An “Eternal Memorial for Canadian Heroes” The Dutch Town of Putte Commemorates the Essex Scottish Regiment
Andrew Horrall
.P. Stacey’s official history, The the Germans abandoned Antwerp, Abstract: Twelve members of the Victory Campaign, records the Europe’s largest and busiest port C Essex Scottish Regiment were events of October 1944 at the Belgian- killed at the Belgian-Dutch border on the 4th, convincing many Dutch Dutch border town of Putte with this town of Putte on 5 October 1944 that their liberation was imminent. sentence; “on the 5th Putte fell to the in one of the Scheldt campaign’s On the following morning national Essex Scottish after stiff fighting and opening engagements. Three years flags and orange banners were later, as Prime Minister Mackenzie our troops crossed the Netherlands unfurled throughout Holland; King passed through Putte at the 1 frontier.” Equally brief passages in start of his first official visit to the workers stayed home to welcome war diaries, contemporary reports, Netherlands, the town presented the Allied troops, and panicked Nazi unit histories and memoirs document him with a china plate bearing the occupiers prepared to flee. But the a short skirmish that has not been, names of the men who had died there. Allies stopped at Antwerp, and the Putte’s modest, heartfelt gesture was and does not deserve to be, inscribed premature Dutch national euphoria the first official tribute that Canada’s alongside Vimy, Dieppe and Ortona leader received on Dutch soil, and became known as Dolle Dinsdag, or in the nation’s memory. Nevertheless, provides insights into little-explored Mad Tuesday.3 a china plate that the mayor of ways in which the Second World War Though the Belgian underground Putte presented to Prime Minister continues to be commemorated. had prevented the destruction of Mackenzie King in 1947 contrasts in Antwerp’s port, the Allies were striking and significant ways with unable to advance further as the “national” commemorative activities. September 1939, arrived in England Germans retained control of the These large scale memorials and the following summer and lost almost Scheldt River, which flows from ceremonies have been extensively three quarters of its strength during the city in a broad one-hundred studied, while Putte’s modest gesture the raid on Dieppe on 19 August kilometre northwesterly sweep to points to a relatively unexplored 1942. After rebuilding in England, the North Sea.4 The estuary was period at war’s end when Europeans the regiment returned to France in heavily mined, while much of the expressed deep personal thanks July 1944 and took part in some of reclaimed farmland to the southwest directly to their liberators. This the Normandy campaign’s heaviest had been purposely flooded. The aspect of the plate’s meaning and fighting. The regiment returned to northeast bank was dominated importance has been lost over the Dieppe on 1 September 1944, by by the well-defended Walcheren intervening years, but like similar which point only seven veterans of Island. Faced with the formidable objects in Canadian collections, the the 1942 raid remained.2 Residents challenge of opening the river, plate retains the power to greatly poured into the streets, as Canadian British Field Marshal Bernard Law enhance our understanding of the troops held a memorial service Montgomery advocated for a swift, Second World War’s impact and and march-past, which reflected a war-ending push to the northeast, immediate aftermath. growing sense that victory was at into Germany’s industrial heartland. The Essex Scottish Regiment hand. Paris had already been freed. This was Operation Market Garden, mobilized at Windsor, Ontario in Brussels fell on 3 September and the airborne assault on the bridges
© Canadian Military History, Volume 20, Number 3, Summer 2011, pp.3-18. 3 that crossed the rivers of Holland, which would begin on 17 September. Meanwhile, the Essex Scottish reached the Belgian seaside resort of Ostend on 8 September, and settled into positions on Antwerp’s northern edge overlooking the fortified town of Merxem a week later. By this time, the Allies were focussed on Market Garden, so the minimally supplied Canadian units in Antwerp were ordered to hold the well entrenched Germans in check. Thus began what
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) PA 168683 PA Canada (LAC) Library and Archives Toronto Star correspondent Ross Munro called a “weird war,” in which central Antwerp seemed unaware of the patrolling, skirmishing and intermittent shelling in the suburbs.5 Regiments like the Essex Scottish benefitted from this relative lull by sending large numbers of men on leave, turning Antwerp into a “Canadian town” where the liberators were feted with drinks and previously unavailable foods.6 But the men were acutely aware that the war lay at the tram line’s end. They drank heavily as discipline and morale ebbed.7 On 27 September, two days after Market Garden’s failure, Montgomery announced that opening Antwerp’s LAC PA 137920 PA LAC port was now “absolutely essential before we can advance deep into Germany.”8 This was the signal for the brilliant young Canadian Lieutenant- General Guy Simonds, commander of II Canadian Corps and temporarily in command of the First Canadian Army, to implement his plan for simultaneously capturing both banks of the Scheldt. Walcheren’s massive centuries-old dykes and the heavily fortified coastal artillery ruled out a maritime invasion, forcing Simonds to conclude that the battle-weary Canadian infantry would have to capture the town of Woensdrecht before forcing its way along the causeway that ran from the town to Top: Soldiers of the Essex Scottish Regiment occupy a 9 fort in Antwerp’s docks, 30 September 1944. Walcheren. On 2 October the Essex Scottish Above: Dutch girls give an enthusiastic reception to soldiers of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division following the liberation of Beveland, October 1944. moved north from Antwerp, relieved that they had “finally succeeded in
