{"id":11901,"date":"2021-12-23T22:44:04","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T03:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/?page_id=11901"},"modified":"2026-01-20T23:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T04:21:33","slug":"ww2-liberation-stories","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/rch-history\/ww2-liberation-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"WW2 Liberation Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>WW2 Liberation of northwest Europe<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>In 1944 and 1945, the predecessor units of the Royal Canadian Hussars, the 17<sup>th<\/sup> Duke of York\u2019s Royal Canadian Hussars and the 6<sup>th<\/sup> Duke of Connaught\u2019s Royal Canadian Hussars were both heavily involved in the liberation of northwest Europe.\u00a0 This was an intense campaign that resulted in many casualties, but the action taken by the Canadian soldiers were greatly appreciated by the people who were liberated.\u00a0 Here are several accounts of that campaign as told by individual soldiers or by members of their families.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-George-Dunlops-Memories_20211210.pdf\">Memories of Sergeant George Dunlop about his service in the Second World War and subsequent life\u2013 as told to his son-in-law, John Riley<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2-Search-for-Lt-A_F_Harris_20211211.pdf\">Lieutenant Arthur Frederick Harris, of the 7<sup>th<\/sup> Reconnaissance Regiment (17<sup>th<\/sup> Duke of York\u2019s Royal Canadian Hussars), his part in the Liberation of the Netherlands in 1945, and his life thereafter \u2013 prepared with the help of Dutch Historian Edwin Meinsma, and Pat Harris Wensman.<\/a><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a title=\"Commemoration of the liberation of Wergea in the Netherlands and of Lieutenant Arthur Frederick Harris\" href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/rch-history\/regimental-videos\/commemoration-de-la-liberation-de-wergea-aux-pays-bas-et-du-lieutenant-arthur-frederick-harris\/\">Commemoration of the liberation of Wergea in the Netherlands and of Lieutenant Arthur Frederick Harris<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/3-The-George-Routley_Andy-Anderson-Story_20211222.pdf\">A Story told to me by my father about a heartbreaking incident during the liberation of the Netherlands \u2013 By Gordon Routley<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Military-History-of-Warrant-Officer-Bruce-Westgarth-CD_20221103.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Military History of Warrant Officer Bruce Westgarth, CD<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/George-MacKenzies-WW2-memories-20220923.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Working as a dispatch rider during the Second World War &#8211; By Trooper George MacKenzie<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Major-CW-MacLean-History-of-B-Squadron-in-1944s-20221103.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">History of \u00abB\u00bb, Squadron, 17th DYRCH, during the Second World War &#8211; By Major Charles Wesley MacLean<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/liberation-of-neufchatel-en-bray-france\/\">The liberation of Neufch\u00e2tel-en-Bray, France, 31 August 1944<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/20240903-Role-of-7th-Recce-and-profiles-of-the-deceased_Samer_A.pdf\">The liberation of Samer, France, 4 September, 1944<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/RCH-Profile-Story-of-Sgt-Raymond-Johnson-20250220.pdf\">Memories of Sergeant Raymond Johnson about his service in Second World War<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/WW2-Stories-by-Len-Brown_20260104.pdf\">Stories about his military service during the Second World War. By Len (Bucko) Brown.<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/rch-history\/ww2-liberation-stories\/liberation-of-the-netherlands-green-west-tour\/\">The liberation of the Netherlands &#8211; 80th anniversary Green West Tour<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/rch-history\/ww2-liberation-stories\/liberation-of-the-netherlands-80th-anniversary-blue-north-tour\/\">The liberation of the Netherlands &#8211; 80th anniversary Blue North Tour<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WW2 Liberation of northwest Europe In 1944 and 1945, the predecessor units of the Royal Canadian Hussars, the 17th Duke of York\u2019s Royal Canadian Hussars and the 6th Duke of Connaught\u2019s Royal Canadian Hussars were both heavily involved in the liberation of northwest Europe.\u00a0 This was an intense campaign that resulted in many casualties, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001003,"featured_media":0,"parent":356,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11901","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19889,"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11901\/revisions\/19889"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}