ESTEVAN — South East Military Museum founder Capt. Craig Bird used a trip to Europe earlier this year to pay tribute to members of the Canadian Forces from Saskatchewan who died in Europe during the Second World War.
Bird was to have a video shown on his travels during the Remembrance Day service hosted by the Estevan branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, but the video could not be shown. It was sent to SaskToday after the service.
Bird was part of a contingent that travelled to The Netherlands to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of that country on May 5, and then he went to Germany and Poland for the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on May 8.
While he attended a number of ceremonies, toured museums, and viewed some historic sites and monuments, Bird said the main goal of the trip was to place flags and to photograph the headstones of “our Saskatchewan boys who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, and visit the areas where they served and liberated in the Netherlands 80 years ago.”
The first was the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, where he photographed graves of men from Moose Jaw, Kandahar, Eston and Saskatoon. Bird noted all four were in their 20s when they died.
Then he went to Holten Canadian War Cemetery and visited 11 more Saskatchewan graves.
“While we were doing our thing, we were interviewed by a Dutch newspaper. It was published in several different newspapers on Monday the 5th. At the start of the ceremony, the governor general was in attendance with a number of Canadian Second World War veterans, Canadian and Dutch military and other Dutch dignitaries.”
He took photos of war dead from several communities, including two each from Mossbank, Broadview and Bienfait, and one each from Oakshela, Alida, Assiniboia, Cedoux and Whitewood.
“Of the 1,348 Canadians buried there, 125 are from Saskatchewan, and 11 names are just from the southeast,” said Bird.
But it was a different and busy day, as there was also a national ceremony scheduled with 4,500 people expected. All of the veterans were thanked, and poppies were dropped from a helicopter and placed on the headstones. Children were asked to place flowers on the graves of the veterans and recite the names on the headstones.
The next cemetery was the Bergen-Op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery where they visited 11 more Canadian soldiers, including three from Broadview, two from Moosomin, and one each from Qu’Appelle, Oakshela, Macoun, Milestone, Carlyle and Yellow Grass.
Bird noted he had a crew with him – a contingent of Canadian Forces veterans who helped with the project and provided a few laughs.
“We saw first-hand at how the Dutch appreciated all of the veterans that were in attendance,” he said.
They also visited the Reischwald Forest War Cemetery in Germany, which has 7,594 Commonwealth graves, mostly of servicemen killed in the area. A total of 520 were from Canada, 91 were from Saskatchewan and five from the southeast, including two brothers from Halbrite and soldiers from Alida, Broadview and Oxbow.