4 getting off our backsides” and into terrain less suitable for a land assault; barely keep pace with the retreat, the street-to-street fight for Merxem, the earthen dyke banks and small though correspondents reported which lay at the base of the road to groups of trees provided the only more ominously that elite units were Woensdrecht.10 Casualties were light meagre cover, while the Germans had being rushed into positions behind because the town was defended by flooded many of the polders, forcing these disheartened troops.14 troops recuperating from stomach the Canadians to advance atop the Belgian civilians flooded into the wounds or digestive troubles. The narrow dykes, which had been streets of towns and hamlets, flashing men of the Essex Scottish were strewn with mines and roadblocks. Churchillian Victory signs, waving contemptuous of this “Stomach One soldier characterised it as hand-made British and Canadian Ulcer battalion…who, having built “squirt-gun territory,” adding that flags, clambering on vehicles and many of the fortifications around “it’s a straight infantry job working showering their liberators with Antwerp, were abandoned by the through this tough district where kisses, food and alcohol. These Nazis and told to defend what they it’s practically impossible to employ rapturous celebrations slowed the had made. They were a uniformly armour, and where it’s difficult to get advance, but the mostly unilingual miserable type and were only too a good artillery observation post.”12 Canadians, who had struggled to glad to give in when rooted out of Despite their defensive converse with civilians in “sledge their positions.”11 By nightfall on 3 advantages, the Germans were hammer” French since Normandy, October, the regiment was bedded forced back by the attackers’ speed found that many Flemish people down on Merxem’s northern edge. and strength. Growing Canadian spoke passable English.15 The men brimmed with confidence was reinforced by a steady By mid-afternoon the Essex confidence as they set out on the road stream of prisoners who proved Scottish had advanced approximately to Woensdrecht at 0800 hours the to be a mix of hardened troops ten kilometres and established their following morning. Warm sunshine and “youthful, embryonic marines, headquarters in the town of Stabroek, bathed a landscape of low-lying transferred to infantry only after while four kilometres to the south- polders hemmed by dykes and the fall of Brussels and showing no east, the 4th Field Regiment, Royal causeways that hold back the North liking for army life.”13 Canadian staff Canadian Artillery, set up its guns Sea. It would be hard to imagine officers boasted that the men could near the town of Cappellen. The day’s Map drawn by Mike Bechthold ©2011 Bechthold Mike by drawn Map
5 overriding sense of ease and elation entrenched along the main road in a consolidated the position.21 Putte was tempered by patrol reports series of machine gun nests. Snipers was free. Belgian and Dutch civilians that the Germans were reinforcing pinned the flanking companies in the swarmed into the streets to thank positions at Putte “a long, skinny fields.17 In the Toronto Star’s words, their exhausted liberators. The price town,” whose only distinguishing the Germans had begun “making the had been high; about two-thirds of feature was that the Belgian-Dutch supreme effort to deprive the allies of “B” Company’s 150 or so men were border cut it in half. Divisional and the use of the great port of Antwerp casualties. Twelve Canadians were brigade headquarters were unfazed, as long as possible.”18 dead, along with three resistants.22 The believing that Putte’s defences were The Canadians advanced from town had been physically smashed. meant only to slow the advance.16 gun pit to gun pit amid German shells Canadian newspapers briefly In a sombre omen for the day’s and mortars. As they neared the trumpeted the place where the actions, it was cloudy and cold as town centre, the 4th Field Regiment’s nation’s forces had first entered the the Essex Scottish set out at dawn on forward observation officer, Captain Netherlands, causing one wit to send 5 October. “B” Company advanced Ted Adams and wireless operator, this quip to the Toronto Star: “The straight up the road to Putte, flanked Bombardier Ernie Hodgkinson, Canadian Forces have reached Putte. by “A” and “C” Companies which clambered up the church tower to But they won’t stay Putte.”23 He was moved across soggy open country to direct their guns.19 By mid-afternoon, right. On the bright sunny morning the west. Defensive fire intensified as “B” Company was “holding on following the battle, the Essex “B” Company neared Putte, where desperately” to the crossroads, before Scottish began clearing the fields to they encountered 14 members of the a determined German counterattack the east of town, while other units Belgian resistance, who informed drove them out of town, stranding pressed north towards Woensdrecht. them about the German positions Adams and Hodgkinson in the aerie The war became grimmer with and stayed to fight. The last vestiges from which they continued guiding these first footsteps on Dutch soil, of Canadian levity disappeared the artillery.20 At five in the evening because by deliberately flooding at about mid-morning, when “B” “D” Company charged into Putte the country’s agricultural heart, the Company entered the town to find and, when tanks could not move up, Germans had caused acute food “a hard crust of enemy on all sides” the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry shortages.24 Troops were shocked by
A 25-pounder on the bank of the Scheldt River north of Antwerp fires in support of the Canadian advance, 2 October 1944.
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A line of Sherman tanks from the Fort Garry Horse sit outside of Putte on 6 October 1944.
