(Utrecht) died in May 1945. Starvation, illness was to much for him. You had to scrounge for wood, even a casket he told me. Sad.

Your best yet, tells so much History about the Nederlands. Please keep those vidoes coming.

Ik kom zelf uit Breda, weer een zeer interessante video Stefan! Dank je wel

Just stumbled onto your channel. Keep up the good work!

Great video, I really like the detailed map of the allied offensive of the Netherlands. For me as a Pole it's sad that the the British government blamed the Poles for the failure of the operation. The overall British policy towards the Poles was really cynical, beside the fact that Poles were basically the only nation missing the London victory parade, the U.K government confiscated big part of the gold evacuated from Poland in 1939 as "compensation" for the usage of British airports during the battle of England. The fact that it was the Poles who broke the enigma code was only made public in 1999 when Poland joined NATO, before that the British claimed it. Anyway I digress, good luck with future videos I really enjoy them.

Great video! Can you make a video on the south eastern part and operation mallard in november 44 (to venlo) and the push to the maas with overloon? Grüße!

saw you comment somewhere else,click on your name and now i have a whole new chanel to watch.thank you dude and have fun doing this

An in-depth video about the battle of Overloon would be welcomed. One of the few major battles fought on Dutch soil. I did not know about the battle for Groningen-stad. Thanks for that bit of history. I do know that er was a hard fought battle in Friesland when the Allies approached the Afsluitdijk.

Just found your channel. I was stationed at Schinnen Mijn near Maastricht. It was an ironic assignment for me, as I've always been a history student, and Gen Patton and his 3d Army came through this area on their way to fight it out at Achen. I come from Gen Patton's home town in Southern California.

That was very informative. Thank you. Please let me know if the closed captioning gets updated. I'm hearing impaired and could not follow everything that was said.