Day 155: Bergen op Zoom

For November 11th, which is Remembrance day in Canada, I decided to visit the Canadian War Cemetery at Bergen op Zoom in Noord-Brabant. Remembrance Day is a day to remember the sacrifices of soldiers and civilians in times of war. It's celebrated on November 11th at 11:00AM because that is when the armistice for World War I came into effect. The cemetery I visited contains 968 Canadian graves, mostly from September, October and November 1944. These lives were lost during the difficult fighting in the south of the Netherlands. Intense battles were fought for the Breskens Pocket, Walcheren, South Beveland, and Woensdrecht all with the goal of clearing the Scheldt so that the Port of Antwerp could be opened up. October 13, 1944 is a very common date to see on the grave stones. That day, a friday the 13th, became known as 'Black Friday' to the Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment of Canada. 56 dead, 27 captured for a total of 145 casualties... I happened to meet a Canadian man at the cemetery who was visiting the grave stone of his cousin who had died in this attack. This is the same regiment my Uncle was part of. He fortunately survived the battle, but was wounded later on Oct. 31.

Commonwealth cemetaries can be found all over Europe, and in fact the world. They generally have a similar design for the headstones and the layout.

This is the Cross of Sacrifice found at most Commonwealth War Cemeteries.

This is something unique I found at this Cemetery. It says: 'Aan onze Canadeesche bevrijders', which means, I think, 'To our Canadian Liberators'.

Here's a typic grave stone for a Canadian soldier. His service number, name, regiment, date of death and age plus a short quote. Not all stones have crosses, some have a star of david, a crescent or nothing at all.

I find stones like this especially impressive. It may be hard to read, but this soldier, a private, was 39 years of age when he died. This was a true volunteer. He was too old to be conscripted, and would have not faced the same kind of peer pressure that younger men would have faced. It says: 'To my sweetheart. Love's greatest gift. Remembrance.'

You also come across many gravestones such as this next one. Ones that only say 'An airman of the 1939-1945 war.' This means that a body was found, but as a result of the way he died, it was impossible to identify the body. The phrase 'Known unto God' was proposed by Rudyard Kipling.

It was a very nice cemetery. I recommend to all people, that they should visit one.