the sight of malnourished children But that was not the end of the nations that had fought the war. The and as one veteran remembered, story for either soldiers or civilians. important common element to the it “was like crossing from daylight Over the past three decades scholars majority of these sites is that they into darkness....Until we crossed have explored how communities commemorate the communities that into Holland, we had never seen mourned and commemorated the erected them, or the localities in starvation.”25 dead, positing that the huge losses which they stand.27 The action at Putte was of life in the First World War lead After 1945 though, indistinguishable from many of the to the “invention” of dominant commemorative activities in Canada war’s other small battles. Canadian traditions in the inter-war years. and Western Europe diverged forces suffered significant casualties These formalized commemoration significantly. Existing Canadian in a swift, violent fight for a town around physical sites like Imperial cenotaphs were rededicated with no great strategic importance. War Graves Commission cemeteries to include the recent war, while When it was over, the Canadian dead and ritualized observances like commemorative programs focused were buried under wooden crosses Remembrance Day ceremonies. on reintegrating veterans into civilian in Putte’s churchyard, while the A widespread commemorative life. By contrast, countries like France, survivors enjoyed the townspeople’s urge also saw memorials alluding Belgium and Holland that had gratitude. Adams and Hodgkinson to classical and mythic martial suffered “unprecedented military earned, respectively, the Military triumph, Christian martyrdom and defeat, humiliating occupation and Cross and Military Medal for their resurrection, and romanticized liberation by foreign armies…a triple sang froid. Much deadlier Scheldt notions of Mother Canada erected demonstration of national impotence” battles soon pushed Putte from public in public buildings, churches, used physical memorials to promote memory, though Canadian units parks and town squares across the idealised notions of wartime continued using the town as a rest country. Similar monuments were political consensus and resistance.28 centre.26 just as ubiquitous in the European European political leaders felt that
7 Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies Air Photo Collection 0197-4029 Military and Disarmament Studies Air Photo Laurier Centre for Strategic
8 such occupation myths were crucial for rebuilding post-war states. But because these nations’ armed forces had played so little part in the war – the Dutch had fought for only five days – post-1945 commemorative activities also emphasized close ties
to their liberators as psychological 177677 PA LAC and physical bulwarks of security.29 Nevertheless, relatively little is known about how Europeans commemorated their liberators after the first euphoric flush of freedom gave way to the pressing preoccupations of rebuilding lives and nations. The greatest challenge to commemorating people from outside one’s community is that the relationship between liberator and local inhabitant was typically fleeting and anonymous. Troops rarely stayed long in liberated areas and language impeded communication. Dutch women place flowers on the graves of Canadian soldiers during the initial Contemporary observers noted that commemorative service at Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery, 5 May 1946. during and immediately after the Scheldt battles, Belgian and Dutch civilians reached out spontaneously less than a year after the German body. Over the coming decades, by placing flowers on Canadian capitulation, the cemetery at Bergen- Dutch royals, masses of civilians and graves. At least one veteran retained op-Zoom, where many of Canada’s Canadian officials gathered in one of vivid images of a woman who dead from the Scheldt campaign several cemeteries to commemorate walked out on the dykes “every had been reburied, had become the the Liberation.33 day, regardless of the shelling, she’d centre of remembrance activities in All of this was new in the go there and tended the graves of Holland. In the spring of 1946, Pierre Netherlands, which had remained our dead. White crosses were put Dupuy, Canada’s ambassador to The neutral during the First World War there with the names on them. So it Hague, organized a commemorative and had last fought in the Napoleonic was quite dramatic.”30 Such gestures religious service and wreath-laying age. Unlike most Europeans, the were extremely risky personal at the cemetery. Prince Bernhard, Dutch were unfamiliar with military commemorations of strangers who who had commanded Holland’s medals, parades, monuments and had died liberating people and places small London-based military force, ceremonies, while their austere they had barely known. represented his country, while he world-view disdained glorifying Almost immediately after the war and Dupuy asked Ottawa to send an personal deeds. In the 18 months such individual, emotional tributes equally senior representative. Despite after the war the Dutch government were superseded by formal, national their request, a lowly Canadian took a dirigiste approach to commemoration. Most importantly, brigadier looked on as hundreds commemoration by creating an countries like Canada exhumed the of Dutch children placed flowers aesthetic standard for memorials that dead from the scattered graveyards on the graves, and many more banned allusions to martial prowess, in which they had been hastily civilians turned out to personally or listing individuals. Monuments buried and reinterred them within thank their liberators.32 Six months that contravened these rules were the precincts of Commonwealth later the Dutch government tacitly demolished. war cemeteries. Doing so reasserted endorsed cemeteries as the main Some people favoured a First World War decision that locus for commemorative activities, less constrained approaches to the dead should lie amongst their by establishing the Netherlands War commemorating their liberators. comrades, rather than where they Graves Commission as a national Immediately after the war, the had been killed.31 As a result, partner to the Commonwealth Dutch cabinet fiercely debated
