60 years ago today my dad&uncles were with the Canadian army in Holland.

[Swede]

Mopping up the last of the master race in the Lowlands,as the Americans and British to the south did the same, as did the Soviets to the east. They lost a lot of friends in the finals days to fanatics that would not surrender.

[yvr girl]

1. So your dad and uncles are part of the reason the Dutch still send

us tulips every year. Did they ever get back to the Netherlands?

[Swede]

2. None of them ever did,and they are all gone now.

All my life they never talked about it,then within a few years of their passing they all started telling the stories. I wish I could have heard more.

[HEyHEY]

5. I thought the tulips were because

We designated a hospital part of Holland so the prince could be born in Holland.

[Swede]

6. Canada liberated Holland at the cost of thousands of lives.

That is the reason for the tulips.

[HEyHEY]

7. Sorry Swede

No disrespect but it was because the QUeen was born in Ottawa...
http://affordabledesigns.ca/travelann/ta02.html

That's one link see if you can find another

[yvr girl]

8. We actually get two sets of tulips

The Queen sends us some and the government sends us some. I've seen that they are a thank you from the people of the Netherlands for liberating them during the war. I'll have to search for a link.

They say that Canadians are still treated very well in the Netherlands - they remember what we did for them.

[Swede]

9. Well it's both.

http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/about_canadas/festivities/gift_of_tulips_e.html

http://www.tulipfestival.ca/en/FestivalHistory/

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/netherlands

[HEyHEY]

10. Well, fuck a duck!

Ain't that something?!

[Swede]

11. Heyhey my brother was in Holland a few times,

he said it's amazing how they still treat Canadians,even the young Dutch people have an honest friendship with us.

[HEyHEY]

12. Yeah, I've heard that too

Gotta get there someday

[punpirate]

3. Sixty years ago...

... my father was in a US camp outside of Fontainbleu for processing after spending nine months in a German prisoner of war camp north of Berlin.

There is a story about him and his friends sneaking out one night and ending up drunk and in the middle of the floor show at Le Crazy Horse in Paris....

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Sixty years ago today...

my grandfather was in Germany, pushing eastward to trap the remaining Nazi forces in between the pincers of the US/UK forces and the Soviets. From what he told me there were several German units that surrendered en masse, because they knew they'd get better treatment from the Western Allies.