Over the years, I’ve written multiple times about the liberation of my hamlet and my town just south of the hamlet. All around April 17th.

It took nearly 3 weeks after April 17th. before the whole of the country was liberated. May 5th. And since it’s the 80th anniversary, a time to celebrate. Added to that is the fact that the 75th anniversary was during the Corona lock-downs…

Why took it 3 weeks? A very odd reason perhaps. Montgomery’s attention was shifted from the liberation of the western part of the Netherlands to the NW part of Germany. And perhaps for a good reason: Germany had 120,000 soldiers in the area of the two Dutch western-most provinces. Including the 4 largest cities of the country. Street battles in 4 cities against an enemy that had nowhere to go and who was desperate, is a trap you don’t want to step into. And yes, those Germans were prepared to fight to the end. Remember what I wrote earlier about The Last Battle of WW2 on the island of Texel. Less ‘motivated’ German troops would have called it a day much much earlier!

Montgomery halted and kept the Dutch frontline ‘as is’. He swung his troops to the NE. Away from the Netherlands and focussed (in a straight line if you want) to the German/Danish border. The German coastal towns had a lot of Kriegsmarine ‘gear’ and that was more important, I guess.

At the same time, German high ranking officers were notified of Hitler’s death. And that was enough to reconsider their objectives. A short timeline:

April 25th: the Americans and the Russians meet at the river Elbe, near the village of Strehla.

April 30th: Hitler commits suicide; Admiral Dönitz is his successor.

May 1st: SS General Wolf and General Von Vlietinghof surrender all German troops in Italy. Dönitz is unaware of that (according to some sources)

May 2nd: General Weidling surrenders Berlin to the Red Army.

May 4th: Rear Admiral Von Friedeborg surrenders to Montgomery in Wendish Evern, (± between Hannover and Hamburg). All troops in the area not liberated by the Allies (See the map below). The unconditional surrender became effective on May 5th.

May 5th: General Blaskovitz surrenders the troops in ‘Holland’ to the Canadian general Foulkes in a hotel in Wageningen. Close to the frontline. The surrender @ various points along the frontline made that the last of the these papers were signed on May the 7th. With the following May 8th as the official V-Day in Europe.

In the meantime, the Canadians had taken over the German HQ that was located in my hometown. The complete infrastructure was taken over and copied. After all: telephone lines worked etc. Even German cars and trucks in my town were repainted in Allied green and given the Allied markings.

So now, it’s time to celebrate: First picture is a banner that’s put up exactly next to the former German HQ (symbolically. The next pic is a sort of Canadian Club party tent; they’re scattered all over the parks in my town. Finally, a picture of the frontline.

A big parade of Allied vehicles is planned. A stretch of road, nearly 1 km long is reserved for the arrangement of the ‘vehicle train’ (roughly translated from Dutch). The Keep ‘m Rolling classic car club has a big part in this https://www.ktr.nl/en/information.html

Pink: liberated by the Allied Forces; Red: frontline; area where the German were fighting the Allied Forces. White: the area the Allied forces didn’t reach before the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.

Often, I’m not sitting straight in front of my loudspeakers. One (left) sounds louder than the other, simply because I’m sitting closer to the speaker on the left side.

I can adjust the balance in my iPhone’s settings. And I do that every evening. But I wonder: is there a shortcut or an app to adjust the balance without having to dive deep into ‘settings’. The word ‘Balance’ doesn’t really help; before I know it, I’m looking for Chakras, Balance and Mandala painting… Not what I want.

Any suggestion or a good app anyone?

Our King Willem-Alexander (“Not ‘Willem IV’, I am not a bovine!” – his actual words) is celebrating his b’day today. Officially it’s tomorrow. But rules of Christianity here block a big party on Sunday. Oh well…

The day has its own traditional rules: hoisting the flag and touches of orange everywhere. Eating orange-coloured pastry (also a version for vegans) has become another tradition. Not common when I was young. Note that today’s newspaper in the background is printed on orange-coloured paper.

Every town or village has booth sales, here called ‘carpet markets’. Mainly kids are selling stuff, or are a ‘busker’ for a day when they play an instrument.

A very misty morning but now the sun is shining like mad!

Your own action required.

How and why? Here more info:

https://www.techradar.com/computing/…out-of-meta-ai

My wife and I will be in London in mid May. She will be there work-related and I’m coming with her just for fun / old-times sake (apprentice in London in the late 70s) / to visit the Imperial War Museum. The latter is the only fixed item in my agenda. (I wrote about this earlier and was given great advice on that matter from people here!)

Our hotel is located on the south side of the river; the Hoxton Southwark. Close to Tate and the IWM. The company has an agreement with Ennismore who owns the Hoxton hotels.

We’re looking for two spots to have dinner. On Sunday and Monday evening. Nothing fancy; jeans and sneakers accepted and -if possible- with vegan dishes on the menu or totally vegan. Google gave me some addresses with satisfying reviews, but I guess it would be better to ask here. Dinners are not on the company’s bill. We pay for it ourselves. My wife holds a position where she will not mix private expenses with company expenses.

Apart from that: if you happen to have nice ideas how to spend the best part of 2 days in the region of the hotel on the Southbank (I prefer to walk), well… don’t hesitate to drop them here.

Worth reading. And for once, the page is in English. Best ‘performing stock’: the Ford Capri.

https://www.vda.de/en/press/press-re…ly_on_the_rise

And from what I’ve seen: it’s wet, slippery and very difficult. For a large part of the route, they’re cycling with the wind in the back.

Before the start… A pic from Sporza, the Flemish TV channel

Over the years, I’ve written small stories about the liberation of the Central and NE part of the Netherlands. 80 yrs ago now and that’s a reason for extra festivities. Including the last Canadian liberators (The few that are still alive are 100+ y/old now).

Soccer club Cambuur in the northern town of Leewarden has come up with a special way of celebrating the liberation on April 15, 1945. As of today, everybody can buy the jersey they will wear during their game next week, the 15th. The reaction is 100% positive and the clubs sells this shirt all over the country. Even non-Cambuur fans are lining up according to soccer related websites.

The second half (lower part) of this webpage is in English: https://cambuur.nl/nieuws/bevrijdingsshirt-eerbetoon-aan-de-canadese-bevrijders

Dutch media outlets write about it this morning. Only 65 y/o. Sad.

Yesterday, a guy started stabbing people in Amsterdam. He had several knives on him and he wounded people and caused havoc.

A young British tourist, who wants to stay anonymous, stepped up. He disarmed the man and took him to the ground, waiting for the police to arrive. There’s footage of the young Brit making sure that the perpetrator is unable to move. There was an instant reaction on social media here that the guy should be honored for his selfless and dangerous actions.

The Amsterdam Mayor reacted within 24 hrs and has decorated the British citizen with the Amsterdam Act of Bravery Medal. He insists to remain unknown.

Heroes exist and they don’t wear capes.