Ernie Verhulst (Part 1): A wide-eyed boy in Rotterdam, May 1940

From the Legion Magazine.

Ernie Verhulst (Part 1):
A wide-eyed boy in Rotterdam, May 1940

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Ernie Verhulst’s first glimpse of the Luftwaffe came on May 10, 1940. He was eight years old and the significance of the Nazi advance across Europe had not been lost on anyone in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

His parents and their neighbours in the rowhouses around the city’s Charlois district had prepared for the German invasion, taping windows and cutting gates into their garden walls to facilitate escape routes in case of bombardment.

Canadians take island on the Maas River

At the battle of Kapelsche Veer on the Maas River in the Netherlands Jan. 26-31, 1945, it was as though hell had frozen over.

After failed attacks by the Polish and British, the 4th Canadian Armoured Division was ordered to destroy the German position on the island of Kapelsche Veer.

The island was small—only eight kilometres long and less than two at its widest. But its faces were steep angles, the southern side protected by dikes wide and high, with German defensive positions built in and machine guns covering all approaches.

It was only a tiny bridgehead, but it gave the Germans a fine place to observe Allied movement and to fire into Allied positions.