| Original caption: “Infantry of Le Régiment de Maisonneuve moving through Holten to Rijssen.” Le Régiment de Maisonneuve, 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, passes the Looker Mölle, a mill built in 1798, in Holten, Netherlands. Rijssen would be liberated the same day, as the Nazi German Heer (“Army”) would evacuate without firing a shot. Joyous Dutch crowds swarmed the armored fighting vehicles of Fort Garry Horse and the men of Le Régiment de Maisonneuve. Le Régiment de Maisonneuve, Canadian Active Service Force (CASF), mobilized on September 1, 1939. It embarked for Britain on August 24, 1940. It was redesignated as the 1st Battalion, Le Régiment de Maisonneuve, CASF, on November 7, 1940. On 7 July 1944, the battalion landed in France as part of the 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. It suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Scheldt and was notably depleted by the time of the Battle of Walcheren Causeway. When the Royal Canadian Army 2nd Armored Division reached Holten, not far from the site where the last Canadian military cemetery in Europe would be built, the enemy was dug in along a railway line and in the town center. Aimed fire from battalion anti-tank guns and Ordnance SBML 2-inch (51 millimeter) mortars was used to overcome resistance and limit casualties among a population that rushed out onto the street “dancing jubilantly near the burning buildings.” Royal Canadian Army Lieutenant Colonel Syd Thomson (November 14, 1914 – November 8, 2003), General Officer Commanding the Royal Highlanders of Canada (The Black Watch), demonstrated his knowledge of operations on April 8, 1945, when he organized a successful ad hoc attack to liberate Holten. The Black Watch reached their 1st objectives on the outskirts of the town by 1200 Hours, but the Maisonneuves on the left flank were experiencing very heavy machine gun fire from a railway embankment. Thomson decided to take the battalion into Holten and cut off the force fighting the Maisonneuves. “D and A Companies, each with tanks in support, moved off at 2000 hours. The tanks…set a few buildings on fire, and when D Company advanced, they were surprised to find the inhabitants jubilantly dancing near the burning buildings. Sniper activity was extremely heavy until Captain Beaufort S. Lewis (October 23, 1908 – May 2, 1984), in command of D Company, countered by using all two-inch mortars…firing literally hundreds of rounds and the anti-tank gun attached to his company, which fired in the neighbourhood of two hundred rounds with excellent results.” With the centre of the town under control, Thomson ordered A Company to clear out the top end. Further rapid exploitation took the pressure off the Maisonneuves and liberated the rest of Holten. The Maisonneuves had 2 killed and 22 wounded, including Major Gerry Brosseau (???? – ????), 1 of their veteran company commanders. The Black Watch had 1 killed and 9 wounded in the battle for Holten. The struggle for Holten was the last serious engagement in early April. In the northeast Netherlands, north of the city of Holten, is the Holten Canadian War Cemetery, where 1,355 Canadians are buried, most of whom were killed in the later stages of the war. At the Holten Canadian War Cemetery in eastern Holland, the majority of the Canadian graves solemnly chronicle the last full month of the war, when, in April 1945, the 1st Canadian Army completed the liberation of the eastern Netherlands and carried the victory campaign into the northern corner of Germany. Although this last campaign was not as fierce and costly as Normandy or the Rhineland, the rows of headstones at Holten speak for the obstinacy of an enemy devoid to the end of all rational considerations. Each day’s advance confirmed the justice of the Allied cause as the Dutch joyfully welcomed the armies liberating them from the menace and hardships of a 5-year occupation, but the erasure of young lives continued as the Germans persisted in a struggle by now utterly hopeless and pointless. Nearly 1,200 Canadian soldiers were killed in actions that seemed increasingly anticlimactic, given that the Allied victory was only a matter of time. The daily casualty returns for April 1945 show that more than 60 Canadian soldiers were killed on 2 separate days, 64 on April 28 alone. Over 50 died on 5 different days, as did 40 or more on 7 other days. Le Régiment de Maisonneuve recovered during the winter and was again in action during the Rhineland fighting and the final weeks of the war, taking part in the final campaigns in northern Netherlands, the Battle of Groningen, and the final attacks on German soil. The overseas battalion was disbanded on December 15, 1945. Looker Mölle was no longer operational as a windmill by 1942. In 1949, the mill was restored. It burned down on June 17-18, 1961. Housing now occupies the site. Royal Canadian Army Captain Daniel A. Guravich (February 22, 1918 – December 30, 1997) was a tank commander with the Canadian 2nd Armored Division. He was relieved of armored warfare duties when his photography was recognized. He formed a military photography section. He supervised 2 still photographers, 1 cinematographer, and 2 dispatch writers. Their still and motion picture coverage of the 2nd Canadian Division was to form the mainstay of the pictorial record of Canada’s wartime achievements. After World War II, he gained fame for photographing and conserving Arctic polar bears. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0995.jpg |
| Image Size | 654.42 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2928 x 2196 |
| Photographer | Daniel A. Guravich |
| Photographer Title | Royal Canadian Army |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 9, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Holten |
| State or Province | Overijssel |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Archive | Library and Archives of Canada |
| Record Number | [1967-052 NPC] PA-133174 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database