9 decorating the Allied soldiers monthly magazine that the Canadian Holland’s national war memorial was who had freed the country, when embassy helped produce.38 unveiled in that city.40 Streets and similar awards were not planned Meanwhile, Canadian troops squares throughout the country were for the country’s own troops.34 The became impatient with the speed renamed for the liberating forces. issue was resolved by September, of repatriation – 70,000 remained Before long, this impetus reached when the Dutch government asked in Holland at the end of November across the ocean to encompass the Ottawa for permission to distribute 1945. They enjoyed a friendly and Canadians who wanted to see a Netherlands War Service Cross to thankful but unequal and sometimes where their sons and daughters all Canadian military personnel who tense relationship with the Dutch. had died. Prior to 1939, families had had contributed to the Liberation. Liberation had removed the threat of visited First World War battlefields Canadian political and military starvation, but supplies of all kinds and cemeteries on organized leaders weighed the idea until early were scarce and Canadians had access “pilgrimages” and self-guided tours. winter, when they rejected it on to food, cigarettes and consumer Such trips became more common the grounds that it would be too goods, while Dutch women were after 1945 as the Canadian economy difficult to identify the approximately attracted to the tough, well-muscled boomed, making international travel 300,000 eligible men and women.35 soldiers. Some Dutch people begged ever more accessible. To assist these Meanwhile, the Dutch government or offered favours for food, while travellers, the Netherlands War invited citizens to record direct some Canadians made huge profits Graves Commission matched them personal messages of thanks for their trading everything from typewriters with Dutch families who opened Canadian liberators in a national and socks, to cigarettes and potatoes their homes as a way of personally commemorative album. On the on the black market. Many Canadians recognizing the sacrifices that first anniversary of Liberation the were billeted with Dutch families, strangers had made in liberating their album, containing signatures from while interactions between civilians localities.41 the Royal Family and 40,000 others, and soldiers were facilitated by This interplay between national, was entrusted to Canadian diplomats organizations like the Entertainment local and “personal” commemorative for shipment to Ottawa. There the Committee of the Netherlands, which impulses makes the battle of Putte Dutch ambassador intended to was founded in Amsterdam just interesting because in November present it to the prime minister with after the Liberation with the aim of 1947 its citizens were the first Dutch an explicit request that it be added pairing every Canadian with French people to salute their liberators in the to Canada’s memorial collection. or English-speaking Dutch hosts presence of Prime Minister Mackenzie Unfortunately, the album was lost in for the Committee’s regular social King, Canada’s wartime leader. King transit and never recovered, despite functions. Branches soon opened had first travelled to Europe after the an exhaustive military court of wherever Canadians were stationed. war to attend the 1946 Paris peace enquiry.36 Travel around the country was also negotiations accompanied by the At the same time, a host of eased by the civilian bus system that young diplomat Charles Ritchie who extra-governmental commemorative the Canadian military operated until bristled at working for an old man initiatives were launched. For the end of 1945 to replace Holland’s who was “principally concerned with instance, the Canadian-Netherlands shattered national rail network.39 petty fiddle-faddle about his personal Committee was formed immediately Ongoing close association led arrangements.”42 Such sentiments after the Liberation to create “a towns and localities across the might have held true the following commemorative gift which could country to directly thank Canadians. November, when King embarked be kept by each individual recipient Among such commemorations, on a valedictory European tour. and which would give expression to the town of Eelde presented a He attended Princess Elizabeth’s the admiration and gratitude of the gold medal to the New Brunswick wedding in London and received the Dutch.”37 Working with Canadian Hussars in 1945, Leeuwarden gave Order of Merit, which he accepted as Army public relations officials, the “two beautiful old plates of Friesian a collective commemoration of the committee produced Holland and the chinaware” to the Canadian embassy sacrifices of individual Canadians.43 Canadians, a heavily-illustrated book in 1946, the Hoogeven Police Society From London, he set out for that was distributed free to Canadian rechristened a hiking trail after the continent believing that he saw veterans. By the time it appeared General Harry Crerar, while a maple “Providence smiling upon us as we in mid-1946, 5,000 members of the tree honouring Canada, dubbed the go on our mission of international Netherland-Canada Society were “Tree of Liberty” was planted in The friendship to the peoples of Europe.”44 learning about Canada through a Hague in July 1946, a decade before Despite repeated invitations since
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The mayor of Putte (left) presents the Delft china plate honouring the 12 men of the Essex Scottish Regiment killed in the liberation of their village to Prime Minister Mackenzie King, 12 November 1947.
1945, King had not yet visited “do my utmost to have the people arch had been erected over the road, Belgium or the Netherlands. He of Canada appreciate something declaring that 12 Canadian soldiers arrived in Brussels on 10 November of what I was feeling.”46 King had lost their lives liberating the to accept an honorary degree from the repeatedly declared that he accepted town. King alighted to be greeted by city’s Université Libre on behalf, as he these ostensibly personal honours representatives of the Dutch royal put it, “of the people of Canada and to commemorate the sacrifices of family, the government and Putte’s as a sign of the abiding friendship and individual Canadians. mayor.47 The mayor made a short good will between our countries.” On Immediately following the speech before presenting King with the following morning King took part ceremony at Louvain, King left by a Delft china plate, to the back of in Belgium’s national Remembrance car for The Hague, passing through which had been affixed a lion-shaped Day ceremony, telling his royal Antwerp and then tracing the route silver plaque bearing the inscription hosts at dinner that night that he the Essex Scottish had marched “Eternal memorial for Canadian accepted that country’s honours on three years earlier. Accompanying heroes” and the names of the men behalf of Canada’s armed forces.45 journalists noted the continuing who had died there. He received a second degree on the personal relationship between locals The gift perplexed King who was 12th, proclaiming to the University and their liberators evident as people accustomed to receiving honours on of Louvain that the honour attested spontaneously stood to attention as Canada’s behalf. But he was unsure to the “place her (Canada’s) sons they recognized the Canadian flag how to respond to a whistle-stop held in the hearts and minds of the affixed to the hood of King’s passing ceremony in a foreign town during people of this land in their struggle car. At five in the evening the small which local dignitaries presented for freedom,” and insisting he would convoy reached Putte, where an him with an object that most closely
