VE-Day, Holland!

“That’s the whole gang and their (sic) all split up now, but we sure had a lot of good and bad times together,” wrote Private William Brock Minnes on the back of this photo taken at Tubbergen, Holland, May 8, 1945.

The photo was submitted by Bryan Minnes of Welland, Ont. Bryan explains that his father added a small arrow (seen on the bottom of photo) to indicate where he was sitting in the group. He says the photo was taken at the Canadian Army No. 1 Ammo Plaza.

Private Minnes enlisted in April 1942, in the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps. He arrived in Normandy 19 days after the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, and served in France, Belgium and Holland. “Dad always talked about the guys from his time overseas,” adds Bryan. “He kept in contact with many of them. When he retired he fulfilled a dream, and spent his early retirement years on a cross-Canada tour to visit as many of the guys as he could find.”

Bryan also remembers his dad telling him that May 8, 1945, was one of the most memorable of his life. He would say: “We knew we had survived the war.”

We thank Bryan for sharing this photo with us, and invite other readers to share similar photos for the Find-Share-Discuss page on Legion Magazine’s website.