Mike Strachan’s e-mail journal — Entry #36, from Netherlands

Received 28 May 2008

Travels for May 27/08 — Heerenveen to Wons

My breakfast at Mrs. Rietsma's is accompanied by conversation — me in English with a few German words, and she in Fresian with a few English words thrown in, and we understand a lot of what each other is saying.

 The walk to the Hertz office only takes 10 minutes, and I get a Fiat Panda, a small 4-seater with 5-speed manual transmission. It is comfortable and peppy. From April 17 to 25 the First Hussars (1H) were withdrawn from action and rested. By April 15 the Queens Own Rifles (QOR) had entered Heerenveen on a push toward Harlingen on the sea.

At Heerenveen I notice more evidence of the Fresian language on signs, and in it's written form it is quite different than Dutch. With the assistance of the VVV people I find the WW2 memorial behind the hospital. The next town is Joure, and although I am visiting all these towns in a straight line to the sea, the QOR didn't follow a straight line — they made side trips. At Joure there is no memorial, but I do get a photo of a building erected in 1631, no doubt a rebuild.

The battle for the town of Sneek (pronounced Snake) commenced for the QOR on April 16/45. It was succesful, but this is where "A" company Sergeant Major Charlie Martin was severely wounded (he survived). At Sneek there are several memorials outside the St. Martinie church. The large one is a general WW2 statue. There are also two plaques — one to three members of the Dutch Resistance who died in July 1944, and the other to soldiers from Sneek who died in Dutch Indonesia between 1945 and 1950.

The next town is Bolsward, and there is a general WW2 memorial. From there I go to the village of Wons where a local woman directs me to the church. There is a graveyard there with some graves of local people who died in the attack on the town on April 19/45. Across the road is a large memorial, pictured at the right, which honours all the QOR members who died between the Normandy  landings at Bernieres-sur-Mer to the battle for Wons. My uncle Frank Gaines had a good QOR friend named Frederick Bernard Harris. Fred was killed on D-Day, and his name is on the memorial at Wons, and is listed on page 329 in the Book of Remembrance for 1944 in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

The local woman who gave me directions invites me to her cafe for a cup of tea. Her name is Martina van Well, and she also has a small B&B here, Pension ‘t Hert te Wons. She knows a lot about the battle here, and she says it went on for days. The prize was the main dike (pictured below), required for control of the high ground and a transportation route.

Since I want to get the car back today, I leave Wons at 4 PM and I pass Harlingen, the original QOR target. I'm out of the car rental office with a smile — the cost was only €41, and the gas was €13 — the car gets 6.2 l/100km. My schnitzel dinner is a nice treat in a café near "playland" which is fun to watch again, then it's back to the B&B to plan the next legs of my trip.

Tomorrow — Groningen

Cheers,

Mike