11 resembled the mundane expressions with the Essex Scottish the following of civic pride he received on month, buried all but one of the domestic political campaigns. dead in its churchyard, written Moreover, the plate did not letters of condolence to their bear King’s name and so, families and helped disburse unlike with his recent their estates. Cardy did personal honours, his not see the 1947 roadside diary entry was an ceremony, though. He unemotional account had stayed in the army of receiving “a very after being awarded the fine china plate, on the Military Cross in 1945 reverse side of which, and was stationed at on a silver plaque, were Camp Borden, Ontario. inscribed the names of the He almost certainly read men who gave their lives to about the plate in one of the liberate that community.” brief Canadian newspaper Still, he recorded that the reports, but unlike any roadside reception was “a member of the prime minister’s very touching sight, particularly entourage, Cardy understood as the evening was drawing to its that the plate was a significant and close and daylight was fading.”48 As intimate tribute to his comrades.50 the brief ceremony ended, he handed An examination of the men’s the plate to an aide before driving following April. Cardy shared the military service files allows us to ten kilometres further north to the men’s danger. He was never far glimpse what Cardy knew about cemetery at Bergen-op-Zoom where from the front as Canadians learned them. They had all been born in the men identified on the Putte plate in September 1944, when the Toronto Canada, hailed from urban and rural are buried. The formality of national Star described him clambering up a parts of five provinces and ranged in commemoration was reasserted captured German bunker near Ostend age from 19 to 36. Four were married, within that officially sanctioned space to run his personal Union Jack up the while one was divorced. Ten were in the pitch dark as King laid a wreath flagpole.49 Cardy had entered Putte Protestant and two Catholic. The honouring Canada’s sacrifice. least educated had achieved Since roughly 7,000 grade two, while none had Canadians had been killed completed high school. One liberating the Netherlands, had joined in 1939, but most it is understandable that had spent less than two years in King did not immediately uniform. None had taken part in recognize the significance of a the Dieppe raid or risen higher plate that named a handful of PA152003 LAC than lance corporal. Only two men who had died in a long- had been charged with minor forgotten battle at an otherwise military offences and none was inconsequential crossroads. ever decorated for conspicuous But the plate demonstrated service. In other words, any that the 12 men were deeply important to the people of Putte, Top: The Putte Delft china plate is because they had died liberating now on display at Laurier House their home. This might never in Ottawa. (Photo by author) have been acknowledged by Bottom: Chaplain Joseph Cardy Canadian officials, if not for (left) offers a cigarette to a Captain Joseph Cardy, an private of the Essex Scottish. Anglican curate from Toronto Cardy convinced Prime Minister Mackenzie King to inform the who had joined the Chaplain families of the men killed at Putte Corps in 1942 and been posted about the town’s tribute. to the Essex Scottish the
12 Photo taken by author by taken Photo
Looking north along the main road through Putte as it appeared in 2007. The Belgian-Dutch border crosses the middle of the photo and is marked by the flags on the right. The Essex Scottish advanced up this street clearing German machine gun nests before entering the Netherlands at the intersection. The street entering from the left is Canadalaan, “Canada Avenue.”
one of them could have illustrated Ontario, who enlisted in June 1942 24-year-old Great Lakes mariner the average Canadian soldier. Their and married six months later.52 from Port McNicoll, Ontario. heroism was not embedded in He was a “good infantry man” individual deeds, but in having died Private Richard Alfred Cline, who left school in grade nine on military service, which Canada a “frank and pleasant” 21-year- after playing “hookey now and had recognized by interring them old warehouse worker from again,” and enlisted in May 1942. among their comrades at Bergen- Saint John, NB. He was a keen Chaplain Cardy was especially op-Zoom. At the same time, Cardy athlete who left school when his close to Crooke; saying private perceived that by dying together, father abandoned the family, prayers over his grave and letting these otherwise unexceptional men and attested in January 1943. He his parents know that their son had imprinted themselves lastingly survived a head wound about a had been killed while approaching on a small town that they had seen at month before he was killed.53 Putte.55 most for a few terrifying hours, and where they had been buried for over Lance Corporal John William Private James William Fradgley, a year. They were: Cook, an “easygoing, confident” a 22-year-old “quiet, reserved and but “quick-tempered” machinist agreeable” labourer from London, Private Alfred Hiram Balson, from Toronto, who enlisted at age Ontario who enlisted in February a 20-year-old machinist with 18 in March 1943 hoping to be a 1942. He was a natural mechanic “above-average ability” from paratrooper. His youth, nervous with a passion for cars. His parents Weston, Ontario, who enlisted in stutter and nail-biting convinced visited his grave in 1954.56 February 1943. A shoulder wound the army that he was unsuitable in late July 1944 kept him out of the for the airborne, so they assigned Lance Corporal John Edward line for three weeks.51 him to an “experimental ski troop” Leclair, a 36-year-old stevedore in Saskatchewan. He married from Saint John, New Brunswick Private Howard Dean his long-time sweetheart just six who enlisted in October 1939. Chamberlain, a “very quiet months before he died.54 Having quit school at age ten, and unassuming” bespectacled he was only marginally suitable 35-year-old farmer, truck driver Lance Corporal Robert James for overseas service and left five and mechanic from Peterborough, Crooke, known as “Chick,” was a young children.57
