A little more than 12 hours before the end of the Second World War in Europe, a young Canadian priest, accompanied by an equally young tank commander, made his way into the cool, rainy landscape of northern Germany on mercy.
At least they thought.
Honorary captain Albert McCreery and Lt. Norman Goldie had only been at the Canadian Grenadier Guard’s tank regiment for less than a month.
It was May 4, 1945.
Adolf Hitler’s third empire has been in the last hours and the Nazi soldiers switched between fighting to death and the handover.
The Guard Regiment’s war diary recorded heavy battles in the forests and alleys north of Oldenberg this morning, including the mention of Goldie’s tanks that are kept in reserve if the defending Germans advanced.
The Canadian battle chaplains found constant employment in Europe throughout the war, which Jeeps found with stock exchanges and saved disabled tank crews.
McCreery learned from German prisoners from possibly wounded enemy soldiers who needed help and comfort – or so it was told.
In retrospect, it was a typical Canadian thing.
A report quoted former Guard’s regimental soldiers who have been published for decades after the war
Regardless of this, McCreery and Goldie set off at 3 p.m. on the last full fight day to bring in the wounded Germans.
They never returned.
Former Canadian military chaplain Phil Ralph says that he is of the history of honorary capital Albert McCreery and Lt. Norman Goldie, who were up to date with a little more than 12 hours before the end of the Second World War in Europe to the landscape of Northern Germany.
Phil Ralph, a former Canadian military chaplain, said he was haunted by history.
“His mission is to take care of everyone. And, so also, a wonderful and selfless act,” said Ralph and referred to McCreery.
“In the horror and misery of struggle, war and conflict to keep this level of humanity and compassion, it is quite remarkable.
“You are still the enemy … but that doesn’t stop him.”
The regimental war diary found that a patrol, when the couple had not reported, was sent a patrol to find it, but nothing appeared.
One later McCreery’s body was unofficially, report “walk through balls” and found in a moor two days later. Goldie’s remains were never recovered.
“Both officers may have been killed that remain dark,” said the official history of the Canadian army published in 1960.
Another report insisted that their end did not stop any ambiguous.
A homage to McCreery, which was written for his Alma Mater, McMaster University, pointed to an official report in which the unarmed pad was “shot by a German sniper when he went to save a young German soldier who was caught in a flaming tank”.
Goldie’s fate remained a mystery.
On this last bloody day, the Canadian army suffered the Canadian army on 60 victims – 20 of them fatal, including McCreery and Goldie. The couple is the only two that are mentioned in the official history of the army and could die the last Canadians in the fight against the forces of German facicism.
The news of the victory was suddenly
In the hours after her death, rumors rumored to the German surrender in the Canadian lines.
The BBC was the first to get news about the upcoming German surrender in the Netherlands, Denmark and Northern Germany and the ceasefire, which was to come into force the next morning – May 5, 1945. The radio report exceeded the official signal of the British Generalbernard Montgomery headquarters.
The news of the surrender came for troops as anti -climatic, some of which had fought angry this morning.
When the announcement was created, there was “no jubilation and fewer signs of emotions,” said the official report. Many soldiers found it difficult to believe.
After receiving the official signal, the commander of the first Canadian army, General Harry Crerar, ordered an immediate support at all operations and spoke to the troops in the evening on May 4th under his command.
He spoke about the bravery with which they struggled with the war and mentioned the slaughter of Dieppe and the brutal campaign by France, Belgium and the Netherlands almost three years earlier.
“Crushing and full victory over the German enemy was secured,” said Crerar. “With this highest achievement, we will remember the friends who have paid the full price for the conviction that they also found that no victim in the interests of the principles we fought could be too great.”
Jeff Noakes, a historian in the Canadian War Museum, said Canadian remember the celebrations of the liberation in the Netherlands, but there was a completely different, brutal side in northern Germany, where the guard’s tank regiment drove towards the North Sea.
The Canadian soldiers contributed 80 years ago to free the Netherlands from the National Socialist, and these victims were never forgotten by the people there. The national memories of veterans who survived these battles and what Dutch gratitude means eight decades later.
“There are tanks that were hit up close to tank weapons, and the crew members are killed, snipers or ambush or larger battles that take place,” said Noakes.
“It may seem obvious to us now that the war will end at the beginning of May, but it was not obvious when the war would end to the people who were on site.”
Her deaths are so close in the ceasefire of the tragedy and the senselessness of the war and leave a permanent scar for the families left behind, said Ralph.
At the beginning of his career as a military chaplain in Toronto, he said that the sister of a Canadian soldier who died in Europe would regularly increase him.
“Her brother was killed directly at the end of the Second World War. Not quite as dramatic as the priest, but very, very close, that (end),” said Ralph.
What do you say?
Ralph replied with the only answer: “You know, we don’t know.”
