GROESBEEK CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY

My Recollections
APPENDIX E - GROESBEEK CANADIAN WAR
CEMETERY
The Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery is the largest of
several in the Netherlands. It is located south of Nijmegen, a
few kilometers north east of Mook, not far from the German
border. Sam spent Christmas 1944 in Mook. He believes
that his foray to “liberate” cutlery and dinnerware for the
Christmas turkey dinner may actually have come from
Groesbeek, which was in “no-mans” land at the time. (The
Christmas turkey never showed up.)
Soldiers who fell in Germany were temporarily buried near
the battlefields there but Canadian command refused to allow
them to remain there. After the war they were reburied in the
Netherlands.
The editor visited the
cemetery in the afternoon of
16th October 2003. It was a
deeply moving experience.
The grounds were
exceedingly well kept and, as
we entered, a couple of local
families were leaving. The
gate through which one enters
marks the ground as a “gift of
the Dutch people”.
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My Recollections
As one enters the gate and
proceeds to the cemetery
proper, on both the left and
right hand, stand Memorials.
On the memorials are carved
the names of missing
servicemen. On the right
memorial is a bronze plaque
describing the battles and
giving some background on
the memorial and cemetery.
The inscription is in English
and Dutch, and is reprinted
below.
Proceeding past the Memorial, one is greeted by the sight of row upon row of grave
markers, mostly Canadian, set off by commemorative monuments both front and back.
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My Recollections
I then looked for markers for soldiers from the Queens Own Cameron
Highlanders of Canada regiment. It took only a minute to find one, then another,
then another, then another, … young men, with families back home, now resting
here. Two examples are shown below.
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My Recollections
The Inscription on the Plaque in the Groesbeek Memorial
THE LIBERATION OF BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS
AND THE ADVANCE INTO GERMANY
SEPTEMBER 1944 – MAY 1945
In the three months following their landing in Normandy the Allied armies had defeated
the German Army in France, liberated Brussels, captured Antwerp and, in the east,
reached a line running southwards along Moselle through the Vosges to the Swiss
frontier.
On 17th September, with the object of outflanking the Siegried Line, two American
airborne divisions were dropped in the Nijmegen area and one Britich at Arnhem to clear
the path for British Second Army. Speedy defensive concentration and bad weather
prevented full success; the crossings of the rivers Maas and Waal were secured but that of
the lower Rhine at Arnhem had to be abandoned after an epic stand by the British 1st
Airborne Division assisted by the Dutch Resistance.
By late September the Allied advance had outrun the logistic capacity to support it. The
Channel ports, except Dunkirk, were in Allied hands but unusable until bombing damage
had been repaired, and the lines of supply and reinforcement ran back to Normandy.
Antwerp, with the help of the Belgian Resistance captured intact, was unusable so long as
both shores of the Scheldt estuary remained in German hands.
The south shore was finally cleared by Canadian I Corps on 2nd November after a month
of hard fighting. The clearance of the north shore and Walcheren Island, completed on
8th November, involved some bitterly contested combined operations by British and
Canadian troops. The mined approaches to Antwerp were swept and the port quickly
restored. The shortened supply lines thus gained marked a turning point in the campaign.
By early December, as a result of the Allied November offensive, British Second and
Canadian First Armies lay along the Maas and Waal, American Ninth and reached the
Roer, American Third was pushing forward into the Saar and French First Army had
reached the Rhine at Mulhouse.
On 16th December the Germans launched their last counter-offensive of the war against
the lightly held Ardennes sector. Its object was to recapture Brussels and Antwerp thus
cutting the Allies’ supply lines. The advance, 50 mines at its maximum, was halted on
Christmas eve. On 3rd January the Americans, with some British reinforcement, struck
back and within 4 days the Germans were withdrawing. Meanwhile British Second
Army eliminated the bridgehead west of the Roer and the Americans and French dealt
similarly with the salient south of Strasbourg.
The last main battle of the campaign began on 8th February with an attack by Canadian
First and British Second Armies from the Nijmegan bridgehead south-east through the
Seigfried Line and the Reichswald into Germany itself. On the 17th, American Ninth
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My Recollections
Army attacked north-eastward and after intense fighting, the armies made contact on 3rd
March in Geldern. To the south, by 9th March American First and Third Armies had
secured bridgeheads at Mannheim and Oppenheim.
Preceeded by intensive air and artillery bombardments the passage of the Rhine was
successfully accomplished by the British and Canadians on the evening of 23rd March.
By the following evening the bridgeheads had been expanded to link up with the British
5th and American 17th Airborne Divisions dropped that morning to the north of Wesel.
Furhter crossings in strength followed and, by 3rd April, the British and Canadians had
taken Osnabruck and were approaching Minden, American First and Ninth Armies had
encircled the Ruhr, trapping large German forces, and in the south French First and
American Seventh had crossed the Rhine. This battle marked the end of co-ordinated
German defense although improvised battle groups continued to resist stoutly until late
April.
First contact with the westward advancing Russians was made on 25th April. By that
time Canadian First Army had reached the North Sea Coast and contained the large
German force cut off in west Holland. British Second Army, with a corps in Denmark
and another in Schleswig-Holstein, was on the Elbe from its mouth to Wittenberge,
southward of which the American First and Ninth Armies lay along that river. Further
south French First and American Seventh Armies were in Austria and American Third
had entered Czechoslovakia. Final German capitulation came on 8th May and after five
years and eight months of war Europe was again at peace.
The Commonwealth servicemen who died in the campaign are mostly buried in war
cemeteries and Commonwealth sections of other cemeteries, along the line of advance.
Allied command of the air played a large part in the success of the campaign and many of
the airmen who died during operations over Europe are buried singly or in small groups
in village cemeteries and churchyards where their graves are tended with loving care by
the local communities. The 1,062 soldiers whose graves are unknown are
commemorated on the memorial in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and the missing
sailors and airmen on memorials at their home ports or at Runnymede, England.
GROESBEEK CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY
This cemetery contains burials gathered in from the battlefields in Germany and in the
southern Netherlands. There are 2,617 burials here – Navy 3, Army 2,424, Air Force 190
– of which 2,338 are Canadian, 268 British, 2 Australian, 1 New Zealand, 1 Netherlands
and 7 other Allied.
THE GROESBEEK MEMORIAL
The Groesbeek Memorial commemorates 1,062 soldiers (957 British, 103 Canadian, and
2 South African) who fell during the campaign in North West Europe from the crossing
of the Seine in August 1944 to the end of the War in Europe. Standing on one of the
highest points in the Netherlands the Memorial commands extensive views across the
battlefields.
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