13 Top right: Private Berkley Mitchell, a 32-year-old farmer from Walpole County, Ontario, was killed on 5 October 1944 at Putte. Canadian Virtual War Memorial Top left: Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s letter to the families of the men killed at Putte. A copy was placed on each man’s service file. LAC RG24 vol.26627 Private William Murray Majury, a 26-year-old from Amaranth, Above right: Private Mitchell’s original grave marker in Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery. The markers on the men’s graves in Putte’s churchyard would have been very similar. LAC RG24 Manitoba who had worked as a vol.26627 mechanic on an RCAF base for six months before attesting in November 1943.58 his family continued receiving Corner, near Edmonton and could letters from him, they contacted not wait to go to war. He was a Private Berkley Mitchell, a the army which announced “bright and wide awake soldier” “cheerful and well-adjusted” apologetically on 20 September flagged at attestation as a future 32-year-old farmer from Jarvis, that he was, in fact, alive. He was NCO. He had only just turned 20 Ontario who attested in September killed two weeks later.59 when he was killed, even though 1943 and married two months later. he had been in uniform since Mitchell was declared missing in Lance Corporal George Earle 1941. Almost exactly one month action on 27 August 1944. When Patterson came from Beach before his death the army had
14 discovered that he had added Though very little distinguishes there is no indication of the families’ two years to his age at attestation. these men from thousands of others reactions. But because trained soldiers were who fought for Canada, Cardy had King’s letter also announced his desperately needed and Patterson known them as individuals and “intention to see that this memorial was now old enough to fight, felt that Putte’s tribute deserved plate becomes a permanent possession military authorities had simply to be recognized. Therefore, at of our nation,” acknowledging for the written the correct birth date in the start of December he sent a first time that it had a place in national his service file.60 letter to Mackenzie King via Army commemoration. But the letter had Headquarters asking the prime been prepared by aides and signed Private Charles Herbert “Charlie” minister to write directly to the by King on a day that he struggled Reid, a 26-year-old “well- family of each soldier named on the with a massive backlog of work, knit” athletic man who liked plate.63 The adjutant-general heartily dictated a speech for the upcoming outdoor activities and played the concurred, advising King’s private Liberal leadership convention, fiddle. He had drifted east from secretary that “such a gesture on the attended a wedding and received Saskatchewan after his marriage part of the Prime Minister would be various political supporters.66 The collapsed. He operated a crane gratefully received by the next of kin plate’s subsequent fate reflects King’s in a Hamilton steel mill, loved as a memento of the supreme sacrifice fleeting attention. It is displayed amid heavy machinery and attested in made by their loved ones.”64 King his massive accumulation of personal September 1943 hoping to drive agreed, and on 16 January 1948 wrote possessions at Ottawa’s Laurier a tank.61 the families, telling them about “an House, the national historic site that unusual tribute...by the people of the was home to King and his predecessor Private Russell Richard Soble, village of Putte, in Holland, of their Sir Wilfrid Laurier. It would be unjust a 19-year-old carpenter’s helper heartfelt gratitude to your _____ and and melodramatic to argue that the from Ameliasburg, Ontario. He his comrades for their heroic sacrifice plate has languished, or to deny attested in January 1942, was in the cause of freedom.”65 Copies that it is a “permanent possession” judged “an able and efficient of the correspondence generated by of Canada, but its physical location soldier” and trained as a Cardy’s request were also placed reflects the ongoing difficulty in motorcyclist.62 on each man’s service file, although understanding its meaning and
The inscription on the memorial to the men of the Essex Scottish Regiment killed in and around Putte in October 1944 reads: Across the frontiers of countries | Across the frontier of fear | Across the frontier of occupation | Across the frontier of life | Led their path to our freedom. Photo by J.A. Robertson by Photo
15 value. In contrast to the no evidence that Putte’s military and religious officials contacted symbolism embedded Mackenzie King’s in permanent, office directly, but they immutable marble and must have had enough granite memorials, the warning of when he Delft plate is a type would cross the frontier of fragile household to commission the plate pottery almost and erect the arch. exclusively identified Organizing such a with the woman’s project could not have sphere of home and been simple in a country hearth, rather than with centralized transcendent male government control ideals of martial over commemoration, sacrifice. It also in a country still resembles mass- devastated by war produced Dutch tourist and struggling with souvenirs. And finally, the earliest stages of it is a political keepsake; reconstruction.68 The a quality emphasized citizens’ effort indicated by the huge variety their profound need to of objects amid which ally themselves with it is displayed. This their liberators. And, contrasts starkly with given the other ways the international in which the Dutch decorations and had hoped to connect Prime Minister Stephen Harper pays his respects during a May honorary degrees 2010 visit to the Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery directly with individual that prime ministers in the Netherlands Canadians, the people traditionally receive to of Putte likely expected reflect noble concepts. that King would tell the The intervening years have arranged collection of 44,000 similar men’s families about this tribute, and compounded this difficulty by files. The plate is even more physically place the plate within the national obscuring the men’s names, their isolated from the battle site and the collection. Chaplain Cardy, who connections to one another, and to Essex Scottish Regiment, whose had accompanied these men as they the town they liberated. Putte does independent identity disappeared in fought across Europe, made the not hold a place in the Canadian a 1954 amalgamation with the Kent prime minister briefly perceive this public memory, leaving little impetus Regiment. As a result, there is very intention. to trace the ways in which it has little chance that historians will ever As the generation that fought been commemorated. The silver compile a “group portrait” of Putte, the Second World War ages, plaque is affixed to the back of similar to the recent studies that commemorative activities have begun the plate, meaning that when it is have traced relationships between re-emphasizing this evanescent displayed, the dedication and the individuals, communities and iconic earlier focus on individuals and men’s names are not visible. Though battles.67 localities in “modest, but significant the men served in a single regiment, The men on the plate were only memorial” celebrations in which they hailed from disparate parts retrieved from anonymity because Europeans salute the foreign troops of a vast country and are buried Putte’s tribute was impromptu, they remember from long-ago.69 in three different sections of the but not unplanned. Though the 12 This includes Putte, which unveiled Bergen-op-Zoom cemetery. Their men were reinterred at Bergen-op- a brick memorial on the 50th military service files are preserved Zoom in early 1946, the townspeople anniversary of its liberation in 1994. in the National Capital Region, must have recorded the names on It lists 24 Canadians — those named geographically close to the plate, the crosses that had stood in their on the plate along with 12 who died but they are part of an alphabetically churchyard for over a year. There is near the town in the weeks after
16 the liberation.70 Commemorative in their predecessors’ war service, 2. Doug W. Mclntyre, “Pursuit to the Seine: The Essex Scottish Regiment and the Forêt activities sponsored by the Canadian though neither seems aware of the de la Londe“ Canadian Military History 7, government also attempt to convey tribute that Putte once reached out to no.1 (Winter 1998), p.72. intimate feelings of terror and joy, pay to them. 3. Denis and Shelagh Whitaker, Tug of War: The Allied Victory That Opened Antwerp struggle and liberation through The story of the Putte plate (Toronto: Stoddart, 2000), pp.64-65. reminiscences, march-pasts and demonstrates that local, personal 4. Whitaker, pp.55-56. For the Germans’ personal encounters with veterans. intimate commemorations continued understanding of Antwerp’s importance, see Terry Copp and Robert Vogel, Maple This trend reached its apogee in as national traditions emerged at the Leaf Route: Scheldt (Alma, Ontario: Maple May 2010 when Prime Minister end of the war. This was because Leaf Route, 1985), p.27. Stephen Harper celebrated the 65th formal ceremonies involving prime 5. R.W. Meanwell, 1 Battalion The Essex Scottish Regiment, 1939-1945 (Aldershot: anniversary of the liberation of the ministers and princes did not sate a Wellington Press, 1945), pp.1-46; Netherlands at Bergen-op-Zoom widespread need for the liberated to Whitaker, p.126; and Ross Munro, amid Dutch officials, veterans, directly thank the specific men and “Crazy Antwerp War Over Kids Play in Dugouts,” Toronto Star, 5 October 1944, and Canadian and Dutch school women who had freed them. Such p.1. children.71 expressions of personal thanks were 6. “Antwerp Civilians Go to War Front by The internet is an ever more often, like the Putte plate, modest and Tram,” Globe and Mail, 4 October 1944, p.3. 7. Whitaker, pp.134-35. important commemorative site ephemeral, at least in part because of 8. Stacey, p.379. because it enables individuals to Europe’s post-war impoverishment. 9 Lance Goddard, Canada and the Liberation of the Netherlands, May 1945 (Toronto: discover and celebrate their forebears’ Time has disconnected these items Dundurn, 2005), p.67; Whitaker, pp.105- service, and to make virtual links from the men and women they 106; Stacey pp.363, 370-371; and W.R. between public memorials and honoured, while the emotions they Plewman, “The War Reviewed,” Toronto Star, 5 October 1944, p.7. the most intimate, privately held originally conveyed have been 10. The quote is from Essex Scottish War keepsakes. This has the potential dulled, and knowledge of their Diary, 2 October 1944, Library and to make objects like the Putte plate existence has slipped from popular Archives Canada (LAC), RG24, vol.15061; also Meanwell, pp.31-51. increasingly important in shaping memory. This has transformed such 11. Essex Scottish War Diary, 2 October 1944. Canadians’ understanding of the objects from memorials into artefacts. See also Terry Copp, The Brigade: The Second World War. However, these However, as younger generations Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1939-1945 (Stoney Creek: Fortress, 1992), pp.135- types of objects that are undoubtedly rediscover family connections to the 136. held in public and private collections Second World War, tributes like the 12. The quote is from “Storm Over Leopold across Canada, have rarely if ever Putte plate can be re-deciphered and in Pre-dawn Charge,” Toronto Star, 6 October 1944, p.2. See also Headquarters played that role because technology reanimated to illuminate the service Second Canadian Infantry Division, alone cannot reconnect them with and sacrifices of individual Canadians War Diary, 4 October 1944, LAC, RG24, and to provide a fuller understanding vol.13751. the individuals and events they 13. Essex Scottish War Diary, 5 October commemorate. As an example, of the commemorative process. 1944. Mark Zuehlke, Terrible Victory: First among the most important internet Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13- November 6, 1944 tools is the Canadian Virtual War (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2007), Memorial, a government-sponsored Notes pp.172-173. resource that includes basic 14. W.R. Plewman, “The War Reviewed,” Toronto Star, 4 October 1944, p.7; and information about every Canadian The author would like to thank Dr. Amy “American Tanks Have Penetrated man and woman who died on active Tector, Dr. Bob McIntosh and Canadian Cologne Plain,” Toronto Star, 5 October service. The memorial was initially Military History’s anonymous readers for their 1944, p.1. comments on this article. Louise Hamelin 15. Zuehlke, pp.173-174; Geoffrey Hayes, populated with data from the Books of and Lorenzo Cotroneo from Laurier House “Where Are Our Liberators?: The Remembrance and the Commonwealth generously shared information about the Canadian Liberation of West Brabant,” Putte plate. War Graves Commission. Families Canadian Military History 4, no.1, (Spring 1995), p.9. For Sledge hammer French are encouraged to augment the site by see Lieutenant-Colonel J.F.C. Pangman posting photographs and documents 1. C.P. Stacey, Official History of the Canadian to Colonel Prince, 11 October 1944, Army in the Second World War. Volume III, to “bring a face to another name in the appendix to the Essex Scottish War Diary, The Victory Campaign: The Operations in October 1944. registry and honour the memory” of North-west Europe, 1944-1945 (Ottawa: 16. For the quote see George Blackburn, their forebears. Relatives of William Queen’s Printer, 1960), p.381. The most The Guns of Victory: A Soldier’s Eye View, complete description of the battle is Belgium, Holland, and Germany, 1944-45 Majury and Berkley Mitchell, who contained in Sandy Antal and Kevin (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1996), are listed on the Putte plate, have R. Shackleton, Duty Nobly Done: the p.53; also Headquarters Second Canadian Official History of the Essex and Kent added mementoes to their profiles.72 Infantry Division War Diary, 4 October Scottish Regiment (Windsor: Walkerville 1944, LAC, RG24, vol.13751; and Zuehlke, Both families are actively interested Publishing, 2006), pp.479-80 p.173.
17 17. 4th Canadian Infantry Brigade War Diary, in connection with the loss of the 54. LAC, RG24, vol.25632. 5 October 1944, LAC, RG24, vol.14096. Netherlands Commemorative Album, 55. LAC, RG24, vol.25671. 18. “Canadians Pour Over Leopold Isolating undated (likely 1946), LAC, RG24, vol.47- 56. LAC, RG24, vol.25899. Foe,” Toronto Star, 7 October 1944, p.1. 1, file HQC-186-46-9. 57. LAC, RG24, vol.26336. 19. Whitaker, p.152. 37. Norman Philips and J. Nikerk, Holland 58. LAC, RG24, vol.26544. 20. Essex Scottish War Diary 5 October 1944. and the Canadians (Amsterdam: Contact, 59. LAC, RG24, vol.26627. 21. 4th Canadian Infantry Brigade War Diary, ca. 1946), unnumbered pages. The cost of 60. LAC, RG24, vol.26770. 5 October 1944; Essex Scottish War Diary providing free copies to Canadians was 61. LAC, RG24, vol.26876. 5 October 1944; Zuehlke, pp.174-175, and defrayed by sales to Dutch civilians see 62. LAC, RG24, vol.27089. Blackburn, p.53. 18 December 1945, LAC, RG24, vol.12392, 63. Captain Joseph Cardy to Mackenzie King, 22. Zuehlke, p.174; Essex Scottish War Diary, file 4/Propaganda/2. 6 December 1947, LAC. A copy of all 9 October 1944. 38. H.F. Feaver, to unnamed, 12 July 1946, correspondence is found on the service 23. “A Little of Everything,” Toronto Star, 7 LAC, RG11, vol.4184, file Netherland- files of the men named on the plate. October 1944, p.6. Canada Monument. For the Netherland- 64. Major-General E.G. Weeks to J.W. 24. John MacCormac, “Swift Allied Success Canada Society 6 November and 18 Pickersgill, 5 January 1948, LAC. A copy Only Hope of Holland to Avert Complete December 1945, LAC, RG24, vol.12392, of all correspondence is found on the Ruin,” Globe and Mail, 7 October 1944, file 4/Propaganda/2. service files of the men named on the pp.1-2. 39. Michel Horn, “More than Cigarettes, plate. 25. The quote is from Goddard, p.75. For the Sex and Chocolate: the Canadian Army 65. King to the next-of-kin, 16 January 1948, children see Pangman to Prince. in the Netherlands, 1944-1945,” Journal LAC. Also King to Cardy, 16 January 26. Blackburn, p.114. of Canadian Studies 16, nos.3/4 (Fall- 1948, LAC. A copy of all correspondence 27. Lyle Dick, “Sergeant Masumi Mitsui Winter 1981), pp.157-171. The number of is found on the service files of the men and the Japanese Canadian War Canadians in the Netherlands dropped named on the plate. Memorial,” Canadian Historical Journal in January to a rump of 2,000 who stayed 66. King Diary, 16 January 1948. 91, no.3 (September 2010), pp.435-463; until Canada closed its Dutch military 67. See for instance Alex Kershaw, The Bedford Paul Gough, “Canada, Conflict and headquarters on the 31st of May 1946. Boys: One American Town’s Ultimate D-Day Commemoration: An Appraisal of the Also Captain Harold MacDonald with Sacrifice (Cambridge, Massachusetts: New Canadian War Memorial in Green M.A. Macdonald, “Holland Summer: Da Capo Press, 2004); and Serge Marc Park, London and a Reflection on the Awaiting Repatriation, May-August Durflinger,Fighting from Home: The Second Official Patronage of Canadian War Art,” 1945,” Canadian Military History 13, no.4 World War in Verdun, Quebec (Vancouver: Canadian Military History 5, no.1 (Spring (Autumn 2004), pp.29-45. University of British Columbia Press, 1996), pp.27 & 33; Denise Thomson, 40. 6 November, 20 November, 10 December, 2006). “National Sorrow, National Pride: and 18 December 1945, all LAC, RG24, 68. P.W. Klein, “The Foundations of Dutch Commemoration of War in Canada, 1918- vol.12392, file 4/Propaganda/2. For the Prosperity,” in Richard T. Griffiths, ed, 1945,” Journal of Canadian Studies 30, no.4 Friesian china see Pierre Dupuy to the The Economy and Politics of the Netherlands (1995/96), pp.5-8; and Jonathan F. Vance, Secretary of State for External Affairs, Since 1945 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the 18 April 1946, LAC, RG25, vol.3824, file 1980), pp.7-10. First World War (Vancouver: University of 8769-40. Also K.J. Klok to Pierre DuPuy, 69. George Blackburn, “Pilgrimage to British Columbia Press, 1997), pp.15-44. 1 April 1948, LAC, RG25, vol.3824, file Holland,” Canadian Military History 15, 28. Pieter Lagrou, The Legacy of Nazi 8769-40. no.1 (Winter 2006), pp.92-3. Occupation: Patriotic Memory and National 41. For the First World War see Vance, 70. A photograph of the memorial appears in Recovery in Western Europe, 1945-1965 p.57. W.H. Enklaar, “The Netherlands Antal and Shackleton, p.479; and in Terry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, War Graves Committee;” and B.C. de Copp and Mike Bechthold The Canadian 2000), p.2. Haas-Boekbinder, “Recollections of the Battlefields in Belgium, the Netherlands and 29. Richard Ned Lebow, Wulf Kansteiner Canadians,” in Nord pp.64-65 & 147. Germany (Waterloo: LCMSDS, 2011), and Claudio Fogu, eds. The Politics of 42. Charles Ritchie, Diplomatic Passport: More p.65. See also Randy Boswell, “Canadian Memory in Post-war Europe (Durham: Undiplomatic Diaries, 1946-1962 (Toronto: Wartime Aircrew to be Honoured in Duke University Press, 2006), pp.21-22. MacMillan, 1981), p.10. Britain,” Ottawa Citizen, 31 December 30. Munro, “Crazy Antwerp War.” For the 43. Mackenzie King’s Diary, LAC, 2 2010. quote see Goddard, p.79. November 1947. 71. “Harper, Dutch Pay Tribute to Fallen 31. Vance, p.60. 44. The quote is from King Diary, LAC, 8 Canadians,” 6 May 2010,
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